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Via satellite, Obama talks to CGI about climate change and energy concerns

Barack Obama also addressed the crowd at the Clinton Global Initiative today, via satellite, outlining four issues he’ll address should he win the November election. The first global challenge he pledged to address is the combined challenges of energy and climate change.   “No single issue sits at the crossroads of as many currents as […]

GOP candidate discusses climate, energy, and the financial crisis

John McCain. In his final public appearance before temporarily suspending his campaign today to return to Washington to address the financial crisis, John McCain spoke to the Clinton Global Initiative, delivering the keynote for the panel entitled “Integrated Solutions: Water, Food, and Energy.” After some discussion of the financial crisis, McCain focused on energy needs […]

Swimming in chlorinated pools linked to childhood asthma, study says

Kids who swim regularly in outdoor chlorinated pools are up to five times more likely to develop asthma than youngsters who have never been in a chlorinated pool, according to a new study by Belgian researchers in the European Respiratory Journal. The same research team found a few years ago that kids who swim regularly […]

Obama says he will postpone some spending programs in light of financial bailout

Obama says he’ll have to delay some of his spending initiatives in light of the mega-bailout in the works. But not the tax cuts! He didn’t say what proposals might be delayed first … [but!] he said a bailout would not bar him from pushing for middle-class tax cuts, a central proposal in his campaign. […]

Offshore drilling ban will expire at the end of September

Democrats will let the ban on offshore drilling expire this month. The AP reports: Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an month-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline […]

Urban hawk attacks

I received a strange phone call yesterday from my youngest daughter. “Dad, a hawk is eating Pinkfoot!” Pinkfoot was my daughter’s Bantam hen, which won Best in Show at the fair this summer. I raced home to find a fairly large hawk making short work of said hen and it had no intention of leaving […]

Snippets from the news

• Colorado adopts rules that protect wildlife from drilling operations. • Coal project moves ahead in Kentucky. • Pine beetle infestation may affect weather and air quality. • North Carolina experiencing gas shortage. • Northeastern and West Coast women chock full of mercury. • Pollution from Hurricane Ike could have been much worse. • Is […]

McCain and Obama campaigns trade jabs over who’s a bigger coal supporter

At a campaign stop in Ohio last week, a questioner with a camera asked Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden why, if wind and solar are doing well, the Obama-Biden campaign is supporting “clean coal.” Biden gave this confusing response: We’re not supporting “clean coal.” Guess what: China’s building two every week, two dirty coal […]

Solar-panel thievery taking off in U.S.

Solar-panel thievery, long a problem in Europe, has been gaining popularity recently in the United States courtesy of high energy prices, rising demand for solar, lax security measures to protect panels, and solar’s sexy chic. (After all, you don’t see anyone running off with your energy efficiency do you?) While no official statistics exist, solar […]

Debate debate

John McCain said he wants to postpone Friday’s presidential debate in light of the financial crisis. Obama says: no. Lots of political commentators are saying lots of things about this, and it’s outside my bailiwick, so I won’t add much except to say: it’s telling that McCain thinks electoral politics is something silly and distracting, […]