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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What mix of ignorance, ego, and incompetence explains Palin’s bizarre energy policy speech?
A few words on Palin’s energy speech, which I finally forced myself to read. I don’t really have words to express how bizarre this is. Where to begin? Why do a policy speech at this late date? Why is this better than a rally? Who is this supposed to be directed to? The base, who […]
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Fast Company publishes an unsparing take-down of green architect William McDonough
This month’s Fast Company has an expose on green architecture guru William McDonough. It is fairly brutal. McDonough’s come in for plenty of hero worship (no small amount of it from me), but as Danielle Sacks tells it, he’s a vainglorious name-dropper and celeb-schmoozer, prone to claiming credit beyond what he is due, devoted above […]
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The hidden costs of coal haven’t exactly been a secret
“But under any external-cost scenario, coal’s price advantage erodes. Natural gas becomes a more cost-efficient generating fuel, since it emits less sulfur. More important, renewable resources like geothermal energy, wind, and solar energy, at five to twelve cents per kilowatt hour, suddenly become competitive, because they carry few or none of the external costs associated […]
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If you thought ignoring financial risks blew up in our faces …
“We have seen the consequences of ignoring risk in the current economic and financial crisis. It has already led to negative growth in rich countries. The risk consequences of ignoring climate change will be very much bigger that the risk consequences of ignoring risk from the financial system.” — Sir Nicholas Stern, former World Bank […]
