Latest Articles

Titular head of GOP says we’re in period of global cooling

OMG. RNC Chair Michael Steele (i.e., the titular head of the GOP) says that global warming is really “global cooling.” Sam Stein at HuffPost excavates Steele’s thoughts on global warming from his little-noticed stint as guest host of a conservative talk radio show on March 6: We are cooling. We are not warming. The warming […]

DARPA to investigate geoengineering

Oh, great, DARPA — the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, an arm of the Defense Dept — is convening a meeting to look into geoengineering. Count me with Ken Caldeira: “The last thing we need is to have DARPA developing climate intervention technology,” says Caldeira. He says he agreed to go to the meeting “to […]

Ecuadorian government shuts down leading environmental group

Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa Last Monday, environmentalists were shocked to learn that the Ecuadorian government had shut down Acción Ecológica (Environmental Action), withdrawing the legal status of one of South America’s best-known environmental groups. Acción Ecológica has in recent months supported indigenous-led, mass protests and highway blockades against President Rafael Correa’s support for large-scale mining. […]

The choice of what to do with carbon revenue is a clear-cut issue of justice

The debate around various climate policies sounds complex, but there’s a simple way to understand it: follow the money. When we put a price on carbon emissions, we place value on something that used to be worthless. That means all the sudden there’s a big new pot of money. The most important question facing policymakers […]

Umbra on water softeners

Dear Umbra, I live in an area that has fairly hard water. The calcium build-up on the sink faucets, shower enclosures, and even the dog water bowls is really bad, and hard to remove. So I have considered a full house water softener. However, I know nothing about them — but I do know you […]

Will combining climate and energy into one big bill help or hurt the climate cause?

Congressional leaders want to combine energy and climate provisions into one big bill this year, rather than moving a few smaller bills on the issues. But while some on Capitol Hill are cheering this as a way to expedite the process, others are skeptical about the chances of passing one giant bill in 2009, and […]

Alternative energy revolution

XKCD is so damn funny.

Americans care about global warming, but don’t see how it connects to other environmental problems

A new poll shows that Americans do care about global warming, but don’t seem to realize how prevalent it really is. This week Gallup released data from its latest poll on global warming indicating that more Americans — 41 percent, the highest number since 1998 — believe that global warming is exaggerated. This sounds like […]

Climate policy can be fair to families all across the country

As regular readers know, we’ve done a bit of cheerleading for the “cap and dividend” concept, which is also called “Cap-and-Cashback,” since it would hand cash receipts from government-run carbon auctions right back to consumers. Cap-and-Cashback strikes me as a fundamentally fair climate policy, since it protects low- and middle-income families from the effects of […]

The National Pork Board tries to spin Nick Kristof's MRSA column

In the wake of Nick Kristof's column on MRSA infections among hog farmers, Obamafoodorama found evidence of Big Pig (the National Pork Board) conspiring with the CDC in prepping its response. And after all that, this is the best they could come up with:

"We also know that MRSA is not just staph bacteria that can be found in pigs, it also can be found in horses, dogs and even marine animals. It is not a problem that is solely related to pigs," DeMirjyn says.

MRSA, in fact, can be found anywhere in nature, according to Paul Ebner, a livestock microbiologist at Purdue University. While he says there has been an increase in the number of these infections and that pigs and other animals can be carriers, the vast majority of infections come from skin-to-skin contact with infected humans.