Articles by David Roberts

Disclaimer for all future China posts

When we write about China's massive growth and the apocalyptic environmental consequences thereof, we are:

1. not saying that China should refrain from developing, or that the Chinese should stay poor;
2. not excusing the extravagant per capita level of consumption and waste in the U.S.

Instead, we are advocating that China move quickly and decisively to develop sustainable technologies, industries, and sources of power, and that the U.S. green movement support China in that quest however it can.

Thanks for listening.

Conservatives and Clear Skies

Conservatives say that environmentalists only oppose Clear Skies because they hate Bush. My impression is that they only support Clear Skies because they hate environmentalists.

But of course I would think that.

If you want to hear what conservative bloggers have to say about Clear Skies -- much of which draws on a recent Washington Monthly article -- you can start here and then try here, here (good discussion in comments), and here. Feel free to leave additional links in comments, if you have them.

The fact is that Clear Skies is classic Bush. There's plenty of perfectly sensible stuff in it that is long overdue. It's also poisoned with several measures -- among them the loathsome mercury cap-and-trade program -- that no environmentalist or Democrat with a conscience could support. It's designed, like all Bush's initiatives, to gain just enough support to pass, while being as divisive as possible in the process. Rove doesn't want big majorities. He doesn't want bipartisan consensus. He wants open partisan warfare and narrow victories.

Marburger

Presidential science advisor John Marburger has been making some unusually strong and unambiguous statements lately about global warming. Here are my three theories about what could be going on:

1. He's off the reservation, sick of being bashed by the scientific community, and we're soon going to see the phrase "more time with his family" near his name.
2. It's pure greenwashing, an attempt to demonstrate that, despite appearances, the Bush administration takes global warming seriously.
3. Bush has decided that intransigence on warming is becoming a political liability, he's going to make some splashy policy moves soon, and this is an attempt to soften the ground and prepare his supporters.

Which do you think it is?

Local v. organic

The study showing that buying local food is better than buying organic got covered all over the blogosphere, but Treehugger has a particularly helpful pair of posts up on what to do about it.