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Carbon tax v. cap and trade — the hottest arguments since McCartney v. Lennon

The argument over the best climate change mitigation policy is gathering steam. Busting out all over. Topping the charts. All the kids are dancing to it. Before getting to the latest, though, it’s worth making a simple point: either cap-and-trade or a carbon tax could reduce GHG emissions if properly designed and implemented; either could […]

A guide to their positions

I keep meaning to mention this incredibly useful guide to the presidential candidates’ positions on global warming, hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. Why didn’t we think of that?

The U.S. outmaneuvered European leaders, yet again

All right, the more I read about this G8 climate agreement the more it becomes clear that the Bush administration completely outplayed the other developed countries on this. That, at least, they’re good at. Blair, Merkel, and Sarkozy all went into the summit staking their credibility on forcing an agreement: mandatory emissions cuts based on […]

Students keep up momentum with a pre-election Climate Summer

A scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College, Bill McKibben is the author of The End of Nature, the first book for a general audience on climate change, and, most recently, Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future. He serves on Grist’s board of directors. Thursday, 7 Jun 2007 LEBANON, New Hampshire If you’re worried […]

Ruminations on food, class, and Carlo Petrini

“America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between,” Oscar Wilde once quipped. Fresh, yes, but is it affordable? Photo: Ferry Plaza Farmers’ Market Such observations didn’t always endear him to Victorian-era Americans. Wilde’s 1881 lecture tour of the United States, while ultimately viewed as a triumph, occasionally drew […]

Be there!

I’m bumping this back up to the top. Party’s next Wed.! Hey all you wonky Washington, D.C., nerdlings: We’re coming to your town! That’s right, it’s time to party with Grist — and your fellow Grist readers. After the way Grist rocked San Francisco, I sure hope D.C. brings its A-game. Or does the vaunted […]

How scary …

… is this picture?

Progress … we think

I confess I haven’t had the intestinal fortitude to closely follow the negotiations at the G8, but it looks like they’ve come up with something being billed as a "breakthrough." This phrasing in the Washington Post story is curious: The goal is to agree to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050, Merkel said, […]

Gore wins!

Spain’s Prince of Asturias award for international cooperation, that is. Can the Nobel be far behind?

Witness the verbal mangling at today’s press conference

The White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair showed off his legendary verbal skills at a G8 press briefing yesterday (PDF). Here are the two best bits.

Yoda Connaughton was enumerating the President's "domestic agenda on climate" when he said:

The President has set out his support at the state level for renewable power mandates, and we now have the United States of America, 80% [sic] of our power under state renewable power requirements.

Packed in a lot of doubletalk in one sentence, he has. The president opposes a federal renewable power mandate (even though he signed one into law in Texas). Second, 80 percent is just plain wrong. The 20 states with renewable mandates (plus D.C.) account for 42 percent of electricity sales. Can anyone can explain what he meant?

The second example is even more garbled: