Latest Articles

Debate part 1: McCain tells the truth and lies at the same time

Let me briefly hit the big picture on the debate. The two insta polls out, from CBS and CNN, show that McCain lost by a large margin, by 13 percent or so. That large a gap means independents in particular didn’t like his performance (by 22 percent in this poll). And that is no big […]

A roundup of news on the presidential election

• Barack Obama visited Nevada, where he assured voters that he loves the mining industry. • Locals in Sarah Palin’s hometown of Wasila, Alaska, say that she “fouled her own nest” by promoting rampant development during her tenure as mayor. “Sarah’s legacy as mayor was big-box stores and runaway growth,” said one resident. One of […]

Snippets from the news

• Obama-sponsored bill heading to Bush would ban U.S. mercury exports. • Is your kosher diet eco-friendly? • RGGI auction brings in $38.5 million. • Experts say we’re losing the battle to save the Everglades. • Number of ocean “dead zones” is rising fast. • People living near nuclear plants don’t mind new ones.

Living and learning at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability

    This is a guest post by my travel partner, Todd Dwyer, head blogger for Dell’s ReGeneration.org, where this post originally appeared. —– The folks at Arizona State University’s Global Institute of Sustainability really rolled out the red green carpet for Sarah and me when we met them on a hot Friday afternoon. Through […]

California enacts new laws to reduce toxicity of consumer goods

On Monday, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law two bills that aim to reduce the toxicity of consumer goods and inform the public about health hazards posed by toxics. Right now, existing law only lets the state regulate the disposal of toxic chemicals, but the new legislation gives the state Department of Toxic Substances […]

Congress still hasn’t resolved their issues on renewable tax credit extensions

As we reported on Friday, the House passed a renewable-energy tax-credit bill that differed from the Senate’s version. Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said, “we can’t get it done” — i.e., Senate Democrats can’t get the House version of the bill passed, leaving the fate of tax credits for renewable energy up in […]

Oil is down $10 today because …

… oh hell, nobody really knows. Note the journalist’s favorite way of implying causation without actually claiming it: the $10 drop happened “amid” political fighting over the bailout. It also happened amid the baseball playoffs, and amid my attempts to keep the dandelions from recolonizing my newly planted front yard. I shall cease weeding, lest […]

McCain campaign releases contrived ads promoting coal

The McCain and Obama campaigns have been bickering for the past week about who loves coal more. Today the McCain campaign released new coal-happy radio ads in Colorado, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. The ads claim that “clean coal means cleaner air,” but “Obama-Biden and their liberal allies oppose clean coal.” In reality, Obama has been […]

Ecuador approves new constitution granting inalienable rights to nature

Ecuador approved a new constitution this weekend that, among other things, grants inalienable rights to nature, the first such inclusion in a nation’s constitution, according to Ecuadorian officials. “Nature … where life is reproduced and exists, has the right to exist, persist, maintain, and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions, and its processes in evolution. […]

Why the party that wrecked America can’t fix it

The Republican party has a problem. They have based much of their power, over the last several decades, on the idea of ever-expanding (almost exclusively white) suburbs. The thinking was, as those suburbs become less and less dense — as one wag put it, the further away the houses are from each other — the […]