Latest Articles

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 […]

School board official defends the decision

Remember the story about how the Federal Way school board put a "moratorium" on showings of An Inconvenient Truth? David Larsen, the now-extremely-embattled vice president of the Federal Way school board, has a piece in the Seattle Times today, explaining what the school board really did and why they did it. First, I should say […]

An account of one scientist’s testimony

On Friday, I participated in a briefing on Capitol Hill on the use of science in policy debates. Other panelists were Don Kennedy, editor-in-chief of Science magazine, Juliet Eilperin, environment reporter for the Washington Post, and David Goldston, formerly chief of staff of the House Science Committee and now a lecturer at Princeton.

In my presentation, I made two points that will not surprise long-time readers.

Bush knocks down rumors of climate shift

Lest there remain any hope smoldering in wannabe-centrist hearts about Bush’s change of course on global warming, White House press flack Tony Snow put it decisively to rest yesterday, saying: "I want to walk you back from the whole carbon cap story … The carbon cap stuff is not accurate. It’s wrong." And again: "If […]

Embrace Me, You Irreplaceable You

Unions, conservationists join forces to protect sporting rights Need more proof that green is gaining steam? Voila: a brand-new partnership between a Republican-leaning conservation group and 20 labor unions that represent nearly 5 million people. Worried that hunters and anglers are being barred from prime playgrounds, the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance will push for increased federal […]

That Doesn’t Even Make Fence

Border fence construction may bypass environmental laws It’s hard to think of a worse idea than building a 700-mile border fence between the U.S. and Mexico, but here’s a shot: building a border fence without abiding by the Endangered Species Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, or National Environmental Policy Act. Yet on Monday, Homeland […]