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Ian McEwan writing a novel about climate change — with funniness!

Ian McEwan. Photo: Eamon McCabe Booker Prize-winning British novelist Ian McEwan, now best known for Atonement, is at work on a new novel about climate change that will include “extended comic stretches,” The Guardian reports. The unnamed work isn’t due out for another two years, but McEwan read an excerpt to an audience in Wales […]

Umbra on carbon calculators

Dearest Umbra, I recently heard an interesting interview on NPR, and the speaker was talking about how, to stop global warming, all humans would have to limit their carbon emissions to just one ton of carbon per person, per year. I’ve never weighed my carbon emissions, but I’m going to guess that I throw a […]

U.S. emphasis on Canada’s tar sands a bad idea, says report

As the United States expands its oil-refining capabilities, more than two-thirds of planned capacity will be devoted to processing crude oil from Canada’s tar sands, says a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project and Environmental Defense Canada. Tar-sands capacity is predicted to see a total increase of 1.9 million barrels per day, says the […]

Michael Pollan calls for crafting a viable alternative for next time

 

After many, many months of wrangling, Congress recently passed a farm bill, overriding a veto by the president. In my view, it is not a very good bill -- it preserves more or less intact the whole structure of subsidies responsible for so much that is wrong in the American food system.

On the other hand, it does contain some significant new provisions that, with luck, will advance the growing movement toward a more just, sustainable, and healthy food system.

You might rightly ask why there was so little movement on commodity subsidies, in a year when crop prices are at record highs and public scrutiny of the subsidy system has been intense. Indeed, the people on the Hill I talk to tell me they have not seen so much political activism around the farm bill in a generation. All the calls, cards, and emails sent by ordinary eaters clearly made a difference.

So why so little change on the key issue? Why didn't we get a food bill, rather than another farm bill? Here's what I think happened.

South Dakota vote is step toward first new U.S. oil refinery in decades

Plans have moved forward for the first new U.S. oil refinery in more than 30 years, as voters in South Dakota’s Union County approved a rezoning that would allow the project to be built. Energy company Hyperion Resources says the planned $10 billion facility would be a “green refinery” and would produce ultra-low-sulfur gasoline and […]

The good, bad, and ugly in our national five-year agricultural plan

We've all noticed higher grocery bills, but did you know Congress passed a $307 billion farm bill in late May that has a much bigger impact on what you will eat for dinner tonight than what you chose to place in the grocery cart?

The farm bill has a hand in all that happens before the swallow. The bag of Tyson chicken wings (grain subsidies), gallon of Horizon Organic milk (forward contracting), and pound of Fuji apples (country of origin labeling) are all regulated in some fashion by this policy determining how our food is raised and who profits.

But does the massive legislation support family farmers? Increase food access in urban food deserts? Or feed the 40 million poor and hungry in the United States?

Yes and no.

What should I ask the efficiency guru about nuclear power?

Amory Lovins. Photo: © Judy Hill Amory Lovins is on the warpath against nuclear power, battling the industry PR push that says nuclear is a viable climate solution. He’s got a new report, co-authored with Imran Sheikh, called “The Nuclear Illusion” [PDF]. Spinning off from that report are a Newsweek article called “Missing the Market […]

Senate GOP delays climate debate still further by forcing clerk to read Boxer amendment

Today in Senate action on the Climate Security Act, Republicans are forcing the clerk to read the entirety of the Boxer substitute amendment [PDF], claiming they haven’t had enough time to read it yet. It’s 157 pages long. Boxer, of course, protested, but her appeal was rejected. The clerk’s been reading for an hour already. […]

Democrats are undermining the strongest message behind climate policy

In this post, I argued that the best, simplest, and most impactful message for advocates of climate legislation is this: Good climate policy will rescue American families from a sinking ship. I meant to add that the Dems not only seem to miss the power of this message, but are by all appearances working to […]

Officials in ‘crisis mode’ as SoCal condors poisoned

Weeks before California’s ban on lead bullets in condor habitat goes into effect, seven of the endangered birds have been found with lead poisoning. And that’s no insignificant tally, as only 34 wild condors are known to live in southern California. Wildlife officials are in “crisis mode,” says Jesse Grantham of the U.S. Fish and […]