Latest Articles

Obama on climate action: “Tough decisions and… concrete actions”

President Obama was asked a question today on global warming at his press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Q:  And another political issue, if I may. Madam Chancellor, climate change. Germany, Europe are putting concrete targets on the agenda, concrete reduction targets. Will America in the post-Kyoto process be willing to commit itself to […]

94-year-old former U.S. Representative calls for end to mountaintop removal

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963 Last month, as protestors from around the country converged in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia to protest Massey Energy’s reckless mountaintop removal blasting operations within a short distance of a 7-billion gallon coal sludge impoundment, […]

Climate-news poem: plagiarism edition!

Each time I set out to pen one of my climate-news poems, I try really hard not to make it bouncy and rhyming. But terrible bouncy rhymes seem to flow in my veins. It’s a curse, to write such verse! So this week I promised myself I’d experiment with blank verse — and hey, why […]

Recession redirects a green-building pioneer

Back around 2006, when the American Dream of home ownership was still intact and green building was officially transferred from the domain of hippies to yuppies, folks got very excited about prefab. Here in New York City, my friends and I felt our second-home prayers had been answered (not that we could afford a first […]

New NSIDC director on “death spiral” Arctic ice

I interviewed by email Dr. Mark Serreze, recently named director of The National Snow and Ice Data Center. Partly I wanted him to explain his “death spiral” metaphor for Arctic ice (see NSIDC: Arctic melt passes the point of no return, “We hate to say we told you so, but we did”). And partly I […]

George Will embraces the anti-environment message of The Breakthrough Institute

[Note: I’d be very interested in hearing from environmentally-responsible Climate Progress readers about what you think of the claim by Will and Shellenberger and Nordhaus that you are just trying to make a statement, just trying to assuage your guilt.] Two weeks ago I wrote, “I can’t imagine why any serious journalist would cite the […]

Marc Morano’s banner: “Did global warming help bring down Air France flight 447?"

What is that wacky Swift boat smearer Marc Morano up to? I don’t visit his website, of course, since it is filled with disinformation and apparently he is too busy to blog. But somebody sent me the story and the link to his website, and then I noticed that Morano links to stories here on […]

Powerful injustice at the Bonn climate talks

It’s the fourth day of climate negotiations here in Bonn, and at 4:30 in the afternoon, there is a lull in the action before the start of early evening “contact groups” – official meetings of negotiators that are sometimes open to observers. Looking for a quiet place to sit down with my laptop, I have […]

While the West will have to eat less meat, Africa might have to eat more

Jim Motavalli of E/Environmental Magazine has a piece in Foreign Policy (!) on the difficulties we face in lowering meat consumption on any significant scale: …Giving up meat is tough, and arguing people into it is probably a losing proposition. Even with all the statistics out there about the dangers of meat, there are fewer […]

Beyond the compost heap: what to do with fruit and veggie seeds?

So many seeds … so many uses? In Checkout Line, Lou Bendrick cooks up answers to reader questions about how to green their food choices and other diet-related quandaries. Lettuce know what food worries keep you up at night. Dear Lou,At Halloween we look forward to the pumpkin seeds as much as anything, but lots […]