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YearlyKos: Sometimes conventional wisdom is right

I went to candidate forums (one candidate, small audience) with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama today. News flash: Obama is extremely charismatic. Fantastic with small crowds. Total alpha male. Effortlessly comfortable and confident. Hillary, on the other hand, not so much. She’s much warmer and more human than the typical caricature would have it, […]

YearlyKos: Obama and coal

So, lots to talk about, but for now: I’m in a candidate forum with Barack Obama and he was just asked directly about coal. He dodged and weaved, said there would have to be a "transition," and that there would need to be "investments," etc. etc. Unsatisfying. He did, however, very strongly back the 80 […]

YearlyKos: Energize America

The Energize America 2020 project that emerged from a collaborative effort in the Daily Kos community is remarkable. It’s easily the most impressive thing I’ve seen presented at YearlyKos — and I don’t just say that because it’s my issue. In terms of substance, process, and practical results, it’s an inspiring example of what the […]

YearlyKos: Ugh update

If one wanted to be a responsible adult, one would probably avoid staying out until the wee hours and drinking to excess on the night before one’s panel discussion on global warming politics. Consequently one would not feel like the bottom of a shoe, and would not be croaking like a frog, when one addressed […]

Too many boats are fishing for too few fish

Here's a remarkable fact: Global fishery collapse is financed with tax money.

You already know that many nations are failing to enforce the laws that are essential to keeping our oceans healthy and abundant forever. Instead, they are presiding over a global ocean collapse. According to a report in Science, 29 percent of the world's commercial fisheries have already collapsed.

This is terrible news for the billion people who turn to the ocean for protein, the hundreds of millions of people who need the sea for a livelihood, and the countless extraordinary marine creatures that don't deserve to go the way of the buffalo.

Again

Kind of a good news, bad news story:

President George W. Bush has invited the European Union, the United Nations and 11 other countries to the September 27-28 meeting in Washington to work toward setting a long-term goal by 2008 to cut emissions.

Yet it turns out just to be a meeting full of sound and fury, signifying nothing: "But a senior U.S. official said the administration stood by its opposition to mandatory economy-wide caps."

A meeting aimed at (1) developing voluntary or aspirational targets, (2) for the long-term, (3) by 2008 [i.e. Bush's last year in office]. Three strikes and you are out.

Bush's last chance to be a small part of the solution rather than a large part of the problem came and went at the G-8 meeting, where Bush nixed an effort to set realistic and binding long-term targets.

The only interesting question that will be answered by this meeting is whether the media will be suckered into giving the President the one outcome he truly wants -- positive press coverage on climate change, an area of such catastrophic failure by this administration that it will probably ensure (even more than Iraq) that history judges Bush a failure.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Yup, the Duggars do it again

Remember the Duggar family? Well, they followed through on that promise of more children.

Might want to check the elevation first

So the guy to blame for AOL wants to create a "green resort" in Costa Rica, because if there's anything low-lying countries in hurricane paths need, it's more jet travel by rich gringos eager to experience a little pseudo-green travel.

Water, that is

Take a few minutes to drink up this NYT editorial on the virtues of tap water. It’s one of the most emailed stories on the NYT site, so maybe you’ve already seen it. This bit is particularly relevant … Water bottles, like other containers, are made from natural gas and petroleum. The Earth Policy Institute […]

Climate plan is unveiled

Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- does this make him an icon? -- and John Warner (R-Va.) unveiled their long-awaited climate plan. It looks pretty good to me because:

• It is bipartisan -- indeed, it follows the strategy recommended by moderate senators, such as Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.)


• It starts quickly -- by 2012 we must return to 2005 levels.


• It has a credible 2050 target -- and requires regular reports from the National Academy of Sciences on the "extent to which the emissions reductions achieved under the Act no, together with actual steps taken by other nations, stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations at a level adequate to forestall catastrophic impacts of climate change."


• It does not have a safety valve, but instead has banking and borrowing.

This plan will be the starting point for legislation from Sen. Boxer (D-CA). Here is a detailed summary from Greenwire (subs. req'd):