Climate Climate & Energy

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  • Thoreau, Walden and civil disobedience in the age of climate change

    On a frigid January night some years ago, a friend and I snuck into a Massachusetts state preserve, stripped naked, and charged into Walden Pond. For a few exhilarating, painful moments we swam, and I imagined some hard-to-name kinship with the pond’s most famous neighbor, the 19th century eccentric Henry David Thoreau. It was a […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Climate & Energy

  • Sen. Tom Coburn has scientific document reading training

    “I am not the smartest man in the world, but I have been trained to read scientific documents, and [anthropogenic climate change] is malarkey.” — Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), who also explained why Jesus would oppose a public option in health care reform

    David Roberts Climate & Energy

  • Tree-sitters do environmental regulators’ job

    In a stunning blow to mountaintop removal blasting operations in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia this morning, two fearless protesters scaled massive trees and unfurled banners from their 80-foot-high platforms. Within 300 feet of the Massey Energy’s Edwight mountaintop removal blasting site, above Pettry Bottom and Peachtree in Raleigh County, W. Va., the […]

    Jeff Biggers Climate & Energy

  • Water must be on the table at Copenhagen talks

    The participants of the 2009 World Water Week in Stockholm last Friday unanimously said that water must be included in the COP-15 climate negotiations in Copenhagen this December. At various sessions throughout the Week, a number of organizations and officials have articulated the reasons why water needs to be an integral part of the negotiation […]

    Grist staff Climate & Energy

  • Portland’s newest high-rise has wind turbines on the roof

    The cermonial urban-turbine installation.indigo12west.comTwo weeks ago in Portland, Oregon, a new 23-story building added something you don’t usually see in an urban setting: a series of four Skystream wind turbines, with a total capacity of 9.6kW. There are several reasons why wind turbines are a rarity atop highrises — beyond the obvious one: our power […]

    Osha Gray Davidson Cities

  • What does it mean for a car to get 230 miles per gallon?

    GM has created a bit of buzz around its claim that the Chevy Volt gets 230 miles to the gallon in city driving. From the internet a great chorus has replied: “This number doesn’t make any sense!” And it doesn’t.

    Adam Stein Climate & Energy

  • The clock has started ticking on mountaintop removal mining permits

    This blog post co-written by Bruce Nilles and Mary Anne Hitt, Director and Deputy Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. We’ve just learned that the clock has started ticking on more than 80 new mountaintop removal coal mining permits in Appalachia. We are told that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) may start approving these […]

    Bruce Nilles Climate & Energy

  • The Climate Post: Reality is the toughest wedge issue

    First Things First: Research continues apace to find definitions of “clean tech” and “green jobs” that sound more meaningful than campaign rhetoric. In a new report [pdf], the Pew Charitable Trusts pinned down its working description of “clean energy economy” and analyzed 10 years of jobs data, through the 50 states, looking for trends. Analysts […]

    Eric Roston Climate & Energy

  • Who are the faces behind FACES of Coal?

    Yet another pro-coal group has popped up to rally folks against climate action. The Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security — or FACES of Coal — joins a growing list of “grassroots” groups formed to support fossil fuels. The “faces” shown on the group’s website include a smiling flower vender, a child playing golf, […]

    Kate Sheppard Climate & Energy

  • Hotter summers will pose public health challenges

    In the dog days of August, you can be forgiven for not wanting to think about how it could get hotter, much hotter, in summers to come. Nevertheless, Climate Central, a nonprofit focused on communicating climate science, released a study today forecasting what summers might look like in 21 American cities in 2050. Climate Central’s […]

    Richard Graves Climate & Energy