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NYT’s Tom Friedman updates the global warming threat and spells out the solution

The NYT columnist Tom Friedman has another terrific global warming piece this past weekend, “Mother Nature’s Dow.” He is the only major national columnist or reporter consistently warning the public of what science now tells us is likely result of continuing on our current greenhouse gas emissions path — unmitigated unconscionable catastrophe. And he is […]

Why the mainstream media’s coverage of global warming is so fatally useless, part 1

Averting catastrophic global warming requires completely overturning the status quo, changing every aspect of how we use energy — and doing so in under four decades. Failure to do so means humanity’s self-destruction, Hell and High Water. Media coverage of the problem and the solution has been dreadful (see here and here). But why? In […]

The food movement needs to hone its political skills

I haven’t had a chance to weigh in on the issues raised by Andrew Martin’s recent NYT feature on the food movement. Despite the giddiness that comes with hearing that “a prominent food industry lobbyist… said he was amazed at how many members of Congress were carrying copies of ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma,'” some felt that […]

Todd Stern’s speech cheers delegates at Bonn climate talks

This dispatch was filed from the ongoing U.N.-sponsored climate change talks in Bonn, Germany. As expected, Sunday’s speech by Todd Stern at the U.N. climate talks in Bonn created quite a stir. Sitting in the rear of the hall, it was hard not to think back to the last time U.S. statements in a plenary […]

DuPont CEO predicts rapid business response to carbon cap

“Once we really know the rules, I think we’ll be amazed by how fast business will move.” — Chad Holliday, DuPont CEO, addressing the National Academies’ Climate Choices summit on Monday

Oregon tries to undo ethanol leg. while ‘enviros’ lobby for biofuels subsidies

Oregon is struggling to undo bad ethanol legislation. Meanwhile, the Oregon Environmental Council continues to shill for ethanol subsidies because there might someday be a magic pony of ethanol created in an entirely different way, using entirely different plants and processes, and if we don’t support agribusiness with subsidies and mandates now, why, why, they […]

Shoddy economics at The New York Times

Joe Romm has done a pretty thorough trashing of Matt Wald’s recent New York Times piece. Herein, I pile on. This is a shoddy enough piece of journalism to deserve it. Like Joe, I’ve talked to Matt Wald before, and generally I find him to be a good writer on energy. He’s capable of much […]

House Dems say they’re coming together around climate and energy legislation

A group of key House Democratic leaders sent a letter to President Obama on Friday signaling that they intend to work together on climate and energy legislation despite the different views and constituencies they represent. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and John Dingell (D-Mich.), the former chair whom Waxman unseated […]

Will a shortage of green investment leave the U.K. behind in the race to develop clean tech?

With “green stimulus” all the rage this side of the Atlantic too, there’s a fair amount of interest in a) how much we’re going to spend and b) on what. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, savior of the world and (apparently) originator of the whole green-new-deal concept, would, you might think, be anxious to be […]

U.S. climate envoy tells international gathering all the right things about climate

If you’re looking for rays of hope amidst the torrent of idiocy and bad news — not that I’m projecting — you could do worse than reading U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern’s speech to the recent international climate gathering in Bonn, Germany. How’s this for a rousing beginning? I am pleased to be here in […]