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Friday music blogging: Kathy Mattea

It is rare that my idiosyncratic and widely ignored Friday music blogging overlaps with the subject matter that occupies the rest of my time. But today we have a happy confluence. Kathy Mattea is a Grammy-winning country artist, born in West Virginia. She had a string of hits in the ’80s and ’90s, but her […]

Finance, energy, and the environment: markets and opportunities

Last night, I went to a panel at the Museum of American Finance on Wall Street (no, really!) on what's financially hot or soon will be in non-coal, non-oil energy technologies. I love these kinds of events; typically, what comes of them is reality-based information, dealing with who has the money, where it's going (or ought to go), and what will get it there, in order to transform our energy system. I come away from these things more hopeful than from any number of political rallies, because these are people who are walking their talk instead of posing in their Rogan jeans and "Save the planet" t-shirts.

The panel was co-sponsored by Sierra Club, so the articulate Carl Pope was one of the speakers, natch. The other speakers were Pete Cartwright, CEO of Advanced Power Projects, Inc.; Daniel Abbasi, head of regulatory and public policy research for MissionPoint Capital Partners ("Financing transition to carbon free economy"); Michael Molnar, VP at Goldman Sachs, responsible for alt. energy and coal sectors in the Energy & Materials Equity Research Business Unit; and moderator Myron Kandel, founding financial editor at CNN.

You can read my liveblog-style notes for the whole evening at my own blog. A few juicy nuggets:

From Burnin’ Love to Burnin’ Bras

Goodness graceland Eco Elvis lives, and he’s gyrating those hips to hits like “Viva Las Vegans,” “A Hunk, A Hunk of Burnin’ Globe,” and “Compost Hotel.” Just call him The King … of recycling. Courtesy of Eco Elvis Cansei de ser sustainable Brazilian band CSS (of iPod commercial fame) has lost bass player Ira Trevisan. […]

Harrison Ford bares chest for deforestation

Looking for the best way to "showcase the pain involved in deforestation"? Harrison Ford suggests a nice wax. 

Architect R.K. Stewart on building the future of sustainable design

If you build it, they will come. But if you build it green, you just may be able to save the planet. R.K. Stewart. Or so says a recent report, which suggests that green building could help cut North America’s greenhouse-gas emissions more quickly and less expensively than any other measure. And word is getting […]

Snippets from the news

• Governors protest the feds’ emissions plan. • Canadians blame themselves for climate change. • House legislation would help eradicate invasive species. • Non-plastic bottles hit the big time. • Can we rely on desalination for future water needs?

National parks will get spruced up

The National Park Centennial Initiative has announced its first round of funding for various projects and programs in — surprise! — national parks. Seventy-six parks in 38 states will see a total $51 million in federal and privately donated funding. The projects will run the gamut of everything from hiking-shelter improvements to wildlife protection to […]

Narwhals more at risk than polar bears, says study

Polar bears get all the press, but climate change may be even harder on the narwhal, says new research. Narwhals, the whales whose long spiral tusks kick-started the myth of unicorns, top a list of 11 at-risk Arctic marine mammals published in the journal Ecological Applications. Hooded seals, bowhead whales, and walrus rounded out the […]

Lieberman-Warner criticism, Part 2

This is the second in a five-part series exploring the details of the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act. See part 1 here.

With atmospheric GHG concentrations rising at a frightening rate, we need a full court press to change directions, using every possible tool at our disposal. From an economic perspective, this means that we not only need to impose financial penalties on polluters, but also provide financial incentives for those who act to lower GHG emissions. We need a market mechanism in place so that the costs of GHG emission -- or the revenue associated with GHG reduction -- factors into individual investment decisions immediately. In short, we need big sticks and big carrots. The Climate Stabilization Act (CSA), as the Lieberman-Warner Bill is known, is a small stick with no carrot. This post explains why.

Food vs. fuel edition

“To say that biofuels are the culprit [for food-price hikes] clearly underestimates the demand [for food] and really shows a gross misunderstanding of the world food situation.” — Bill Doyle, CEO Potash Corp, the world’s largest fertilizer company, which has seen its share price rise 600 percent in the past two years, quoted April 24 […]