Climate Climate & Energy
All Stories
-
![]()
![]()
Will Obama admin allow Shell Oil to do to Arctic waters what BP did to the Gulf?
This essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. —– Polar bear approaching Bowhead remains from a previous year’s hunt, Bernard harbor outside Kaktovik, 2001.Photo: Subhankar BanerjeeBear with me. I’ll get to the oil. But first you have to understand where I’ve been and where you undoubtedly won’t go, but […]
-
NWF scientist visits habitat hit hard by oil spill
Dr. Doug Inkley, certified wildlife biologist & senior scientist with the National Wildlife Federation, called me from Louisiana at 6:30am Central time. He was heading down to Venice Marina for another long day on the water viewing the effects of the BP oil disaster, but before motoring out beyond cell service, Doug wanted to tell […]
-
Deforestation reductions could save U.S. farmers, ranchers, and foresters $220 Billion
If losing one football sized area of forestland every second or the potential to stop global warming pollution equivalent to all the world’s transportation sector aren’t compelling enough reasons to support efforts to halt tropical deforestation, then here is one more reason….$$$$$. A new report from the National Farmers Union and Avoided Deforestation Partners shows […]
-
Every Day We Delay…
As the Gulf Coast oil disaster shows, America has a failed national energy policy. We need a new clean energy policy to break our addiction to oil, enhance our national security, limit carbon pollution and lead us to clean American energy. Last June, the House passed a comprehensive clean energy and climate bill. But so […]
-
![]()
![]()
What if the oil spill just can’t be fixed?
The BP Gulf oil disaster is reaching an interesting phase. People’s gut instinct, their first reaction, is to find someone to blame. They blame BP for negligence; the Obama administration for its tepid response; the Bush administration for lax regulatory enforcement. People have been casting about for some way to compartmentalize this thing, some way […]
-
The gulf oil spill in video
Day 36: Scenes from the BP oil spill disaster. Embattled CEO walks oil-stained beach. Embattled president caught in Rand Paul/Sarah Palin firestorm. Oily, pink people turn angry and naked in Houston. Rachel Maddow, Steven Chu, Sylvia Earle, and so much more … Last night, Rachel Maddow devoted most of her show to the oil spill, […]
-
Prices vs. contracts: Why good CO2 policy needs complex financial markets
Economic theory is predicated on the thesis that if supply and demand are allowed to freely set the price for a given item, rational capital allocation (and a host of other social benefits) will follow. Much of public policy is predicated on the truth of that thsis. But there’s a problem with the thesis: price […]
-
![]()
![]()
Glacier gumshoe seeks secrets of climate change in ice
It takes a certain kind of person to gather ice cores from remote glaciers, cart them back to a lab, and unlock the clues they contain about the climate record. Such a person needs to be hardy and skilled enough in the field to lead expeditions loaded with equipment into some of the world’s most […]
-
![]()
![]()
Should we prefer investing in renewable energy to cleaning up the dirty stuff?
A couple weeks ago, Michael Levi at the Council for Foreign Relations (one of the best energy analysts out there; bookmark his blog) wrote a post called “In Defense of CCS.” (For non-nerds: CCS is carbon capture and sequestration.) I’ve done plenty of bashing of CCS, so I read it with interest. It is structured […]
-
Off Shore or Off Oil? (Video)
Just days before the BP Deepwater oil spill, American Petroleum Institute’s Rayola Dougher described the risk, as she new it, of offshore drilling: “Even if you have a rig that breaks loose, even if you have a catastrophic event, the most that can spill is what’s in that pipe.” What does a catastrophic event look […]
