Latest Articles

Hopefully tenacious butt kicking will ensue

Eliot Spitzer's eco-lieutenant to be made executive director of NRDC:

Rubber Ducky, You’re Not the One

San Francisco set to enact first-in-nation ban on toxics in baby toys Next week, San Francisco will become the first U.S. city to ban the manufacture, distribution, and sale of baby toys containing chemicals linked to cancer and developmental delays. The prime targets — bisphenol A and phthalates — have been found in everything from […]

Flipping the Bird

Experts say risk of a bird-flu pandemic has lessened The world is safe from a bird-flu pandemic. Maybe. Last week, researchers said they’d isolated the mutations that could turn the virus into a human-to-human juggernaut, while another team unveiled an “MChip” test that identifies the distinctive flu strain, which has caused 153 human deaths since […]

The End Is Sigh

U.N. conference ends with little progress on climate action In a monstrous anticlimax, the U.N. climate summit in Nairobi, Kenya, ended with a decision to … review the Kyoto Protocol in 2008. “From Christian Aid’s point of view that’s simply not good enough, and we need some heads to be knocked together by somebody,” said […]

No need to serve gussied-up Coors with so many real craft beers available

First bit of Thanksgiving advice: Prepare to be bombarded by bits of Thanksgiving advice.

Second bit: When you're choosing beer for the holiday table, don't get hoodwinked into buying tarted-up swill from a corporate brewer.

For those concerned about the blogger’s floor

So, last Friday and this whole weekend, I've been moving. Moving with two small kids is so fun! I wish I could do it every week! [Beats head on desk.]

Anyway, it reminded me that a while back I wrote a post soliciting flooring advice. I thought I'd do a quick follow-up for the vanishingly small number of you who care.

So we can transition to renewables without cost

You are going to see me posting a lot about ways we can increase efficiency -- for example, CyberTran and electric cars.

If you transition to carbon-free sources of energy without adding efficiency, energy as percentage of total GDP increases -- carbon-free sources of energy still cost (on average) more than carbon-emitting ones. This leaves less for everything else (food, clothing, shelter, medical care).

Sufficient efficiency improvements let us phase in non-fossil-fuel sources at no net cost. If we increase GDP per unit of energy, we can pay more for that energy.

To paraphrase Amory Lovins: We don't burn fuel for its own sake; we want warm toes and cold beer.

In homes, for example, if efficient use of power can still run appliances and provide heat and light, we sacrifice nothing and save money. That money will pay for more expensive clean energy. The price per kWh will be higher, but the electricity bill will be the same.

Even at high prices, the potential of renewable energy is great -- more than we are likely to need this century. Still, efficiency would let us take advantage of costlier sources without economic damage.

‘Aerosols should mean more warming in the south’–More North. Hemisphere warming is well-understood

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: Scientists claim that global warming from greenhouse gases is being countered somewhat by global dimming from aerosol pollution. They even claim that aerosol pollution caused the cooling in the mid-century. But GHGs are evenly mixed around the globe, while aerosols are disproportionately concentrated in the Northern Hemisphere. It follows that warming should be greater in the Southern Hemisphere -- but that's the opposite of what is happening. Clearly climate scientists do not know what is really going on.

‘Climate models are unproven’–Actually, GCM’s have many confirmed successes under their belts

(Part of the How to Talk to a Global Warming Skeptic guide)

Objection: Why should we trust a bunch of contrived computer models that have never had a prediction confirmed? Talk to me in 100 years.

Answer: Given the absence of a few duplicate planets and some large time machines, we can't test a 100-year temperature projection. Does that mean the models can't be validated without waiting 100 years? No.

Two non-turkey recipes for the Thanksgiving feast

Thanksgiving is a funny holiday. It's a weird mix of frenzy and sloth, gratitude and greed. What should be a fun and peaceful time spent with relatives and friends is often preceded by the chaos of having too much to do and too little time in which to do it.

If you are the person responsible for cooking the Thanksgiving meal, you know that Extreme Grocery Shopping is the hallmark of the holiday. Simply getting your groceries home can be the stuff of nightmares if you live in a crowded city or suburb. Cooking the meal is a cakewalk by comparison.

Every year as I approach the local Whole Foods in the days running up to Thanksgiving, I see couples in the parking lot dividing their lists in two, synchronizing their watches, and saying things like, "Commencing operations at Oh Seven Hundred! We reconnoiter in Spices and Baking Needs! Go! Go! Go!"