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Global warming denier Avery doesn’t know the difference between growth and growth rate

The American Daily has just published this laughably wrong piece of disinformation by long-term global warming denier Dennis Avery, “Now CO2 is Declining as well as Temperatures.” Before AD and Avery take it down, let’s look at what passes for analysis among the deniers. The piece opens: The atmospheric CO2 levels at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa […]

A roundup of notable speeches from the Sport and Environment Conference

The big news of day one at the World Conference on Sport and the Environment in Vancouver, British Columbia, was the unveiling of a carbon neutrality plan for the 2010 Olympics. The rest of the day’s events were a lot like the offset plan: solid at their core and short on details. During a keynote […]

Why even strong climate action has such a low total cost — one tenth of a penny on the dollar

Since the nation is about to launch into a long debate about the costs of climate action versus the cost of inaction, here is an overview of the major cost analyses of global climate action. In its definitive 2007 synthesis report of the scientific literature, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [PDF] concluded: In 2050, […]

Waxman-Markey bill gets a B+

House Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chair Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are releasing their long-awaited draft energy and climate bill today. Based on reports from a Committe debrief and an E&E Daily story this morning ($ub. req’d, excerpted below) and a Reuters story (here), I’ll give some first impressions. […]

Closing the door on building new coal-fired power plants in America

This post was originally published at earthpolicy.org. —– Community opposition, legal challenges, and financial uncertainty over future carbon costs are prompting companies to rethink their plans for coal. Since the beginning of 2007, 95 proposed coal-fired power plants have been canceled or postponed in the United States — 59 in 2007, 24 in 2008, and […]

U.S. corporation poisoning Africa’s lions

60 Minutes had an extraordinary piece by Bob Simon this weekend on how U.S. poison manufacturer FMC is exporting Furadan (banned in Europe and strictly controlled in the United States) to Kenya, where it’s being used to poison lions, leading to an 85 percent drop in their population: [vodpod id=Video.16183146&w=425&h=350&fv=link%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Ecbsnews%252Ecom%252Fvideo%252Fwatch%252F%253Fid%253D4901291n%26amp%3Bpartner%3Dnews%26amp%3Bvert%3DNews%26amp%3BautoPlayVid%3Dfalse%26amp%3BreleaseURL%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Frelease.theplatform.com%2Fcontent.select%3Fpid%3Dc12M06gnxzXckItEof_v7Rceko3063jr%26amp%3Bname%3DcbsPlayer%26amp%3Ballowscriptaccess%3D] Call FMC at 215-299-6000 to […]

Vancouver Olympics Committee shopping carbon offset plan

The Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) wants make the 2010 Winter Games carbon neutral, but the plan it released Monday counts on help from the private sector to make it happen. At the World Conference on Sport and the Environment, VANOC announced a plan to neutralize 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide, mostly through renewable energy and […]

Republican budget has more pictures of windmills than charts of numbers

Last week, congressional Republicans rolled out their own alternative budget proposal [PDF] — but it doesn’t contain any actual hard numbers. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs points out that there are actually more pictures of windmills in the budget than charts of numbers:

Legislators from around the world meet to discuss climate policy

Senior legislators from 17 countries met in Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss their role in shaping climate action plans as world leaders continue to hash out the details of a new international climate treaty. The Global Legislators Organization (GLOBE) is hosting an International Commission on Climate Change and Energy Security summit, which comes just […]

Pepsi makes good choices, or at least good PR hires

Dudes, what’s up with Pepsi? In the last few weeks the company has released at least three splashy sustainability stories touting its: testing of green vending machines in D.C. (30 out of 4-5 million, but hey) introduction of Eco-Fina, an Aquafina bottle that uses 50 percent less plastic (still plastic and still bottled water, but […]