Articles by David Roberts

It ain’t environmentalists fighting change

Far-right conservatives are fond of claiming that environmentalists use global warming as a cover for their true intent: fight progress! Reverse civilization! Leave us all shivering in a dark room! The idea is that attempts to fight global warming will inevitably slow economic growth and stifle innovation.

That is, of course, exactly wrong. It is the dinosaur companies blocking progress and innovation. They are quite fond of the current playing field, which is skewed sharply in their direction by subsidies, tax breaks, and immense political and social inertia.

It's the little people -- average citizens, small companies, entrepreneurs -- who are trying to free our sclerotic system from the dinosaurs' grasp and kickstart a wave of 21st century innovation.

Want to see what I mean in action? Get this:

Doing lots of cool stuff

I don't have time to write a whole lot on it, but travel booking website Travelocity is doing lots of cool stuff, including this:

In San Fran

I'm going to be down in San Francisco tomorrow and Friday, so blogging (from me, anyway) will be light-to-nonexistent.

Hey, have you heard we're having a reader party in San Fran on Friday night? I'm gonna be there, throwin' down, or rockin', or wildin' out, or whatever it is the kids do these days when they drink to excess. I hope some of you regular Gristmill readers are able to make it -- I'd love to put faces with names.

Attendance is looking to be in the multiple hundreds. Should be a blast. If you are going to make it, don't forget to RSVP.

Gotta get all the schadenfreude out before the day is over

There is much to savor today. But one of the things that most pleases me is that if Webb pulls it out in Virginia, as all signs indicate, Marc Morano's wingnut attack screeds are going to be coming from the minority office of the Senate EPW Committee, in service of a master who's suddenly going to have a lot more trouble finding cameras to record his loopy theories about global warming and U.N. world governance. I hope Morano enjoys his return to much-deserved obscurity.