Latest Articles

Voices in favor of green stimulus spending

I think it kind of disappeared in the rush late last week, so if you haven’t already, check out this op-ed from Chip and me in the Seattle Times. It seems to be part of a growing chorus calling out for green stimulus spending. Here’s Michael Northrop, director of the Sustainable Development Program at the […]

New York Times Magazine profile offers lessons from activist Wayne Pacelle

Sunday’s New York Times Magazine contains a profile of Wayne Pacelle, the head of the Humane Society. In it, you will find much grist for the mental mill. Consider strategic campaigns that bring new constituencies into the fold without alienating your base, the perils and advantages of incrementalism, and effective policy changes made in the […]

Study: Water-vapor feedback is ‘strong and positive,’ so we face ‘warming of several degrees C’

A new study in Geophysical Research Letters ($ub. req’d), “Water-vapor climate feedback inferred from climate fluctuations, 2003-2008” analyzed recent variations in surface temperature and “the response of tropospheric water vapor to these variations.” They concluded that the “water-vapor feedback implied by these observations is strongly positive” and “similar to that simulated by climate models.” The […]

Biden spreads love with coal flacks in Va.

Remember that whole debate a few weeks ago over whether Joe Biden hearts “clean coal”? Well, here’s some photographic evidence, from an Obama-Biden rally in Suffolk, Va., last week. Images are courtesy of the coal shills themselves, from their “Behind the Plug” blog, where they wrote, “With just nine days left in the campaign, we […]

Bad air stripping months off Mexicans’ lives, says study

Once upon a time in Mexico, a study estimated that residents would live 2.4 months longer on average if the air they breathe wasn’t so smoggy. According to the research, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, cleaning up Mexicans’ drinking water and household fuels as well could increase their life expectancy […]

60 Minutes on T. Boone Pickens

60 Minutes takes a look at T. Boone Pickens:

There are simple ways to reduce cargo ship CO2 emissions right now

The International Maritime Organization’s recent decision to adopt tighter emission rules for the global shipping fleet is a step in the right direction for an industry whose emissions have been practically unregulated. Ship emissions are blamed for 60,000 deaths worldwide each year — a serious public health threat. The new rules, however, only address sulfur […]

The Encyclopedia of Life keeps plugging along

Check out this article by Wade Roush writing for Xconomy. Interestingly enough, his thoughts parallel those expressed in two previous posts I’ve done on this topic. I’m happy to see that you can now use Flickr to upload your photographs to the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) database. Huh, wonder where they got that idea? Hopefully […]

Reliance on coal ain’t cheap, study says

A new study from Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund has found that China’s dependence on coal to fuel its economy cost the country some $248 billion last year in hidden expenses, including health care costs and environmental damage. “Recognizing the true cost of coal would create incentives to developing cleaner, sustainable energy sources,” said […]

Thefts of nuclear material worldwide ‘disturbingly high’

The number of reports of stolen nuclear material worldwide last year was “disturbingly high,” according to Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency. All together, nearly 250 such thefts were reported last year, with the main concern that the nuclear material could end up in so-called “dirty bombs.”