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US EPA opens public comment period on California emissions waiver

The Environmental Protection Agency administrator announced Friday that the agency is beginning the process of reevaluating the request from California and 13 other states to set tough new automobile emissions standards. The move, announced by EPA chief Lisa Jackson, follows on President Obama’s directive last month that the agency take a look at the issue […]

Obama taps marine scientist to lead key climate agency

Jane Lubchenco. Photo: oregonstate.edu If and when marine biologist Jane Lubchenco is confirmed as the next administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), she’ll find herself leading an organization with a huge jurisdiction — the oceans and atmosphere — but with limited power to take action. NOAA’s influence has always been limited by […]

EPA chief picks Center for American Progress fellow Bob Sussman as climate adviser

Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Robert Sussman is heading to the Environmental Protection Agency to serve as senior policy counsel to Administrator Lisa Jackson on climate change and other environmental issues. Sussman served on the EPA transition team with Jackson. This will be his second stint at the EPA; he was deputy administrator under […]

Sylvia Earle, oceanographer and author, wins 2009 TED prize

Noted oceanographer Sylvia Earle is one of the three 2009 TED prize winners. The three winners are awarded the opportunity to share "one wish to change the world," along with $100,000 each to fund the pursuit of that wish.

Here is Earle's wish:

I wish you would use all means at your disposal -- the films, the expeditions, the web! -- to ignite public support for a global network of marine protected areas, hope spots large enough to save and restore the ocean, the blue heart of the planet.

Earle said she did not know how much of the oceans need to be protected, but that she said it's certainly more than the less-than-1-percent of the oceans currently under some governmental protection. She noted the technological advances that have been made to solve the energy crisis before adding, "but nothing will matter if we fail to protect the oceans. Our fate and the ocean's are one."

See the full list of 2009 TED speakers.

Rising sea salinates India's Ganges

We are facing catastrophic sea-level rise this century on our current greenhouse gas emissions path.

The direct impact of such sea-level rise is so enormous -- and so easy to show visually -- that other serious ramifications hardly get mentioned at all. So kudos to Reuters for reporting:

KOLKATA, India: Rising sea levels are causing salt water to flow into India's biggest river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren in the country's east, a climate change expert warned Monday.

Much of the world's cropland -- especially in the developing world -- is close to sea level and near the shore. I haven't seen a global quantification of the impact of salt water infiltration. I did find a 2008 discussion of "Global Warming and Salt Water Intrusion: Bangladesh Perspective," [PDF] which concludes:

Whose idiocy is worse?

Here's an exchange from Obama's interview on CBS the other night:

Couric: Sen. Mitch McConnell said over the weekend that surely you're privately embarrassed by some of the product that came out of the house version and let me just mention some of the spending in this package: $6.2 billion for home weatherization, $100 million for children to learn green construction, $50 million for port modernization water and wastewater infrastructure needs in Guam, $50 million for the NEA, the National Endowment for the Arts. Even if some of these are a legitimate use of taxpayer dollars, Mr. President, why are they included in this bill designed to jumpstart the economy and create jobs right now?

Obama: Lets take that example. I'm stunned that Mitch McConnell use this as an example.

Couric: We actually got these examples, so you can't necessarily blame him

Question: Which would be worse, that Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell thought those were hi-larious examples of non-job-creating uses of public money ... or that a major news organization like CBS thought so?

Discuss.

Obama's answer beneath the fold:

Cheap-chicken ad from KFC hides true cost of food; here’s a tastier, low-cost alternative

What’s he hiding? Undeterred by the thorough trouncing he received last time he threw down the gauntlet, the Colonel has placed it gingerly at my feet once more, with another apocryphal advertisement that premiered during — what else? — the Super Bowl. I know that times are tough, and every business has a right — […]

Former veep to rally climate change activists

Al Gore is stepping up his efforts to train an army of climate change activists. The Climate Project, the grassroots activist group Gore started in 2006, today announced it will gather several thousand volunteers in Nashville this May to prepare a new push to persuade lawmakers to pass significant climate legislation this year. The group […]

Senate centrists eye cuts to green items in stimulus bill

The Senate is currently voting on proposed amendments to the economic stimulus bill. The one amendment everyone has their eye on is an offering from centrist senators Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) that could cut as much as $100 billion in spending, including a large chuck of green funding. TPM has a draft […]

'Clean coal' non-debate produces fake rift among lefties!

Wow, this is one craptastic piece of journalism. It's about "the clean coal debate," but you can get all the way through it without stumbling across a single fact about the purported subject. Al Gore and environmentalists "portray" "clean coal" as a mirage. Is it? Are there clean coal power plants somewhere? The reader never knows.

Dumber than that is the whole frame of the article, which pits Al Gore against Barack Obama, despite the fact that they recommend identical approaches to "clean coal" -- research it, but don't rely on it, and don't build dirty coal plants while waiting for it.

The fact is, the average citizen trying to find out more about "clean coal" by consuming U.S. media is likely to emerge from that effort knowing and understanding less. Nice job, media.