Latest Articles

Jackassery

John Tierney doesn't have the stones to come out and say that global warming will be a good thing, so instead he just dances around it with innuendo and anecdotes.

Intermodal transportation and airports

Ralph Nader once said that GAO reports are the most underread critical reading in this country. There's a particularly interesting one [PDF] just released regarding intermodal transportation between the nation's airports and the national rail system (namely that there's very little).

While I will admit I haven't read every word yet, and that the report might serve more than one purpose as bedside reading, one section comparing US air-rail connections to those in Europe caught my attention. The GAO concludes that there are "three basic differences between the United States and Europe that affect the ability to use the European model in the United States":

• population density
• geographic differences
• lower vehicle use costs

The full report goes into more detail and discusses roles for federal and local government as well as the private sector in developing further connections. There's also some interesting schematics of the nation's airports.

Readers talk back about John Roberts, nuclear power, Wal-Mart, and more

  Re: Toadus Operandi Dear Editor: Your piece on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts lacked a bit of perspective. While Roberts may or may not have sympathy for the environmental movement, his rulings in In Re: Cheney (2003) and Sierra Club v. EPA (2004) were right legally, even though they didn’t favor the “environmentalist position.” […]

Bidding a fond farewell to ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond

Exxon Valdez: No, your other left! Photo: NOAA. Lee, we barely knew ye. Oh, wait, yes we did. “You either retire or die and I’d just as soon not die,” you said recently, and then yesterday announced your imminent exit as chair and CEO of ExxonMobil after more than 40 years with the oil behemoth. […]

Could TV and film be the key to the renewable energy revolution?

On several occasions I have written about television shows and movies. In doing so, I've tried (albeit unsuccessfully) to start a discussion about the impact they have on audiences when they address environmental issues and/or feature eco-friendly products (hybrids, windmills, etc).

Recently, I issued a call asking (and paraphrasing Bill McKibben): "Where are the movies? The TV shows? The comics? The bleeping video games?"

I believe exposure to such content will help introduce enviro concepts to consumers of pop culture, create awareness (you mean windmills aren't only a Dutch thing?), educate (hey, I didn't realize you could fit two dead bodies in the back of a Toyota Prius!), and start a conversation (do you think Julia Roberts drinks organic soy milk in real life?).

That said, I direct you to a recent piece (based on a true story) by our friend Joel Makower. Our story begins:

(Fade in: two small children running around in a playground. Pan right: A hybrid car slowly drives by while the blades of huge windmills rotate in the background. Narrator's voice begins ... )

If you could pay an extra five or ten bucks a month to help reduce global warming, childhood asthma, rolling brownouts, the national debt, and the threats of Al-Qaeda, would you bother? I'm guessing you'd think that a no-brainer.

So, why aren't you buying clean energy?

The question has been befuddling everyone from environmental activists to utility executives. Nearly every American, it seems, understands that generating electricity from the sun, the wind, the earth's heat, or gases generated by rotting waste is good news for everyone -- the planet, people's health, national security, and the economy.

So, what's the problem? They just don't think clean energy works.

Don’t It Make My Blue Earth Brown

Astronauts see widespread ecological destruction from space Environmental damage on Earth is clearly visible from space, reports the crew of the shuttle Discovery. Chatting from an orbit of 220 miles up with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and other Japanese officials, Commander Eileen Collins said on Thursday that the astronauts could see widespread erosion and deforestation […]

Choler ID

Climate change could lead to more disease outbreaks, researchers say It’s official: Climate change is at fault for everything but bad breath — and we give the bad breath thing about a month. The latest global malady that may be laid at the feet of greenhouse-gas-crazed weather is disease, specifically cholera, an infection that causes […]

Silicon Dally

Big demand for solar energy runs up against finite panel supply Global demand for photovoltaic panels is causing months-long delays and price hikes for would-be buyers in the U.S. American suppliers blame a weak dollar, shortages of raw materials, and swelling demand both at home and abroad. The worldwide solar-power market has grown about 40 […]

Phosphorous, easements, and ecosystem services

An article in the current issue of National Wildlife Magazine highlights the troubles of a lake that might not immediately come to mind as "A Lake in Distress" -- Lake Champlain. But a number of issues have led citizens and groups in the lake basin to take action. Just one example is the phosphorus runoff that lead to algal blooms in the lake.

The article brings together a number of recently discussed topics, including:

• land trusts and easements, which are being used not only to preserve the land but restore it,
• which of course helps to restore ecosystem services, in the form of retaining the phosphorous that would otherwise run off, and
• the effects of changing land use, namely, the rise in non-point source pollution and runoff.

Lee Raymond stepping down as head of most eco-unfriendly oil co.

Pollutocrat nonpareil Lee Raymond, CEO and chair of ExxonMobil, today announced his resignation, effective at the end of the year.

As chair and CEO of the world's largest publicly traded oil company -- and the most recalcitrant on climate issues -- he consistently appalled green observers with his steadfast denial of any need to curb greenhouse-gas emissions or work toward the goal of U.S. energy independence.

From a 2002 interview with Raymond:

Q: Isn't it time to join the scientific mainstream in countering the greenhouse effect?

A: The mainstream of some so-called environmentalists or politically correct Europeans isn't the mainstream of all scientists or the White House. The world has been a lot warmer than it is now and it didn't have anything to do with carbon dioxide.

We'll have a hard time replacing this most iconic of eco-villains. Even Bush admits that climate change is happening.