Climate Climate & Energy

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  • At SEJ, doom and gloom without the sense of humor

    It’s a wonder I continue to show up at Society of Environmental Journalists conferences when you consider how much of a downer some of these panels can be. And that’s doubly true about the ones on climate change. This afternoon’s session on global warming as a national security issue was an even darker affair than […]

    Robert McClure Climate & Energy

  • National Institutes of Energy needed to fill energy research and development gap

    Friday factoids time: The U.S. biomedical and pharmaceutical industry invests between 10-20 percent of revenues in research and development (R&D) and new product development, spending $58.8 billion on R&D in 2007. The U.S. government adds an additional $30 billion per year investment in biomedical R&D through the National Institutes of Health. In contrast, the U.S. […]

    Jesse Jenkins Climate & Energy

  • Meet your new national parks chief

    New Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis: Friendly.Photo: National Park ServiceOne weekend this summer, my wife and I ferried across Puget Sound to Olympic National Park, chose a hiking route with the help of an awesomely smart and patient ranger, and set forth from the highest trailhead in the park. We crossed alpine ridges, dropped into […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Climate & Energy

  • The place to be if you’re young and you care about the climate: Power Shift ’09

    Starting on Oct. 9, the Energy Action Coalition is kicking off 11 Power Shift youth summits across the country, where young people will gather to demand climate action from President Obama and Congress and get training and inspiration for on-the-ground activism.  In November 2007 and March 2009, there were big Power Shift confabs in the […]

    Grist staff Climate & Energy

  • Dirty energy fuels college campuses

    University of Washington campus.Did you know that many of our country’s colleges and universities — places that are supposed to be a source of higher-education and leadership — get their electricity by burning coal? And sometimes those coal-fired power plants are even on the campuses? I think many of us look back in disbelief at […]

    Bruce Nilles Climate & Energy

  • Climate Controversy Damages Chamber's Reputation

    The high-profile departures from the US Chamber because of its extremist stance on climate, the strong criticism from its own former members and the Chamber’s tone-deaf response to the situation are contributing to reputational damage that is hurting the organization’s credibility. But don’t take my word for it. Others are making the same observation.  Fortune Magazine […]

    Peter Altman Climate & Energy

  • Our global pyramid scheme

    Our mismanaged world economy today has many of the characteristics of a Ponzi scheme. A Ponzi scheme takes payments from a broad base of investors and uses these to pay off returns. It creates the illusion that it is providing a highly attractive rate of return on investment as a result of savvy investment decisions […]

    Lester Brown Climate & Energy

  • Bangkok: rich countries try to kill Kyoto, youth declare

    Today marked one of the final days of the Bangkok U.N. Climate Negotiations. With the end of this intersessional in sight, the International Youth Delegation (IYD) has officially declared “No Confidence” in the road to Copenhagen. With youth delegates from over 30 countries engaging in the Bangkok process, the IYD cited pathetically weak targets from […]

    Joshua Kahn Russell Climate & Energy

  • As the land disappears, an Indian tribe plans to abandon its ancestral Louisiana home

    For at least 170 years, Isle de Jean Charles — a narrow ridge of land lying between Bayou Terrebonne and Bayou Pointe-aux-Chene in southeastern Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish — has been home to members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha tribe, native people related to the Choctaw and part of a larger confederation of Muskogees. But the tribe’s history […]

    Sue Sturgis Climate & Energy

  • Cap-and-Trade versus the Alternatives for U.S. Climate Policy

    Let’s credit Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) for raising questions in the National Journal about the viability of cap-and-trade versus other approaches for the United States to employ in addressing CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions linked with global climate change. Senator Murkowski says that only one approach – cap-and-trade – has received significant attention in the […]

    Robert Stavins Climate & Energy