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Is it a communications failure?

Recent news articles have pointed out that we in the U.S. do not consider global warming a critical threat. Some bloggers have argued that this is the result of a communications failure (e.g., here or here or here).

The decision whether to worry about a looming issue is a value judgment, not a scientific one. You and I could agree entirely on the science of climate change, but disagree about whether it's something for our society to address.

For example, one argument against us worrying about climate change is that our descendants will be much richer than we are, so they will be better able to address whatever climate change occurs -- thus, we should leave the problem for them. At its heart, this is a moral choice.

A teasing hint

Toward the end of an article on John Dingell’s ongoing CAFE obstructionism and the prospects of a cap-and-trade system getting through his committee, The Hill drops this tantalizing tidbit: It is a complex enough issue that Dingell has sought and received from Pelosi an extension on the July deadline to produce legislation, one lobbyist said. […]

Not in hog heaven

This piece in the New York Times should be of particular interest to environmentalists, because the pig industry is one of the most environmentally destructive in the nation. In addition to the need for massive regulation of the seas of manure these factory hog farms generate -- which often end up in rivers and streams and foul the air for miles -- the animals are subjected to absolutely horrific conditions. We should demand environmental improvements and humane treatment in our nation's factory farms. I think the environmental community can reasonably get behind both of these measures.

On a Bing and an Err

Stanford and U.C. Berkeley criticized for partnerships with Big Oil Movie producer Steve Bing has yanked a promised $2.5 million donation to Stanford University in response to several TV and print ads wherein ExxonMobil touts its partnership with the school. Exxon is funding up to $100 million of Stanford’s climate and energy research; Bing, whose […]

Nothing to Fear But Corps Itself

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decisions continue to befuddle Let it not be said that Hurricane Katrina’s lessons didn’t sink in. For example, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers learned that it’s good to look prepared, even if you aren’t — so it (apparently knowingly) installed 34 defective pumps in New Orleans before the 2006 […]

Not So Fast

Environmentalists take EPA, Interior Department to task Remember when U.S. agencies used to be able to get away with their nefarious eco-deeds? Like, for the last seven years or so? The times might just be changing. Deed one: the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management decided, after 20 years, to reactivate 23 drilling leases in […]

A Little Light Music

U.S., E.U. push phaseout of incandescent bulbs, U.K. gets serious about carbon The world is seeing the energy-efficient light: a U.S. coalition including Philips Lighting and the Natural Resources Defense Council will push to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2016. And following the lead of Australia and California, European Union leaders have proposed ditching the […]

Good point

Congrats to local writer (and editor of alt-weekly The Stranger) Dan Savage for getting this letter into the NYT: Here’s an idea for Google: locate your offices near where people live rather than transporting them all over the San Francisco Bay area. Most “Googlers” are young and live in San Francisco, where they can find […]

They only look sweet and benevolent, ringing their little bells

Greenpeace and the Salvation Army are hashing out a dispute over tens of millions of dollars today at a mediating table in Seattle, in a story more peculiar than we could make up. Last July, H. Guy Di Stefano, 90, a resident of Issaquah, Wash., passed away, leaving about $264 million to be divided equally […]

Who ya gonna call?

From South Africa: An international coalition has appealed to former US vice-president and environmental campaigner Al Gore to take up their concerns about the world’s rapidly developing biofuels industry. They have told him that large-scale biofuel production and new incentives to promote biofuels, based on “energy-crop monocultures”, are having a devastating impact on biodiversity and […]