Latest Articles

Bad data analysis by University of Alabama scientists set old myth in motion

Denier talking points are harder to kill than vampires. They keep rising from the dead no matter how many times scientists try to drive a stake through their heart. Sometimes they take on a slightly different form, like a relentless, indestructible liquid-metal android assassin from the future that constantly switches appearance in an effort to […]

How to green your Halloween

The economy may have gone to pot and the country’s future leadership may be wildly unclear, but there’s one thing we can count on: Halloween. Yes, October 31 is a holiday of certainty, full of ringing doorbells, sweet treats, and tiny ghosts and witches (or, more likely, Kung Fu Pandas and Hannah Montanas). But All […]

Environment America says McCain’s nuclear expansion would be ‘an economic disaster’

Environment America today released a new report looking at the environmental implications of John McCain’s plan to build 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030, and 100 over time. Their report concludes that McCain’s plan would be “an economic and environmental disaster.” Environment America, which has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama in the presidential election, found that […]

Why scientists aren’t more persuasive, part 2

In 2007, NPR broadcast a now-infamous climate debate on the proposition “Global warming is not a crisis.” In theory, this sounds like an easy win for the “nay” side — “crisis” is obviously the mildest of words to describe the greatest preventable existential threat to the health and well-being of future generations. But in practice […]

Cote d’Ivoire’s West African chimp population drops off dramatically

The population of West African chimpanzees in Cote d’Ivoire has declined 90 percent in the last 18 years, according to a new study published in Current Biology. In the 1960s, the West African country was home to about 100,000 of the apes; in 1989-1990, scientists counted 8,000 to 12,000, which they estimated to be half […]

The new dean of the Washington press corps advances the cause of economic illiteracy

If you’ll pardon me, I’m going to keep harping on this theme. This column from Dan Balz — the New Broder — is absurd for any number of reasons, but I particularly want to draw attention to this bit, which distills Very Serious conventional wisdom: Nor is it evident that [Obama] has dealt realistically with […]

Snippets from the news

• Northern Rockies wolves back on endangered list. • Could new technology make household lights obsolete? • Nestle throws fit about Florida tap-water ad. • Can green jobs save us? • Which marathon is the greenest? • Australia will go ahead with carbon trading despite financial crisis. • Suffragettes protest in the U.K.

Joseph Romm’s critique of EDF’s contest is misguided

This post was originally published on Environmental Economics. —– Joe Romm’s analysis is mostly spot on — and if a post starts like this, you already know what comes next. This time he responds to a $10,000 contest organized by EDF (yep, my employer) that asks for submissions to help explain: “What is a carbon […]

McCain and Obama need to talk real farm policy

John McCain and Barack Obama need to start talking farm policy. With less than a month before the November elections in a year marked by a world-wide food crisis, energy shortages, climate change, and an international credit crisis, agriculture should be a prominent issue in every media event. Current farm policies are more about corporate […]

New Apple laptop is ‘greenest MacBook ever’

The new Apple laptop that your geeky officemate is swooning over is “the greenest MacBook ever,” according to the company. (But remember, kids: Hanging on to your current laptop is even greener.) Instead of being cobbled together from various pieces, the new MacBook’s main frame is cut out of a single piece of aluminum, and […]