Climate Climate & Energy

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  • Oil spills and human health: Lessons from history

    Cleanup crews get the highest exposures to both the oil spill itself and chemical dispersants.Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Oil spill clean-up brings workers and volunteers into close contact with chemicals that are known to be hazardous to human health.  As we deal with the oil spill in the Gulf, it helps to brush […]

    Gina Solomon Climate & Energy

  • Al Gore, Bill McKibben and the urgency of now

      Question #1: Who has done more to build the 21st century climate movement, Al Gore or Bill McKibben?   Question #2: Who is doing the most right now to build the kind of climate movement we need?   Short answers: Al Gore for question #1, Bill McKibben for question #2.   Another question: Is […]

    Ted Glick Climate & Energy

  • Renewable Energy Solution of the Month – Wind

      That there is power in the wind is not a new discovery, man has been using it for thousands of years. What most people don’t realize is how much experimentation has been going  on in this century.       there is no shortage of energy..  

    Peter Sinclair Climate & Energy

  • In the age of electric cars, who pays for highways?

    Charging up a Chevy Volt. Photo courtesy mkooiman via FlickrHere’s a conundrum as the electric-car future arrives: Once we all start hitting the highway in our Nissan Leafs, Chevy Volts and Think City’s, who’s going to pay for our roads? State and federal excise taxes on every gallon of gasoline sold in the United States […]

    Todd Woody Climate & Energy

  • Accident expert weighs in on Gulf oil spill

    Charles PerrowRegulation, regulation, regulation. Until the U.S. can make the switch to renewables, insists professor and author Charles Perrow, regulation is the best way to prevent disasters like the Gulf oil spill. Perrow is an organizational theorist, emeritus professor at Yale University, and author of Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies. He studies accidents. […]

    Mary Bruno Climate & Energy

  • Gulf oil spill: angst edition

    Photo: U.S. Coast GuardWell, BP has finally lowered the dome over its leaking pipes. It’ll probably be Sunday before crews know whether they can actually start pumping the spewing crude to the surface. While we wonder why the huge containment device wasn’t built, tested, and at the ready all along (doesn’t anybody make multiple backup […]

    Randy Rieland Climate & Energy

  • Dmitry Orlov on why the U.S. is headed toward Soviet-style collapse

    Dmitry Orlov“Really, there’s no one at the helm now,” Dmitry Orlov says nonchalantly. We are talking about the economic crisis and the way that the destructive system of our economy operates without anyone really leading it. It’s a perfect statement from a man who has traded in his house and car to live on a […]

    Andrée Collier Cities

  • As Nashville floods recede, an opportunity emerges

    Homes in Nashville.Photo courtesy Eric Hamiter via FlickrNASHVILLE, Tenn. — Four days after rainstorms pummeled my hometown, problems mount. Major portions of the city are still submerged beneath floodwaters. Thousands are displaced from their homes, the contents of their lives soaked, mud-caked, and molding. Thousands more have no electricity or plumbing. The city faces severe […]

    Amanda Little Climate & Energy

  • My review of Jeff Goodell’s new book How to Cool the Planet

    What seems like a thousand years ago (I’ll never get used to print media pacing), I wrote a review of Jeff Goodell’s new book for the American Prospect. It appears in the latest issue and has now been published on their website. Here’s how it begins: —— How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the […]

    David Roberts Climate & Energy

  • “I’m in this to Win,” Graham says of Senate climate bill

    Sen. Lindsey Graham doesn’t sound like someone who’s abandoned the push to pass a global warming bill…. “I’m not playing the game to win 43 [votes],” he said, referring to the high-water mark of past Senate climate bill roll calls. “I’m not in this to make a statement. I’m in this to win.” Lindsey Graham […]

    Joseph Romm Climate & Energy