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A smackdown in Congress

The corruption and incompetence of the Bush Interior Dept. are legend at this point, so I won’t rehash it all here (though I can’t resist linking to this). Instead, I’ll just report that today, in a House Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Endangered Species Act, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) laid into Interior Deputy Secretary […]

Limits set on high seas bottom trawling

More than 20 nations recently met in Chile to set up a regulatory body to watch over a huge swath of ocean. The meeting, which was targeted by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and included staff from Oceana's South American office, also netted (no pun intended) a landmark agreement that reels in high seas bottom trawling fleets. New regulations set to take effect next September will severely limit the destructive fishing method in waters from Australia to South America and from the Equator to the Antarctica.

Destructive trawls and dredges used for commercial fishing have bulldozed entire seafloor environments. Today's decision is a major leap in the right direction toward protecting our oceans.

My continuing quest for total domination of obscure niche media

I forgot to mention that I was on EarthBeat radio the other day, which according to John Passacantando "does for environmental coverage on the airwaves what Grist Magazine does for the environment in the cyber world." And I think he means that’s a good thing! Anyway, you can go here to download the show. I […]

Umbra on class gifts, again

Dear Umbra, My class also wants to give a greener gift when we graduate in 2008. We are starting to plan, and though your suggestion of solar power is awesome and very true, that will not be possible at my Seventh-Day Adventist school. We did not receive permission to do anything like that. Is there […]

The Roscoe Culpepper Town Holler Coot

I am wholly uninterested in the fact that Paul Watson thinks human beings are the "AIDS of the earth" and that the only solution is "a complete transformation of all human realities." What I do find fascinating is that this essay bashing Watson is written by “The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow.” The Boone Pickens […]

They don’t get that climate is a security issue

"The Democrats' Global War on Weather" and "Jack Bauer, Climatologist???" are the headlines conservatives are using to mock efforts by progressives to finance a National Intelligence Estimate to study global warming. But climate is clearly a national security threat, as made clear in a recent CNA report from a distinguished group of former military leaders (PDF).

As but one example, a "ferocious drought and famine" were the driving forces behind the crisis in Darfur, which is "likely to be seen as the first climate change war," as the Guardian put it.

Contrary to the mocking press release, the "war on weather" is being waged by conservatives who block action on mandatory greenhouse gas controls, thereby ensuring more and more extreme weather events for many decades to come.

It is precisely because conservatives have blocked action on climate change that progressives are driven to fund a serious effort by our intelligence agencies to understand the dangerous implications of our do-nothing climate policy.

If only Jack Bauer were a climatologist -- then conservatives might listen to the overwhelming scientific evidence about the climate crisis. Better yet, put Jack in charge of U.S. climate policy -- then we would finally have a leader who believes in taking action.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Suzuki edits the Sun

Famed Canadian eco-hero David Suzuki was handed the reins to guest edit an entire edition of the Toronto Vancouver (!) Sun on Sat. May 5. “What I would love to do is put a green slant in every area,” he added, explaining he thinks the mainstream media do not do enough to highlight how the […]

Summarizin’ summaries, summarily

Here is the second half of my summary of the IPCC summary (PDF):

Energy Efficiency:

It is often more cost-effective to invest in end-use energy efficiency improvement than in increasing energy supply to satisfy demand for energy services. Efficiency improvement has a positive effect on energy security, local and regional air pollution abatement, and employment.

(In buildings):

Energy efficiency options for new and existing buildings could considerably reduce CO2 emissions with net economic benefit. Many barriers exist against tapping this potential, but there are also large co-benefits (high agreement, much evidence).

By 2030, about 30 percent of the projected GHG emissions in the building sector can be avoided with net economic benefit.

No, but we still know enough to start taking action

A few weeks ago, I was perusing Grist when I ran across an ad for A Convenient Fiction, a slideshow rebuttal of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The author was none other than Steve Hayward, who you might remember from the AEI-$10,000-payola scandal.

I had actually seen this slideshow discussed in the New York Times, and was interested to see it. In my previous communications with Hayward, he was at great pains to describe himself as someone who believed the science as described by the IPCC. I wanted to see if the slideshow bore that out.

We’re staying on top of this story

So a bunch of onetime Gore advisers and aides gathered for a meal last night: Among those longtime Gore loyalists who munched on a buffet of sandwiches and salmon at the [Gore friend and ally Peter] Knight home: Longtime powerhouse Dem fundraiser and Democratic National Committeeman Robert Zimmerman; Knight’s wife, Gail Britton; Tom Hendrickson, the […]