Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
All Articles
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Searchable database of government expenditures to be created
The Obama-Coburn pork tracking bill, which will create an enormous, searchable database of government spending, passed in the Senate this evening. It was held up for a while by a single mysterious Senator, who finally gave up the ghost today. Now each and every Bridge to Nowhere can be surfed.
I wonder if it has an open API.
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A new video about the product that’s sweeping the nation
An amusing new video from the Rainforest Action Network:
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If the U.S. could get happier and poorer, would it?
Here's a quick question for you.
Assume for the sake of argument that we had some kind of reliable way of measuring happiness (defined however you like).
If we could cut our GDP in half but double the level of national happiness, should we do it?
Would we?
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How a phony petition attacking global warming science gained a life of its own
The following is a guest essay by John Tirman, Executive Director of MIT's Center for International Studies.
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Recently I have encountered the counterattack on climate-change science, and it is a sobering experience.
When I was giving a talk at a book store on Manhattan's Upper West Side late last month, a young man began to pester me with hostile questions. My book, 100 Ways America is Screwing Up the World, has "Altering the Earth" listed at No. 1, a chapter that briefly tours the science and politics of climate change. The young man (among other obstreperous comments) upbraided me for saying there was scientific consensus on climate change, telling the audience that he had a petition signed by 17,000 scientists denying the threat of global warming.
It was the first I had heard of such a petition, but in the days to come I noticed emails from people I'd never heard of on this same topic. The book, I knew, was bound to stir some passions, and it has. I have a dozen ecological topics listed, so anti-green zealots were bound to find me. And the main way they have attacked the book is by wielding this Global Warming Petition.
