Climate Climate & Energy

White House admits humans causing climate change

The White House has begrudgingly admitted that “most of the recent global warming is very likely due to human generated increases in greenhouse gas concentrations.” In a 271-page report — court-ordered and four years late — federal scientists have created a “one-stop shop” summary of potential climate impacts on the U.S. environment, economy, and public […]

Displaced by development, squatters await justice in Argentina

Next to a busy train station in Buenos Aires, not far from the chic restaurants and condos getting all the attention these days, lies another world. Behind a gate is a long metal shed, once used to store trains. This is La Casa del Afectado Social y Ambiental — literally, “the house of the enviro-socially […]

Reich for auctioned permits

Robert Reich — former Clinton Secretary of Labor, current economics public policy prof at Harvard — was on public radio’s Marketplace yesterday, stumping for 100 percent permit auctions and even, toward the end, something that sounds like cap-and-dividend: Our atmosphere belongs to all of us, and polluters should have to pay to use it. The […]

Link dump

Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen has an article in The NYT, "The Rich Get Hungrier," which is a good short summary of various causes of higher food prices and increased world hunger, and why they are related even though not the same thing.

U.S. driving down 11 billion miles in March, the sharpest drop in history

Price does matter. So does public perception of likely future prices. As it becomes increasingly clear that high gasoline prices are not a fluke, Americans are adjusting their driving habits.

March 2008 saw "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history" of total vehicle miles traveled (aka VMT) according to the Federal Highway Administration's monthly report on "Traffic Volume Trends" [PDF].

In March 2008, Americans drove 246 billion milles, compared to 257 billion in March 2007. Indeed, the March 2008 figure is lower than the March 2004 figure. To see just how remarkable that is, look at the annual vehicle-distance traveled data (in billions of miles) since 1983 (this is a moving 12-month total):

Junk emails go green

You know the spam: the Nigerian oil minister has an outrageous sum of money and desperately needs a foreigner’s help to take it off his hands. But the times are changing — junk email has gone green! A New York Times blogger reports receiving an email asking for investment in a Renewable Energy Technology System. […]

Group airing ads in support of Climate Security Act in states with swing-vote senators

The ad wars over the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act continue: Environmental Defense Fund has just released new ads in support of the legislation. They show a man being struck by falling barrels of oil, telling viewers to call their senators and ask them to support the bill. “By telling special interests they can’t pollute for […]

Walruses should be threatened species, says litigious green group

Having seen no action on a petition from last year, the Center for Biological Diversity says it will sue to force the U.S. Interior Department to consider listing the walrus as a threatened species. Walruses do all of their resting between foraging trips, breeding, and chillaxing on Arctic sea ice, which is rapidly disappearing. And […]

Gingrich mounts campaign to support domestic oil drilling

"Green conservative" and We campaign spokesman Newt Gingrich is mounting a new campaign: "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less." His promise is that (blocking Lieberman-Warner and) opening up drilling off the coasts, in the Gulf of Mexico, in northern Alaska, and in the Rockies (for oil shale) would lower gas prices. Now, for one thing […]

The enemy of the human race is set to wipe out Europe’s meager emissions gains

They’re building a huge new coal-fired power plant in Holz, Germany, where there are already three. To fuel it, an open-pit mine that has scarred the fields outside town with a 31-square-mile hole will be moved west, swallowing up this village and nearby Pesch. Already, their neat cottages sit empty and boarded. That’s just one […]