Latest Articles

From Nation to Urination

Obama mamas Can we contribute to overpopulation with post-election celebration? Yes we can — literally. Photo: tjroberts79 What’s shakin’, bacon? James Bond likes to pig out on a breakfast that’s bacon, not stirred. While filming, the sizzling star would have no solace until he brought home the bacon. But he went from the frying pan […]

Advocates launch the Price Carbon Campaign

What do the defeat of the Lieberman-Warner cap-and-trade bill, the burst of the oil-price bubble, the Wall Street meltdown, the promise of a new political landscape in the wake of the fall elections, and the exigencies of the climate crisis have in common? To the Carbon Tax Center and CTC’s partners at the Climate Crisis […]

Alberta’s tar sands pose messy challenge for investors and ducks alike

  Photo: Stop the Tar Sands What could beat Amazonian deforestation, massive coal plants next to elementary schools, factory farming, mountaintop removal, and giant trash heaps in the middle of the ocean for the title of “the most destructive project on Earth“? [PDF] Cue the tar sands, a vast expanse of the Albertan province opened […]

Competing offer for U.S. Sugar complicates Everglades restoration plan

Florida’s intent buy out a giant sugar operation in a move to restore the Everglades is being complicated by a competing offer from the Lawrence Group, a Tennessee farming company. sources:

Straight-talk on coal from Brian Williams

“Coal. While you might have heard the phrase ‘clean coal’ during the presidential campaign, it’s actually an oxymoron. Wishful thinking. Coal does not burn cleanly and it’s hugely expensive to make it burn that way.” — NBC anchor Brian Williams, leading into a segment on coal as part of the network’s “Green Week” Here’s the […]

Notes from the conservative stagnation, Part 10

My occasional series on the conservative movement stagnation continues with Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Government Elimination Tax Reform. On Monday, the New York Times ran a long story, “Among Republicans, a Debate Over the Party’s Road Map Back to Power,” about the response of leading right-wing thinkers to the question “how can […]

The New York Times blows the bark beetle story

The so-called paper of record ran a major story Tuesday on the country’s most infamous climate-driven pest, “Bark Beetles Kill Millions of Acres of Trees in West.” Great story, other than neglecting to mention climate change. It’d be like an article on an outbreak of avian flu that left out any discussion of birds. So […]

Mom’s exposure to hairspray linked to genital defects in baby boys

Women exposed to lots of hairspray in the workplace — hairdressers, beauticians, and the like — are more likely to give birth to boys with genital defects, says a British study published in Environmental Health Perspectives. Surprise: Hairspray contains phthalates.

Pelosi confirms intent to maintain the House global warming committee; Markey stays on

Yesterday, I posted on Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plans for the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, which is scheduled to dissolve at the end of the year. Signs pointed to her intent to keep the committee going for another session. In a press conference today, she confirmed it: It is my intention […]

Key senator signals piecemeal approach to climate legislation

David posted on Barbara Boxer’s big global warming announcement yesterday, in which the California senator promised to introduce two climate bills in January. The first would authorize a $15 billion clean-energy grant program, and the second would the EPA to develop a carbon cap-and-trade system by amending the Clean Air Act. The announcement is significant […]