Articles by David Roberts

Going down with the ship

Lee Raymond, chairman and chief executive of Exxon Mobil, has decided that global warming is bunk and that his company is not going to waste time or money funding renewable energy.

Openly and unapologetically, the world's No. 1 oil company disputes the notion that fossil fuels are the main cause of global warming. Along with the Bush administration, Exxon opposes the Kyoto accord and the very idea of capping global-warming emissions. Congress is debating an energy bill that may be amended to include a cap, but the administration and Exxon say the costs would be huge and the benefits uncertain. Exxon also contributes money to think tanks and other groups that agree with its stance.

You kinda have to admire the guy:

"We're not playing the issue. I'm not sure I can say that about others," Lee Raymond, Exxon's chairman and chief executive, said in a recent interview at Exxon headquarters in Irving, Texas. "I get this question a lot of times: 'Why don't you just go spend $50 million on solar cells? Charge it off to the public-affairs budget and just say it's like another dry hole?' The answer is: That's not the way we do things."

At least he's not fudging.

Cooney resigns

Well I'll be damned. Philip Cooney, the White House operative at the center of the recent hullabaloo over editing government climate-change reports, has resigned.

Why, you ask?

Wait for it ...

wait for it ...

To spend time with his family!

Anybody wanna lay bets on how long it takes Cooney to find another lucrative lobbying job for the Fossil Faction?

Nanotech protestors get naked.

I'm not sure what to think of these boob-and-butt-baring environmental protests against nanotechnology by the creatively named THONG: Topless Humans Organized for Natural Genetics. I know very little about nanotech -- nor, I suspect, do the protesters, who as far as I can tell are from a reflexively luddite wing of the green movement that I don't have much brief for. I'm not entirely sold on the "precautionary principle" either. But I am fond of these sorts of flashy, media-baiting direct actions. So color me ambivalent.

I'll tell you one thing, though. I love the word "nanopants."

Friday link dump

I hate these link-dump posts. Really I do. But I only get to spend about half my time working on the blog, and so much good stuff rushes past ... whaddya gonna do? I don't want my faithful reader(s?) to miss any of it. So here goes:

• Moving Ideas (from The American Prospect) has set up a site on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (which they lamentably call ANWR), including tons of info and links to action. Check it out.
• From -- no kidding -- Cheese Market News, word that demand for organic milk is outstripping supply -- of course, I can't link directly to the story, because the site uses frames. Who still does that? But you can read the piece here. (via Jeff)
• A fascinating BBC story about the rise and fall of ethanol in Brazil in the 70s serves as a great lesson on how vulnerable green energy initiatives are to (among other things) the fluctuating price of oil. (via Mike)
• The Oil Drum briefly summarizes a radio interview with James Kunstler.
• Biomimicry is one of the things I'm fascinated by that, for whatever reason, I never get around to writing about here. The Economist has a nice, brief description of the phenomenon and some of its successes. (via TH)
• From Treehugger, word that Patagonia and Merrell are teaming up for a line of shoes (speaking of Patagonia, don't miss our interview with Yvon Chouinard, the company's founder), and an interesting piece on guilt-free biodiesel.
• Alex Steffen links to the video of a townhall discussion involving him, Andrew Light (who was once our InterActivist), Terry Tempest Williams (who once wrote us a series of Dispatches), Stuart Cowan, and David Conrad. Very interesting.
• And finally, a Yale poll reveals that the public overwhelmingly supports an energy policy that moves us toward energy independence.