Latest Articles

Umbra on trusting scientists

Hi Umbra, We’ve had some bizarre weather in New England, and more and more people are wondering if it’s due to global warming. On NBC News, they had a 30-year veteran of NOAA state flatly that it’s not global warming, it’s El Niño. As a greenie/leftie I got angry, thinking here goes the MSM denying […]

Their new album rocks

I’ve been a huge fan of the band Cloud Cult for a while, but their new album, The Meaning of 8, is really knocking my socks off. Or rocking my socks off. Rocking my knocks off. Whatever. It’s a huge leap forward and my favorite album of this young year. Right now you can only […]

What should we do about it?

We’ve spilled a lot of pixels around here discussing areas of climate science that are officially — that is, according to the IPCC — unsettled (e.g., hurricanes). In these areas the IPCC has not ratified a conclusion, but many prominent scientists line up on one side or another. The important questions raised by these areas […]

At present, offsets are impossible to verify

It is time environmental writers to stop accepting PR spin, and double check claims of "carbon neutrality" whether they come from giant corporations, the Super Bowl, or a really cool film festival.

Carbon offsets are almost always either an honest error or a scam.

It’s time for enviros to adjust to winning

I had hoped to leave my ill-tempered rant behind, since the subject obviously irritates the hell out of me, my irritation obviously irritates the hell out of everyone else, and as was pointed out, the whole subject is something of a distraction. But as I’m now being compared to (called?) a rapist, I suppose I […]

The Mile-High Clubbed

Prince Charles gets environmental award, pisses off environmentalists When is a green not a green? Some say it’s when he jets across the Atlantic to accept an award for … being green. Prince Charles raised eyebrows this weekend as he made a quick trip to the U.S. to receive the Global Environmental Citizen Award from […]

Upward Mobility

ExxonMobil says it’s taking climate change seriously — seriously Guess who said this about climate change: “We know enough now — or, society knows enough now — that the risk is serious and action should be taken.” No, not some dirty hippie, but an executive from oil behemoth ExxonMobil. (Ow, our jaw!) Greenhouse-gas reduction has […]

NYT columnist gets it right

Paul Krugman is generally on target, so it’s not surprising that when he turns his gaze to ethanol, he nails it. He points out that despite considerable pre-release hype, the administration’s SOTU "energy plan" consists of little more than a reliance on ethanol. After reciting the by-now-numbingly-familiar drawbacks of corn ethanol, he writes: Still, doesn’t […]

Valley of the Dollars

Clean-energy investments add jobs, moolah to Silicon Valley Remember the U.S. excuse for not adopting green policies, the one about hurting the economy? Yeah, that’s out the window. A new report says Silicon Valley added 33,000 jobs in 2006 after five years of job losses, thanks in large part to gigantarific investments in green technologies. […]

We’re All Alright

Blair, McCain lead pep rally at World Economic Forum Let’s start the week with a bit of rhetorical optimism. In a high-profile speech this weekend at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland — a gathering of leading politicians and businessfolk from around ye olde globe — British Prime Minister Tony Blair offered a hopeful […]