Latest Articles

Hastings Makes Less Waste?

Central Nebraska town wins greenest city in America contest We say “greenest city in America,” and you say — Portland? Seattle? Savannah? Try Hastings, Nebraska. The town of 25,000 beat out some 350 other cities to win a contest sponsored by Yahoo! as part of the portal’s “Be a Better Planet” initiative. Yes, we’re pretty […]

Barrier Methods

Galveston, Texas, expected to approve history-defying development plans The city of Galveston perches precariously on a Texas barrier island; some 8,000 people were killed there by a hurricane in 1900. But hindsight shmindsight! Officials are set to OK construction of over 1,000 acres of hotels and homes, the largest development in city history. Geologists hired […]

Terminating His Term

With one day left in office, Blair chats climate with Schwarzenegger If you’d asked Tony Blair a decade ago which foreign official would be the last he met with while in office, chances are he wouldn’t have put his pounds on Arnold Schwarzenegger. But that’s exactly who filled the slot today. Blair, who steps down […]

Alito Bit More Critter-Hating

Supreme Court sides with developers on Endangered Species Act case Like a tormented parent with two kids in a spelling bee, environmentalists watched in horror this week as the U.S. Supreme Court judged the relative heft of two federal eco-laws. The case in question pitted green groups against the National Association of Home Builders. At […]

The latest from Kunstler

Jim Kunstler’s heard the latest data on oil exports/imports, and he sees trouble a’comin’: The implication in [the coming dropoff in oil imports] is that the activities that have become “normal” for us during the post World War Two era will very shortly become untenable. An economy based on suburban expansion and incessant motoring is […]

Reps to discuss dropping the tax break on massive SUVs

For the “wow, about time” files: the tax write-off for Hummers might be a thing of yesteryear, if one legislator gets his way. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has introduced legislation to remove the $25,000-or-so tax break that people who drive massive SUVs and Hummers have been getting for years. The break was intended to help […]

In Black, climate-conscious youth jazz band, answers questions

In Black. Photos courtesy In Black What work do you do? We are in a jazz band called In Black. We are Carson, Christian, Langston, Lati, and Lauren, and we’re all ages 14 to 16. This week, In Black is doing a Solutions Tour in Southern California to promote awareness of climate change and how […]

I’m sure whoever has the best argument will win, right?

There’s an interesting piece today in CongressNow on the debate over auctioning vs. giving away credits in a cap-and-trade system. (CN requires a subscription, which you can get for the low, low price of $1500 or so. I’m on the 10-day evaluation thing, so enjoy these pieces while they come, ’cause there’s no way Grist […]

It ain’t working

The Washington Post has a piece about Obama’s attempts to split the difference (thread the needle? straddle the fence?) on the subject of liquid coal. Y’all are probably sick of hearing me talk about this (watch for an op-ed soon!), so I’ll outsource the making of the basic point to Brian Beutler and Brad Plumer, […]

Climate change science questioned

In an op-ed in today's Washington Post, Emily Yoffe asks an interesting question:

All this is not to say that it's not getting warmer and that curbing our profligate environmental ways is not a commendable and necessary goal. But perhaps this movement is sowing the seeds of its own destruction -- even as it believes the human species has sown its own. There must be a limit to how many calamitous films, books and television shows we, and our children, can absorb.

It doesn't seem sustainable to expect people to remain terrified by such a disinterested, often benign -- it was so nice eating out on the patio! -- and even unpredictable enemy.