Latest Articles
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Concrete images of a greener society
Global warming activists have often advocated policies based on numerical goals or painted scary scenarios of the future. But there is a third way to advocate for long-term policies: propose solutions that contain a positive vision of a fossil fuel-free society.
The importance of this approach was underlined to me when I heard Betsy Rosenberg of the radio show Ecotalk interview Chip Heath, an author of the business-oriented book, Made to Stick. She asked Heath what he thought of the phrase "20% by 2020," that is, reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2020. She thought it had a nice ring to it ... until Heath responded, well, no, nothing turns people off like a bunch of numbers. Instead, the author advised environmentalists to use "concrete images."
Therefore, instead of talking about numeric targets for carbon emissions reductions in order to avoid hell on earth, I'd like to try to paint a picture of how to create a society that might be better than the one we live in now. In that spirit, let me propose the following scenario:
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U.S. tries to sentence eco-activists as terrorists, and more
Read the news items highlighted in this week’s podcast: Trouble With a Capital B Murdoch, She Wrote Or Are You Just Happy to Sue Me? Clarion Caller Remember When Driving Was Fun? Plus, He Made That Boat Sink Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: God of Small Things Lady, Bugged Citizen […]
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Dog bites man
West Virginia’s two U.S. senators say it’s possible to promote coal and clean air initiatives at the same time. Uh … WTF else are they going to say?
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Umbra on cane toads
Dear Umbra, I’m currently studying in Australia. I was recently in Queensland, where as you probably know, cane toads are a huge problem. There are over 200 million of the toxic toads, and this invasive species has been killing off native wildlife and just in general causing lots of problems. In fact, they have huge […]
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They send letters
Recently, 15 House committee chairs sent a letter to the president to tell him to stop trying to water down the G8 statement on climate change. Meanwhile, chair Brad Miller from the House Science Committee sent a letter to Exxon to tell it to stop funding climate denialists. You can read both letters here. As […]
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Stop House ag czar Peterson before he kills the conservation title
Any lingering illusions that Democratic control of the House would automatically lead to more enlightened agriculture policy crumbled last Thursday, when Rep. Colin Peterson (D-Minn.), chair of the House Agriculture Committee, released the conservation section of his 2007 Farm Bill proposal.
Peterson kicked off the 2007 Farm Bill reauthorization process -- and in the process, kicked the legs out from under one of the country's best agri-environmental programs.
By cutting funding for the Conservation Security Program in his proposal and freezing any new sign-ups until 2012, Chairman Peterson would essentially kill an innovative, green, and forward-looking program that has been lauded by many environmental, family farm, and sustainable food advocates.
And there's limited time to stop him.
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The two don’t mix well
This story deserves singling out because it is on an important but too-neglected subject -- the connection between energy and water.
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And other tips from celebs
Happy Monday, y’all. If your weekend was as awesome as mine (read: not awesome), you’ll need some entertaining celeb goss to get you going this week. So here goes: Leonardo DiCaprio announced this weekend during press for his documentary 11th Hour (which I’ve heard, ps, is not awesome, though I hope I misheard) that he […]
