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Grist/ReGeneration.org talks to bloggers about how to address the climate and energy challenge

A few more blogger-on-the-street interviews from Netroots Nation. Here’s blogger Liane Allen, who writes at DailyKos and Green Mountain Daily, on climate, energy, and the netroots: Here’s blogger Natasha Chart, who writes at Pacific View: Here’s Gus Ayer of California: And Ilyse Hogue of MoveOn.org, who also blogs at Huffington Post:

Can the coal industry and an environmental blog find common ground?

In response to this post on the many varied reactions to Gore's energy speech, Behind the Plug (the coal industry blog for which we have strong language) contacted me regarding questions for Gore on "Meet the Press." The impetus: Coming from very distant sides of political and editorial spheres, could we find some common ground to collaborate on a question for Gore?

As Behind the Plug says in its post, "We all breathe the same air and we all have an interest in America's energy future." Thus, based on the blogosphere roundups and reader comments -- and without feigning scientific expertise -- the joint question that both of us would like to see answered:

Lessig and Netroots folks on climate change

We’re still here at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas, where Stanford Law School professor and internet guru Lawrence Lessig just noted that climate change is the “most important public policy issue we will face in this generation.” He also talked up Al Gore, referring to himself as a “Gore-ophile.” Lessig recently launched Change Congress, which […]

Gore at Netroots Nation? UPDATE: Gore at Netroots Nation!

The hot rumor at the moment is that Al Gore is going to appear at Netroots Nation immediately following Nancy Pelosi’s Q&A session (which is going on right now). We’ll keep you posted. UPDATE: There he is! Let’s blog along, shall we? He loves the netroots — informed citizenry, etc. etc. North pole melting — […]

Bloggers weigh Gore’s plan in advance of ‘Meet the Press’

Liberals love Gore's gall. Conservatives hate that he drove a gas-guzzler to the big speech. Politicians grumble over his timing. Climate policy wonks and science geeks admire the inititive, but want something a little more ... feasible ... say, 50 to 90 percent renewable electricity by 2020 with a little natural gas for good measure?

Across the blogosphere, however, certain questions about Gore's plan remain unanswered. What practical measures will we take to get to zero emission electricity in 10 years? Who will lead the charge? From where will the requisite funds come to finance this energy operation? Will Tom Brokaw grill Gore on "Meet the Press" this Sunday? Or will the Goracle leave the details to those in the political trenches and dodge the pragmatic bullet?

The remaining voices:

Snippets from the news

• Hundreds of dead baby penguins wash ashore in Brazil. • Should we move species to save them? • Catfish farms dry up. • California Supreme Court gives new protection to endangered species. • Desmond Tutu rails against flying.

Endangered-species protections reinstated for gray wolves

A federal judge has ruled that wolves should be returned to the endangered-species list for now, derailing plans for wolf hunts in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. The 2,000 or so gray wolves that inhabit the three states were removed from the endangered list in March; environmentalists sued to get them back on, saying populations were […]

Extreme exceptionalism

“America is the most selfish country. From the way they talk, Americans believe even if the world disappears, America wouldn’t disappear.” — Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, on the U.S. not joining the Kyoto Protocol

Ontario joins up with Western carbon cutters

Ontario has joined the Western Climate Initiative, a regional carbon-trading agreement with a goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 15 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. The province joins seven U.S. states (Arizona, California, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Washington) and three Canadian counterparts (British Columbia, Manitoba, and Quebec). For those folks not up on […]

Are biofuels a core solution?

As part of my ongoing series on core climate solutions (see links below), let's examine biofuels.

If we are going to avoid catastrophic climate outcomes, we need some 11 "stabilization wedges" from 2015 to 2040. So if you want to be a core climate solution, you need to be able to generate a large fraction of a wedge in a climate-constrained world. And that is a staggering amount of low-carbon energy.

Princeton's Socolow and Pacala describe one wedge of biofuel in their original August 2004 Science article [PDF] on the wedges: