Climate Climate & Energy

British-built server up for big award

We here at Grist love computers, even if sometimes they don't love us back. Every once in a while, a piece of technology comes out that you can't help but get excited about (and I'm not talking about the iPhone).

Debate shifting post-IPCC report

With the release of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, the debate over climate change has noticeably shifted from arguments about the reality of human-induced climate change to a debate over how to address the problem.

For example, here on Gristmill an interesting debate has broken out over whether a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system is best to price carbon emissions (e.g., here or here or here). This is exactly the kind of thing we need to be debating, and I'm glad to see it.

Anything You Can’t Do I Can’t Do Better

E.U. sets emissions goals, will raise bar if other countries join Yesterday, European Union ministers agreed to a historic cut in greenhouse-gas emissions, and they’re prepared to take things even further if other nations join them (ahem). The Continent will aim for a 20 percent cut from 1990 emissions levels by 2020; they’d strive for […]

Perry and Thrust

Judge’s ruling could buy Texas coal-plant permit objectors more time They say everything’s bigger in Texas, and that applies to coal battles too. A big ol’ permit hearing on six of the power plants proposed by TXU Corp. was scheduled to kick off today, with opponents explaining why they’re not keen to live in a […]

When is it necessary, and what are the alternatives?

Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.

The Bishop of London recently proclaimed that flying on holiday is a sin, a view that seems increasingly to be shared by greens in the U.K.

Our environment minister, David Miliband, castigated Prince Charles for flying to America to receive an award, suggesting that he should have collected it via video-link. Mayer Hillman, author of How We Can Save the Planet and one of the more rigorous of our green thinkers, wants us to "drastically reduce or stop flying."

This of course raises a problem of public acceptability; for most people, flying is still something to aspire to.

It also raises some particular problems for environmentalists. Global travel and networking are important both to how we frame our challenges and how we resolve them.

AAAS the World Turns

Leading science organization takes a stand on climate change For the first time, the influential American Association for the Advancement of Science has weighed in on climate change. The verdict: it’s bad. “The scientific evidence is clear,” says a statement issued this weekend by the association, which publishes the journal Science. “Global climate change caused […]

A new essay from the man

Tom Engelhardt of the indispensable Tom’s Dispatch received permission from the editors of the New York Review of Books to reprint an essay by Bill McKibben that appears in the current issue. He passed that permission along to me. Thanks to Tom, the editors at NYRB, and of course Bill for his tireless advocacy. —– […]

It’s seductive — and wrong

A new piece of conventional wisdom is rapidly congealing among mainstream pundits: global warming is happening, but there’s nothing we can do about it. Might as well just batten down the hatches and hope for the best. You’ll hear the same basic message from Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson, Newsweek columnist George Will, […]

Does the Polar Bear Club Know About This?

Vast lakes discovered underneath Antarctic ice sheet Thrilling hairy men in Speedos everywhere, satellite-wielding scientists have mapped new lakes deep below Antarctica’s legendary ice. The finds, they say, could help predict how the area will respond to climate change. According to research published online in the journal Science, the lakes, some of which span hundreds […]

If It Weren’t for Those Meddling Kids

Legislators around the globe demand climate-change action This week, Canada’s House of Commons voted 161 to 113 to force the Conservative government to stick to its Kyoto Protocol greenhouse-gas emissions targets and punish over-polluting industries. Since taking power in 2006, the Conservatives have continually claimed that Kyoto targets would be simply impossible to reach, dahling, […]