Latest Articles

More on Supreme Court decision

In November, the issue of EPA's refusal to regulate greenhouse gas emissions went before the Supreme Court. Yesterday, the decision (PDF) was announced -- 5-4 in favor of Massachusetts, meaning that the EPA does have the authority and responsibility to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant. In short, the time to act is now!

In the chutzpah department, EPA actually tried to argue that 1) "any EPA regulation of motor-vehicle emission" was a "piecemeal approach to climate change that would conflict with the President's comprehensive [!] approach" -- comprehensive, I suppose, in the sense that he refuses to take any substantive action in every sector, and 2) such regulation "might hamper the President's ability to persuade key developing nations to reduce emissions" -- a particularly amazing argument, since the president has been working hard behind the scenes to persuade key developing nations not to reduce emissions. Justice Stevens, writing for the majority, made short work of those absurd arguments.

Makin’ eyes at each other

Al Gore recently gave his talk on global warming in Norway, to an audience that included one Ole Danbolt Mjoes. Mjoes, as you may know, is the head of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee — though he insisted he was attending as a private citizen. He said Gore’s message is "very important," and took part […]

So much BS in so few words!

Here’s a bit on the Supreme Court case from a White House briefing today. Marvel, if you will, at the sheer amount of dishonesty and misdirection packed into these few short paragraphs. Virtually every sentence, every word, needs unpacking. It’s always been a talent of this White House to use a kind of shock-and-awe bullshitting […]

Like, totally geo-green

Interesting: Senators of both parties are pushing for U.S. intelligence agencies to assess the danger to the nation’s security posed by global warming. Sens. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., Wednesday introduced legislation that would “require a National Intelligence Estimate to assess the security challenges presented by the world’s changing climate,” according to a […]

New climate report chock full of bad news, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Supreme Slapdown Chaos and Effect Alternative School Sacks Education The Hill’s Not Alive With the Sound of Music Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: For a Moment By Hook and By Book Standing on Ceremony Mrs. Sippy

So to speak

No, as far as I know, no baby-food maker ever used rat poison as an ingredient. The point is that we don't have to worry about it; if you have an infant switching off milk, you can shop the baby food counter confident that none of the choices will contain rat poison.

However, as a consumer, buying "green" is not quite so easy. Hastening the end of our civilization is a routine ingredient in most of the things we buy. By spending a little extra time and money, we can sometimes find alternatives that don't contribute to our society's destruction -- though often not.

If baby food routinely contained micro doses of arsenic, of course you would go out of your way to buy uncontaminated versions for your child. But you would also recognize that we should not allow baby food to include anything so toxic in the first place.

Stern in Berkeley

Friday saw a real eye-opener down here in the Berkeley area. Sir Nicholas Stern (of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change) was speaking at the UC campus, and there was quite a buzz.

Sir Nick is a celeb for sure, and all sorts were there: left, green dead-enders like myself, lots of climate and energy scientists, and a good smattering of new energy VCs, like the fella behind me from Nth Power (which, by the way, isn't giving up on silicon for thin film just yet).

All signs are positive

Solar power is going mainstream! So they have said, anyway, for about 30 years now. This time, however, there are good reasons to believe the hype. As Adam keeps reminding us, solar is incredibly popular — huge majorities favor it, and favor gov’t incentives to support it. Prices have been falling for years, orders are […]

David James Duncan, author and fly fisher, answers questions

David James Duncan. What work do you do? I’m an author and essayist, a fly fisher and river guardian, a public speaker, and, compared to a lot of people, a contemplative. How does it relate to the environment? I’ve been breathing and drinking water and eating food and chasing fish all my life. I’ve tried […]

Ten things

I doubt we have many sprawl-lovers in the audience, but just in case you need the comprehensive case against sprawl in one convenient location, check out “Ten Things Wrong with Sprawl” by James M. McElfish, Jr., director of the Sustainable Use of Land Program at the Environmental Law Institute. Here are the ten things, in […]