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.
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Stephen Colbert on mountaintop-removal mining [VIDEO]
A couple weeks back, I covered a new paper in Science that constitutes the most comprehensive survey yet of existing scientific data on mountaintop removal mining. The conclusions were so stark and, frankly, horrifying that the scientists involved went the unusual extra step of calling for an immediate moratorium on the practice. Trust Stephen Colbert […]
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Taking distributed energy seriously
This week, in The New York Times’ Room for Debate, I was involved in a discussion on the brewing war among environmentalists over building large power plants on sensitive land — specifically, in this case, a solar thermal power plant in the Mojave desert. “Green Civil War: Projects vs. Preservation” saw contributions from: Randy Udall, […]
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Never mind what people believe — how can we change what they do? A chat with Robert Cialdini
When it comes to energy, policymakers are often confronted with human behavior that seems irrational, unpredictable, or unmanageable. Advocates for energy efficiency in particular are plagued by the gap between what it would make sense for people to do and what they actually do. Efforts to change people’s behavior have a record that can charitably […]
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Copenhagen revealed a new dynamic between the U.S. and China
This week, Seed magazine hosted a discussion on the Copenhagen climate talks — the outcome and the lessons learned — called Good Cop, Bad Cop. Contributing were K.C. Golden, environmental non-profit policy director, Mike Hulme, climate change scientist, Michael Levi, energy security expert, and yours truly. Click over to Seed to see all the contributions. […]
