Climate Climate & Energy

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  • Cities get rebuilt more often than you think

    When I hear folks like Alex Steffen talk about “remaking cities,” my gut reaction is that U.S. cities seem mostly permanent, like they’re already built and we’re stuck with them. (Quick reminder: The world’s cities cause 75 percent of all carbon dioxide emissions, according to several measures.) But then there’s this new slideshow at Slate, […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Cities

  • Let the era of solar wholesale distributed generation begin

    David Roberts wants to see distributed generation taken seriously. He’s getting his wish. Let the era of solar wholesale distributed generation begin. Last Thursday, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a resolution to implement the auction portion of Southern California Edison’s Distributed Generation PV program. This is a big deal–the door is now open for […]

    Adam Browning Climate & Energy

  • Climate Policy Lessons From France

    I loved French President Sarkozy’s carbon tax proposal, so it was disheartening to see it get mauled by lawmakers: “We will not touch households, hauliers or fishermen,” Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo told reporters. Industries such as metals and refineries, seen as major polluters, were spared under the earlier tax plan… Borloo announced plans to launch […]

    Eric de Place Climate & Energy

  • Climate and Race

    A boycott in Montgomery, Alabama; a march on Washington; “I Have a Dream;” a bridge in Selma; a Nobel Prize; a balcony in Memphis—the flaming arc of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life is now inscribed in American mythology. But in December 1955, when King was an unknown 26-year-old Baptist minister first thrust into leadership, the […]

    Alan Durning Climate & Energy

  • Stephen Colbert on mountaintop-removal mining

    Monday night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert hosted scientist Margaret Palmer in a brilliant takedown of the Obama administration's recent decision to greenlight more mountaintop-removal mining permits.

    Jeff Biggers Climate & Energy

  • It's cold outside — What happened to global warming?

    We've heard a lot of talk lately from deniers that cold temperatures are proof that there is no such thing as global warming.

    Peter Sinclair Climate & Energy

  • Upping the ante on climate

    Just about one year ago today, Barack Obama was inaugurated as President. Hopes were high among progressive-minded people, including climate activists. Finally, we had a President who got it on the need for action to address the deepening climate crisis. But here we are a year later and things look very different. The United States, […]

    Ted Glick Climate & Energy

  • The Climate Post: The only good strategy is a dead strategy

    First things first: The White House, senators, businesses, environmental NGOs, lobbying groups, and the international community conspired this week to shred any discernible central narrative in the climate story. While this situation might be easily recognized as a normal state of affairs — coming after the singular focus on Copenhagen, and then the singular focus […]

    Eric Roston Climate & Energy

  • Drought drives Middle Eastern pepper farmers out of business, threatens prized heirloom chiles

    Editor’s note: This marks the launch of Climate Change and Food Culture, a series of posts by Gary Nabhan about how climate change threatens to stamp out some of the globe’s most celebrated foodstuffs, and along with them the farming and cooking cultures that created them. ————- Dazzling diversity under threat: a woman sells peppers […]

    Gary Nabhan Climate & Energy

  • Past decade the hottest on record

    The first decade of the twenty-first century was the hottest since recordkeeping began in 1880. With an average global temperature of 14.52 degrees C (58.1 degrees F), this decade was 0.2 degrees C (0.36 degrees F) warmer than any previous decade. The year 2005 was the hottest on record, while 2007 and 2009 tied for […]

    Amy Heinzerling Climate & Energy