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Giant Pander

Bush concentrates more rule-making power in the hands of political appointees A new executive order from President Bush will give political appointees much more power over rules and guidance documents related to the environment, public health, civil rights, and other areas — power previously held by lame old scientists and civil servants. As The New […]

Grandchildren, Schmandchildren

Congress holds hearings, realizes climate change is upon us It’s official: Congress has red-hot climate-change ants in its pants. As climate-related hearings in the House and Senate got rolling this week, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) demanded White House documents that could show scientific interference. With a new report by two NGOs citing more than 120 […]

The myth of ‘both sides do it’ emerges yet again

Several people last week linked to a piece by leading climate researcher Kerry Emanuel in the Boston Review. I finally got around to reading it, and sure enough, the first 90% or so is fantastic. This is the kind of piece I’d give someone still doubtful about the basic IPCC consensus — it’s sober and […]

US Social Forum in Atlanta, late June

So the 7th annual World Social Forum just wrapped up in Kenya, and the news is that the U.S. will finally get around to having its own version of this event in late June. It's a huge opportunity for the whole spectrum of grassroots movements for progress in the U.S. (social justice, environment, immigration, indigenous rights, etc.) to come together and make common cause.

Here's the website.

Though past social forums have been criticized for their lack of concrete results, we shouldn't ignore this opportunity to strategize about creating a coherent movement for progress that's not splintered into so many separate camps. Hope to meet you there ...

Animated Bush

This is funny: (via Hugg)

Introducing the ‘How Many Legislators Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb Act’

Really.

Carbon taxes and carbon trading: same deal

Every now and then I see a comment on the carbon-trading wars along the lines of: "Can't we just have everything -- rule-based regulations, carbon trading, carbon taxes, and public initiatives?"

The problem with this is that carbon trading and carbon taxes accomplish the same thing -- they put a price on carbon. If carbon trading works, you don't need carbon taxes. A call for carbon taxes is an admission that carbon trading doesn't work well in putting a price on carbon.

It’s bad

BioD will be pleased to see the press doing its job: Rising demand for palm oil in Europe brought about the clearing of huge tracts of Southeast Asian rainforest and the overuse of chemical fertilizer there. Worse still, the scientists said, space for the expanding palm plantations was often created by draining and burning peatland, […]

Me on NewsCloud

I forgot to mention that I’m the "spotlight blogger" for the week over at NewsCloud, a new(ish) open-source, collaborative news aggregation and discussion site. It’s a cool site — check it out. Perhaps Jeff, the founder and brains behind the project, will stop by to say more about its many features and capabilities.

Where farm subsidies came from, and why they’re still here

Note: This is the second of a three-column series on the 2007 farm bill. The first article is available here; the third here. Last week, I argued that it makes sense for society to support farming. Everybody needs to eat, and most would prefer to do so without devastating the environment or exploiting labor. Well, […]