Latest Articles
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Berry, berry, quite contrary
I walked into my local grocery store over the weekend and was faced with the very dilemma -- organic or local? -- some of my colleagues have been wrestling with for a while.
On one table: fresh local strawberries, grown conventionally (i.e., with pesticides and artificial fertilizers). On an adjacent table: organic strawberries shipped all the way from California. I looked, but couldn't find any that were both local and organic.
The question: which to buy?
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Lindzen: dishonest; News anchors: stupid
Update [2006-6-26 15:10:1 by David Roberts]: Tim Lambert has more debunking here.
I'm not really sure if stuff like this is worth mentioning any more, but climate dead-ender Richard Lindzen had an insipid op-ed in The Wall Street Journal this weekend titled "There Is No 'Consensus'
On Global Warming." It's sprinkled with all the bogus factoids typically deployed in these ventures. The only substantive argument for the headline is this: -
You keep me hangin’ on: Supremes to take up global warming
Today the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case filed by 12 states against the Environemental Protection Agency for failing to regulate carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act. This case has already sparked controversy and will be closely scrutinized when it is finally argued this October.
What the Supremes will decide in a nutshell: Is CO2 "life" or a "pollutant"?
Their recent Clean Water Act ruling is not giving me much cause for hope. As the Washington Post editorial said today:
The bloc favoring a harder-line approach to environmental enforcement could be among the more dangerous features of the new Roberts Court.
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Green bubbles rising
I was reading the magazine section of the same Sunday NYT that David noted for its coverage of all things green, when I came across a six-page advertising section for "green properties" that left me shaking my head. (Sorry, not available online.)
The title is prefaced by "luxury homes and estates," so I already know we're going to a place I'm not comfortable with. The tendency for green building coverage is to focus on lifestyle choices of the affluent or the extreme (examples here, here, and here), but that tendency is already well-trod, if painful, territory. What got me in this piece was something else.
These high-rise condominiums, town homes and vacation houses are capturing the interest of luxury buyers and renters who seek to lower energy consumption and make more earth conscious choices.
Now keep in mind that phrase: "earth conscious choices."
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Just the Tax, Ma’am
A carbon tax is the answer to our energy woes, argues an economist Some recent news reports may have led you to believe that there is no “price elasticity” around gasoline — that no matter how much gas prices rise, people just keep on drivin’. But it’s not so: High prices are dampening demand. Why […]
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Profit and Laos
Big dam project in Laos aims to minimize environmental and social damage A controversial hydropower dam under construction in Laos will serve as a test case for whether a large dam can be built without trampling too heavily on the natural world and human rights. Supporters, including the World Bank, say the Nam Theun 2 […]
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Heh Heh, He Said Buttress
Greenland is melting fast and worrying scientists Greenland’s name may soon be more accurate, as its two-mile-thick ice sheet is melting twice as fast as it was five years ago — faster than climate models predicted. Since 1991, the average winter temperature has risen almost 10 degrees; by 2005, the landmass was losing up to […]
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Bench Warmers
Supreme Court to decide whether EPA should regulate greenhouse gases The Supreme Court today announced that it will rule on whether the U.S. EPA should regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles. Against the advice of the Bush administration, SCOTUS will hear a suit brought by 12 states, a number of cities, and various environmental groups against […]
