Climate Climate & Energy

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  • The earth’s decade

    Generations from now, long after the last Twitter follower has unfriended the last Facebook user, this decade will be remembered and felt for its impact on Nature: the species that were saved and those that were lost; the heating of the planet; the forests cut down and those that remain to provide oxygen to our […]

    Glenn Hurowitz Climate & Energy

  • A conversation with Indian youth activist Ruchi Jain

    Ruchi Jain, 23, was working as a marketer in Mumbai, India, when she left her job to become a full-time climate activist. Today she works with the Indian Youth Climate Network and 350.org, and she traveled to Copenhagen in December to participate in the climate talks. I followed Jain during the two-week conference as she […]

    Sara Peach Climate & Energy

  • Copenhagen blame game is obstacle to 2010 climate deal

    The holidays are supposed to be the season of goodwill. But that has been in short supply over the past week and a half as governments and environmental groups blame each other for the disappointing outcome of the Copenhagen climate summit. Did the messy outcome at Copenhagen make it less likely that world governments can […]

    Geoffrey Lean Climate & Energy

  • What happens now for the forests?

    So Copenhagen is over, with forests mentioned in one paragraph of a politically ambiguous “Copenhagen Accord” and an incomplete REDD agreement stapled on the back with major safeguard and finance issues still unresolved. Clearly, high hopes of a deal that might save the world’s forests and reduce the 15-20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions […]

    Margaret Swink Climate & Energy

  • Ice Melting Faster Everywhere

    This Eco-Economy Indicator is written by my colleague Alexandra Giese, a staff researcher at the Earth Policy Institute. From the Arctic sea ice to the Antarctic interior and the mountainous peaks of Peru, Alaska, and Tibet, ice is melting at an alarming rate. The accelerating loss of ice sheets, sea ice, and glaciers is one […]

    Lester Brown Climate & Energy

  • Documentary examines geoengineering and the checkered history of weather modification

    Geoengineering had its coming out party earlier this year when White House science adviser John Holdren told reporters that he had mentioned it to President Obama as a possible, admittedly desperate, option to combat climate change. Before then, the idea of hacking the planet was largely outside the realm of public discussion, which is why […]

    Bryan Farrell Climate & Energy

  • The Copenhagen Accord: A Big Step Forward

    The Copenhagen climate deal that President Obama hammered out Friday night with the leaders of China, India, Brazil and South Africa broke through years of negotiating gridlock to achieve three critical goals.  First, it provides for real cuts in heat-trapping carbon pollution by all of the world’s big emitters.  Second, it establishes a transparent framework […]

    David Doniger Climate & Energy

  • Seven steps to achieving a real climate deal

    So where do we go from here? How do we get from the disorganized, disappointing, dispiriting debacle of Copenhagen to a new and worthwhile climate treaty? The world needs solid directions for getting to a real climate deal in Mexico next year.Asking the question recalls the famous joke about the Irishman who, when asked by […]

    Geoffrey Lean Climate & Energy

  • Post-Copenhagen pledge: Coal free future begins in Kentucky

    This post was co-written by Stephanie Pistello, Ben Evans, and Ben Sollee, co-founders of the Coal Free Future Project. On the heels of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, we plan to make our own post-Copenhagen pledge here at home: It’s time to envision a coal-free future. It’s time for clean energy independence.   For those of us […]

    Jeff Biggers Climate & Energy

  • Christmas and Copenhagen

    The huge—and hugely disappointing, as far as the official results—Copenhagen world climate conference has just concluded. Since the worldwide celebrations of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth are coming up later this week, I thought I would study the words of Jesus in the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John to see if any of what he said there was of relevance to what just happened in Copenhagen.

    Ted Glick Climate & Energy