Latest Articles

The hockey stick

The folks over at the Indispensable RealClimate.org set out to write a "Dummies Guide to the Latest 'Hockey Stick' Controversy" "in language even our parents might understand." It's a great read, as always, but all I can say is, they must have really smart parents.

Cities Slicker

Seattle, other U.S. cities to hammer out their own Kyoto-like reductions The Kyoto Protocol has arrived, and though the Bush administration has opted out, others in the U.S. are not so climate oblivious. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels announced Wednesday he’s leading an effort to get major U.S. cities to agree to Kyoto-like reductions of their […]

It Takes a Pillage to Raze the Wild

Illegal logging operation in Indonesia feeds China’s appetite for wood A three-year investigation of some of the last remaining intact tropical forests in the Asia-Pacific region has revealed an enormous international smuggling ring, possibly the largest in the world involving a single type of wood, says a report from two enviro groups. In a billion-dollar-a-year […]

Extreme Makeover: Factory Edition

Russian factories hatch plans to make money from Kyoto Businesses in the Russian town of Archangel have big plans for capitalizing on the Kyoto Protocol. Under the treaty, more-developed countries can help meet their commitments by financing cleaner technologies in dirty facilities elsewhere, like the ones in Archangel. Vadim Eremeev of Archangel’s Energy Efficiency Fund […]

A Current Affair

New data on warming oceans are strong evidence for climate change Measurements of ocean temperatures presented yesterday constitute (still more) compelling evidence that global warming is upon us, say scientists. The data, introduced at the annual gathering of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, show that temperature readings in the oceans for the […]

Inhofe tries to intimidate clean-air officials

John Paul, a regional air pollution officer from Dayton, Ohio, dared to argue in congressional testimony last month that the Clear Skies Act was "simply not protective enough" and "far too lenient" on polluters.

For that sin, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), chair of the Senate Environment Committee, is going to make Paul and his cohorts pay.  

More no-nukeness

The kick-off of Kyoto, new reports on the dangers of global warming, and a flurry of Congressional activity have created a cultural moment ripe with potential. While environmental organizations are largely blowing it, the nuclear industry sees it for what it is: a huge opportunity. They have begun a PR push to position nuclear as the "eco-friendly" alternative to oil and gas, and they have no shortage of apologists -- some in the executive branch -- helping them along. Those greens who think nuclear is a poor choice for the future had better get their shit together and start a counter-PR push of their own, quick. (On that note, see this post.)

Anyway, speaking of nuclear boosterism, Joel Makower takes a few well-aimed swipes at this almost comically credulous, gee-whiz Wired article on how wonderfully awesometastic nuclear power is. Worth a read.

Not so black and white on Kyoto

This BBC story on the French love affair with nuclear power makes the somewhat surprising point that even with 78% of its power generated by its 58 nuclear plants, France is not on pace to meet its 2008 greenhouse gas emissions reductions as mandated by the Kyoto Protocol. In fact, only the U.K. and Sweden among E.U. signatories are on target to meet the 8% reduction in emmissions by 2010.

This unsettling situation makes at least two things quite clear:

1. Transport (not fueled by nuclear power) must be responsible for a very large portion of greenhouse emissions;
2. the Europeans are in danger of their words speaking louder than their actions when it comes to meeting the reductions mandated by Kyoto.

It is no excuse for American inaction, but failure to meet these commitments may have the effect of undermining the case for the multilateral environmental mechanism while reinforcing the image of Europeans as aspirational rather than serious about meeting targets and timetables.    

That’s just crazy talk

On the CNN home page this morning, a headline quietly announced what scientists and environmentalists have been shrieking about for a while now: Experts: Earth getting warmer, people to blame. The article, reporting on the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting, quotes Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography: "The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people."

Rational, you say? I popped on over to Fox News to see how they were handling the story. Hmm, no mention of global warming amidst the Jacko reports on the home page. Let's see what a search on the term brings up. Ah, yes: there's the chilling report of "Manufacturers Stymied by Air Pollution Controls." And then, in "Kyoto Count-Up," we learn that Wednesday was the day the Kyoto Protocol -- aka the "global economic suicide pact" -- went into effect around the world, "but, fortunately, not in the U.S. and Australia."

It's good to find some level heads in these crazy times.

The future

Over on Worldchanging, Vinay Gupta asks: What will environmental policy in the 22nd century look like? His answers are pretty heady stuff.