Latest Articles
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Revkin puts global warming in AARP Magazine
Andy Revkin has a couple of new pieces on global warming in, of all places, AARP Magazine. Yup, he’s bringing the word to men and women of a certain age. Andy told me he went through several back-and-forths, over the course of many months, and I believe it — AARP’s known for having conservative (in […]
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Looks like the plug-in might actually happen
General Motors is apparently serious about introducing a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, which I have repeatedly argued is the car of the future (PDF). The race is now on between Toyota and GM as to who will be the first to introduce this game-changing vehicle.The Chevy Volt is to be the "legacy" of Robert Lutz, GM's vice chair of product development, according to Business Week's "Auto Beat" column. The Volt will go about 40 miles on an electric charge before reverting to being a regular gasoline-powered hybrid.
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I meant just one more
There’s a growing tension between the subsidy-happy proclivities of Congress and its self-imposed mandate to reduce carbon emissions. You just can’t spend all the available federal dollars on ethanol and CTL and expect to reduce emissions. Bills like this one, introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), are going to bring that tension to a head: […]
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Imagine a politician leveling with citizens about something
This is a great column from a former Winnipeg mayor: "Higher oil prices or carbon tax: Take your pick." Imagine if all politicians were as frank. Why, we might even have the kind of discourse Al Gore mourns losing in The Assault on Reason.
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Umbra on returnable bottles
Hi Umbra, I’ve been wondering lately what happened to the returnable bottles that were so common up until some point in the ’70s. Why did the legislation go away? Does reusing bottles use less energy? It seems like it would, but I haven’t found info on advocating for bottle reuse in any of the green […]
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Sun rises in east
I suppose everyone’s heard by now that the U.S. plans to stiff Germany and the UK on climate change at the upcoming G8 summit. German and British leaders will no doubt express grave concern to the media, and then when it becomes obvious the U.S. won’t budge, try to recast their utter ineffectuality as some […]
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Pick-me-up books needed
I was at a wedding last week, on the beach. Waves! Friends! Tecates! I was finally starting to unwind.
And then I did something very bad.
I picked up Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Holy moly.
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The press ignores science
The bad news is that we are in quite a pickle.
The good news about the bad news is that the national science academies of the G8 countries, along with those of Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, China, and India, have issued a unanimous and remarkably strong statement (PDF) about our global energy quandary.
The bad news about the good news about the bad news is that the press is almost totally silent about it, at least in English-speaking countries.
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So Long, San Pellegrino
Restaurants, schools tap into local water supplies You’ve heard of eating locally, but the latest fad may be drinking locally. Some restaurants and schools are starting to serve filtered tap water instead of bottled water, citing the eco-impacts of packaging and shipping a product that’s already available right thar in the kitchen. But it seems […]
