Articles by David Roberts

The problem in a nutshell

A majority of Tennesseans approve of President Bush's job performance, but most doubt his ability in several key areas -- cutting taxes, improving health care, protecting the environment, healing the nation's political divisions and protecting the Social Security and Medicare systems, according to a Middle Tennessee State University poll released yesterday.

It is to weep.

Campus Progress

Via The American Prospect, I found CampusProgress.org, a new initiative from the Center for American Progress. It's an attempt to foster progressive action among college students, and as far as I can tell from browsing around, it's not the sort of painfully faux-hip thing you usually see from an effort like this. There are some great articles up, including a basic primer on global warming, a story on student efforts to move their schools over to clean energy, and -- best of all -- a reprint of the very funny Larry David essay on how he became an environmentalist. Here's hoping this reaches somebody other than the earnest middle-aged lefties that conceived it.

Easterschtick

Gregg Easterbrook writes in the NYT today that Bush's Clear Skies legislation is peachy, and darn it, Dems should get behind it. As my boss Chip aptly wondered, why do they keep letting this guy write the same column over and over again?

Hot wind

Frequent Grist contributor Bill McKibben has a column in today's NYT saying that environmentalists should get behind wind energy. He is sympathetic to some enviros' objections and rather gentle toward them.

I fully agree with McKibben, but I can't say I share his sympathy.

Oil and gas exploration is ravaging the American West. The nuclear industry is resurgent. And oh yeah, the globe is frying.

If environmentalists take global warming seriously, and expect others to take it seriously, maybe they shouldn't become bitchy provincialists the minute you want to build a wind turbine that impedes the scenic view off the back porches of their vacation homes.

So Ted Kennedy? Shut up.

(Speaking of wind, there's breaking news on the hotly contested Cape Cod wind farm. Looks like the NIMBYs may win after all.)