Latest Articles

Pelosi snubs Dingell

I discussed the climate-change climate in the Senate — things are hopping. The House, of course, is a different and less friendly animal, where Dems are stepping more gingerly. One notable development is that Speaker Nancy Pelosi rather publicly stuck her thumb in the eye of Michigan Rep. John Dingell, announcing today the formation of […]

Senators put for broad array of climate legislation choices

This is a stellar piece of reporting from Felicity Barringer and Andy Revkin at the NYT. There’s a lot of background, context, and detail packed into a small space. What’s made clear by the piece, and by the graphic comparison of emissions scenarios, is that the nation has an astonishing array of climate legislation options […]

Grim

Before it gets too old: The San Francisco Chronicle ran an extraordinary piece over the weekend. It’s a long, detailed, science-based worst-case scenario of what California’s water situation could look like in coming decades. This stuff works so much better than dry facts. Tell a story. People like stories. Kudos to author Glen Martin.

Lines that are bright, how we love them

Bill McKibben’s Step It Up 2007 campaign (read his dispatches) is trying to rally a bunch of simultaneous protests pushing a single goal: reducing greenhouse-gas emissions by 80% by 2050. This approach — picking a goal rather than supporting specific legislation — is known as bright lining, and it’s something you’re going to hear a […]

Happy happy!

The title of this post comes from a specific email request. Yes, I take requests! All right, here’s some non-suicide-inducing news: Mayor Bloomberg in NYC is handing over a big swath of (run down, condemned) city-owned land to a development firm that’s going to create a model green low-income community. (The firm won a design […]

Enviros delighted with House Democrats’ energy bill

“I can’t find anything wrong with it. Really, there is no catch. It’s all good.” Is the sun setting on some oil industry tax breaks? Photo: iStockphoto Let the record show that these contented words were spoken by an environmentalist — Jim Presswood, a top lobbyist for the Natural Resources Defense Council to be exact. […]

How’s things up in Canada, eh?

From the fascinating world of Canadian politics: Stéphane Dion gave his first major policy speech as Liberal leader yesterday. How'd it go?

NOAA satellites are degrading

Reuters reported on Monday that without adequate funding for maintenance, we can expect NOAA-run observation satellites to be dropping like flies from orbit -- 58% of them by 2010, and pretty much the rest save five scrappy ones by 2020. And although the high-tech Ragnarok was foretold as far ago as last March, still no mission "go / no go" from the White House on what do about it.

Perhaps their rationale for decision-stalling is related to their lunar base idea -- just put a huge magnifying lens on the moon and we can see the changing earth better than ever! Just watch out for that sun glare though. We wouldn't want to burn something.

Umbra on which wood to burn

Dear Umbra, I live in Maine, land of many loggers. My home is heated by an oil furnace, and I try to keep the temps down with thermostat timers to use as little oil as possible. I supplement my heat with a wood stove, as many Mainers do, and in my travels I have noticed […]

Gross

If The Mustache’s uncritical embrace of "clean coal" made you want to puke, I advise you avoid at all costs the letter to the editor sent in response by James Connaughton, head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. You can’t resist? OK, here it is, in full: Thomas L. Friedman ("My Favorite Green […]