Latest Articles
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John Travolta’s private plane fetish brings the noise to a small Maine community
Oh, John Travolta. When will you and your planes stop p$#@ing off the populace?
Apparently it's not enough for Mr. Saturday-Night-Give-the-Planet-a-Fever to wander the globe in his private planes, trailing an excess of carbon emissions in his wake. He's also got to land his plane near his Maine residence during the area's voluntary no-fly period between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Come on, John. It's bad enough that you're contributing to warming the planet. Now you're going to keep granny awake in the process? For shame, Vinnie Barbarino, for shame.
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Goin’ new school
Old school Cossacks: thundered off the steppes in bloodthirsty hordes, fearsome warriors, rumored to tuck ears of enemies under saddleblankets in lieu of provisions during raids.
New-school Kossacks: more tippety-tap than thundering, not so much with the ear eating, fearsome and effective in rallying support for renewable energy.
HR 550 is the largest, most important piece of solar legislation ever introduced in the U.S. Here is a story about how they are making it happen:
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Read about it and/or watch it happen
There are something like 12 bills in the Texas Legislature this session addressing climate change. Most of them are deader than a doornail, but we might see passage this session of a bill to create a Texas climate change task force. This doesn't sound like much, but for Texas it's actually quite an accomplishment.
To get an idea of what testifying there is like, you can take a look at my archived testimony here (Real Audio). My testimony starts at 9:20. Particularly entertaining is the question and answer session starting at 19:20.
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New report from Apollo Alliance on good green jobs
The Apollo Alliance and Urban Habitat have a new report out today on the coming green economy and the immense job potential for traditionally excluded groups — low-income, heavily minority urban communities. The report sets out a vision for green jobs in the U.S. and outlines the green industries that already exist in the country, […]
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What was it like 430 million years ago
The earth, as a living organism, leaves behind breadcrumbs from millenia of development. And beautiful breadcrumbs they are.
Check out Frans Lanting's project and fall in love all over again. From Stewart Brand's account of a presentation as a part of the Long Now series:
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Chait on the netroots
Jon Chait has an expansive new piece in The New Republic about the rise of the “netroots” — i.e., the partisan, activist liberal blogosphere. I have my quibbles with some parts, particularly in the second half, but overall it’s a far more comprehensive, fair, and respectful look at the netroots than you’ll find anywhere else […]
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New Monbiot piece
From "The Rich World's Policy on Greenhouse Gas Now Seems Clear: Millions Will Die," by George Monbiot:
Rich nations seeking to cut climate change have this in common: they lie. You won't find this statement in the draft of the new report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was leaked to the Guardian last week. But as soon as you understand the numbers, the words form before your eyes. The governments making genuine efforts to tackle global warming are using figures they know to be false.
Read the rest.
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How to reduce your household energy consumption, easy-like
Last Sunday's New York Times honed in on the dubious practice of Americans buying carbon offsets to brand themselves carbon-neutral. Andy Revkin, the paper's global-warming reporter, quoted me saying, "There isn't a single American household above the poverty line that couldn't cut their CO2 at least 25 percent in six months through a straightforward series of fairly simple and terrifically cost-effective measures."
My claim has hit a nerve. Despite the absence of a link, already a dozen readers have tracked me down on the web and written to ask what measures I have in mind. This article is for them and anyone else who might be interested.
First, a confession. As often happens, assertion preceded analysis. But my claim didn't come from thin air -- I have experience in energy analysis and a feel for the numbers. With a bit of figuring, I made a list of 16 energy-saving (hence carbon-reducing) steps that together should do away with a bit more than one-quarter of a typical U.S. household's carbon emissions.
The top five:
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Motivation aside, the ad’s still true
West Virginia Dems Rep. Nick Rahall and Sen. Robert C. Byrd are fighting mad over some "despicable" anti-coal ads that have appeared in major publications recently.
The ads, underwritten by a natural gas company called the Chesapeake Energy Corp, show faces smudged with make-up meant to resemble coal dust under a headline reading: "Face It, Coal is Filthy."
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