Latest Articles
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RNC ‘Victory Chair’ talks about McCain’s climate agenda
Grist recently caught a few minutes with Carly Fiorina, the “Victory Chair” of the Republican National Committee. (Quite the title, eh? Apparently it means she’s “the primary advocate for John McCain and the Republican Party” at the RNC.) Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a former executive at both AT&T and Lucent Technologies, is […]
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Owls are wimps
“Old growth had nothing to do with it. [The spotted owl]’s not dying because of the loggers, but because it’s a wimp!” — Bill Pickell, retired manager for the Washington Contract Loggers Association
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The climate crisis cannot be solved without cost-benefit analysis
Lisa Heinzerling, a Georgetown law professor, has written an essay arguing against the embrace of cost-benefit analysis by environmentalists. She suggests that environmentalists enjoy nature in a very concrete and reverential manner that cannot be captured by economic analysis. I think this is a fairly substantial misinterpretation of the use of cost-benefit analysis. Heinzerling makes […]
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Saudis/OPEC don’t control the price of oil any more
With Bush going to Saudi Arabia to beg -- again -- for lower prices, the media is gaga over a confrontation that has about as much significance as a Rocky Balboa fight.
Even the venerable NYT just published an article, "Bush Rebuffed on Oil Plea in Saudi Arabia," that opens, "With the price of oil hitting record highs, President Bush used a private visit with King Abdullah to make a second attempt to persuade the Saudis to increase oil production and was rejected yet again."
Unlike the 1970s and 1980s and even much of the 1990s, neither OPEC nor the Saudis any longer control the price of oil.
If any country had a million barrels a day of (sellable) spare oil capacity, they could make more than $100 million a day selling it, even if that much new oil dropped prices 20%, which it probably wouldn't.
Who would sit on that kind of money? Yes, the Saudis are selling over 8 million barrels a day, so they don't really need the money. But if they have any significant excess capacity, it is sour or high-sulfur crude (see the other experts on the full CNBC interview here). Such crude is not currently in demand: "Many refineries are not set up to process such crude because it is more difficult and expensive to refine into products."
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‘Science’: nitrogen as important as carbon in climate change
Speaking of the troubles associated with industrial agriculture and its fertilizer regime, check this out: The public does not yet know much about nitrogen, but in many ways it is as big an issue as carbon, and due to the interactions of nitrogen and carbon, makes the challenge of providing food and energy to the […]
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Snippets from the news
• Bush admin bars drilling near Alaska’s Lake Teshekpuk in exchange for OK to drill elsewhere. • Australian kangaroos may be culled after all. • Obesity contributes to global warming. • Climate change will lead to barbarization. • Illinois requires green cleaners in schools.
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Gallup shows Americans making smart choices to break the gas habit.
It took soaring fuel prices for old habits to shift. But they're shifting alright. Just take a look at these poll results -- Gallup finds that big numbers of Americans are making changes in their daily lives to deal with higher gas prices. Here's a snapshot:
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Conservative Christians launch skeptical climate campaign
Conservative religious leaders have launched a “We Get It!” campaign that just goes to prove that saying something doesn’t make it so. The campaign aims to gather a million signatures on a petition opposing climate-change action, with the argument that tackling global warming will hurt the world’s poor. “Our stewardship of creation must be based […]
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From Bushy to Beef
Tail lickin’ good Give squirrel a whirl: it’s all natural, free-range, and as local as it gets. Apparently, “Southern fried squirrel is good. And tandoori style works. It is especially tasty fricasséed with Cornish cream and walnuts.” Now that’s just nuts. Where the sun don’t shine Not ’til we met the solar-powered bra and the […]
