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  • Green groups sue over polar bear listing

    In entirely expected news, green groups have sued over the Interior Department’s listing of the polar bear as a threatened species — or, more accurately, over Interior’s caveats that the listing not be used as a means to fight global warming. The Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, and NRDC say the bears should be listed […]

  • CJR panel on climate journalism

    The Columbia Journalism Review recently held a roundtable on climate journalism: There were three journalists: Andrew Revkin, the New York Times’s lead climate reporter/blogger; Bill Blakemore, who has spearheaded climate coverage at ABC News for the last four years; and John Rennie, the editor in chief of Scientific American who recently helped craft two issues […]

  • Sen. Edward Kennedy

    Sen. Edward Kennedy has a malignant brain tumor. Spare him a thought. Here’s a clip from the lovely eulogy he gave for his older brother Bobby, delivered 8 June 1968 at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, New York: It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man […]

  • Surely there must be some mistake

    Branch of U.S. federal government accidentally passes bill that would provide $1.7 billion in grant funding for public transit.

  • Airline slows down to reduce emissions

    Scandinavian airline SAS has found a viable way to cut down on greenhouse-gas emissions and fuel costs: fly slower. The airline has been testing slower speeds since early 2006, and says it has saved some $12 million in fuel costs since then. And have no fear about missing your connection; hitting the brakes adds mere […]

  • It’s shifting consumer demand that will drive increases in vehicle fuel efficiency

    I frequently read about perceived (or alleged) disagreements between the environmental community and the auto industry. A few of them are real disagreements over policy, many are practical disagreements over how best to achieve common goals, but many perceived disagreements are not, in fact, disagreements at all.

    For instance, some people believe the auto industry stands in the way of higher average fuel efficiency in the U.S. That's just not the case, which I'll explain in a moment. First, an area of agreement: in his New York Times column, Paul Krugman writes about fuel efficiency and our automotive future:

  • Climate, as such, is unlikely to ever be a determinant of many votes

    Chris Hayes emphasizes the difference between, in Grover Norquist’s terms, "intensity and preference" — issues that people vote on vs. ones they merely respond to favorably in polls. He thinks it’s dumb that many Dems still don’t seem to get the difference when it comes to deficit spending. Which reminds me of something I’ve been […]

  • Ted Glick on two new books that address capitalism and the environment

    I don't know if Gus Speth and Tony Mazzocchi knew each other personally. But as two fascinating books make clear, their distinct life experiences led them both to believe that the capitalist system which now dominates most of the world is the ultimate problem humanity must face up to and deal with if we are to survive.

  • Evidence that White House influenced EPA to deny California waiver

    The White House influenced U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to deny California the waiver it needed to regulate vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions, according to evidence presented by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. An EPA staffer swore under oath that Johnson at first “was very interested in a full grant of the waiver,” then […]