Climate Climate & Energy

Big Oil tries to evade blame for high energy prices

It’s a cryin’ shame that energy prices are so high, but it’s totally not Big Oil’s fault, top execs at the five largest oil companies told a Senate panel Wednesday. Big guns from BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Exxon, and Shell — almost all the same rich white guys that gathered at a similar hearing last month […]

Electric emissions growth outpaces generation in 2007

The EIA just released data on 2007 that shows total electricity generation increased by 2.5 percent in 2007, but total CO2 emissions from the electric sector increased by 3 percent. That's right: the electricity sector, already the single largest contributor to U.S. CO2 emissions, is increasing its CO2 intensity.

Intriguingly, this increase has come about despite a 25 billion kWh increase in wind and nuclear generation in 2007, as the gains from those zero-carbon sources were offset by a 40 billion kWh decrease in production from hydro-electric facilities.

Biofuel-bound grasses are often invasive species

As biofuel sources go, weeds and grasses are looked on with more favor than land-ravaging, food-price-raising corn and palm. But there’s no such thing as a free lunch-in-your-tank, says a paper presented by green groups at a United Nations meeting Tuesday: “Some of the most commonly recommended species for biofuels production are also major invasive […]

RPJr. is at it again

Roger Pielke Jr., last seen bobbing and weaving in an online bout with an Actual Scientist — and getting pummeled — can now be found in a story in the Moonie-owned, far-right Washington Times: Roger A. Pielke, environmental studies professor at the University of Colorado, and not previously a global warming skeptic, reacted to the […]

Caribou numbers declining in Alaska and Canada

Hello, and welcome back to The Plight of Arctic Wildlife. Previously we’ve covered polar bears, narwhals, seals, and walruses — today we’re going to tackle caribou. (Well, not literally.) After years of steady growth, Alaska’s largest caribou herd lost 20 percent of its population between 2003 and 2007, according to the latest count. The Western […]

Deloitte survey of consumers and utility regulators

On Monday, consultant firm Deloitte released two new surveys, one of consumers and one of utility regulators. There’s some fairly interesting stuff in there. First off, some 87 percent of utility regulators expect the cost of producing electricity to rise next year. Why? Here’s what they attribute it to: Fuel prices (35 percent). Environmental compliance […]

U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions rising

U.S. carbon-dioxide emissions increased 1.6 percent in 2007, according to the Energy Information Administration. Factors at fault, according to the EIA: wacky weather that increased the need for heating and cooling, and “a higher carbon intensity of electricity supply.” (Our electricity supply is carbon-intensive? Who knew?) The agency was quick to point out that GDP […]

CJR panel on climate journalism

The Columbia Journalism Review recently held a roundtable on climate journalism: There were three journalists: Andrew Revkin, the New York Times’s lead climate reporter/blogger; Bill Blakemore, who has spearheaded climate coverage at ABC News for the last four years; and John Rennie, the editor in chief of Scientific American who recently helped craft two issues […]

What’s wrong with what we eat

Powerful stuff.

The Climate Policy Paradigm has reached its endgame

It takes effort to suit up in the quasi-business/academic garb of the professional environmentalist and enter the lion's den of DC politics or the state houses. Our beliefs are so fundamentally at odds with the very fabric of civic life that it requires an effort of will, particularly in the early years, not to scream bloody murder and run for the door.

Over decades, layers of accommodation and polite behavior have built up by accretion, while our rough edges have been worn down. The net result is a worldview -- we may call it the "Climate Policy Paradigm" -- that is so universally accepted that it goes unnoticed, yet its power is so great that we have abandoned the precautionary principle, environmentalism's central guide for action, with barely a murmur when the two came in conflict.

Two hundred people turned out to hear Ross Gelbspan speak at the Jamaica Plain Forum a couple months ago. He gave us an hour of unvarnished truth, summarized recent climate science, and drove home the reality that nothing short of immediate, transformative, global action is sufficient.

Climate campaign staff followed up at a "Global Warming Café," presenting our standard three-part story:

• first, we can turn things around, indeed we are already starting to do so;
• second, sound energy policy is good for America, because it will reduce dependence on foreign oil and create green jobs; and
• third, there are two things individuals can do: urge members of Congress to support emissions reduction bills and reduce our own carbon footprints.

The audience joined in small group discussions, contributing their own tips on mulching and insulating hot water pipes, but the disparity between the terrible picture Ross painted and the flimsy action activists were invited to take left a palpable pall in the auditorium.