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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Peak oil will not help us in the climate change fight
On Oikos, David Jeffrey wisely and succinctly diagnoses the problem:
It seems to me that the current international negotiations about climate change are the ultimate prisoner's dilemma. It is in each nation's best (economic) interests to have each other country do something about limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but not do something themselves.
This is equally wise and equally succinct:
To speculate about the way forward, the glimmers of hope seem to me to be:
- National action will become less important as local, state and regional governments and communities take bolder measures;
- International aid will be increasingly targeted at clean energy, helping to restrain emissions growth in developing countries;
- There will be modest technological advances which help decouple economic growth from emissions growth.
This, however, I do not agree with:
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Indonesia earthquake
An enormous earthquake struck Indonesia on Saturday, killing more than 5,000 people and leaving more than 100,000 homeless. Give what you can. This site tells you how.
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Tribe wanted
Hey, this is pretty cool: Two Brits are trying to put together a "tribe" of 5,000 people to build a sustainable eco-community on a small island in Fiji. The idea is to create something that the islanders can eventually adopt and steward, all the while keeping big developers at bay.
Through their site, tribewanted.com, they're allowing people to buy shifts on the island. From an L.A. Times story:
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Easterbrook’s disincentives
Last week, Gregg Easterbrook wrote an appallingly stupid review of Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. I mean appallingly stupid. Read it and see if you think I'm exaggerating.
I decided to ignore it.
For better or worse, others did not. Media Matters dismantled the review in one of the longer pieces I've seen it run. You would think there'd be nothing left but rubble, but The Editors find a few more tottering pieces to smash. As always, their work is quotable:
