Climate Politics
All Stories
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Not So Fast
Environmentalists take EPA, Interior Department to task Remember when U.S. agencies used to be able to get away with their nefarious eco-deeds? Like, for the last seven years or so? The times might just be changing. Deed one: the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management decided, after 20 years, to reactivate 23 drilling leases in […]
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A Little Light Music
U.S., E.U. push phaseout of incandescent bulbs, U.K. gets serious about carbon The world is seeing the energy-efficient light: a U.S. coalition including Philips Lighting and the Natural Resources Defense Council will push to phase out incandescent bulbs by 2016. And following the lead of Australia and California, European Union leaders have proposed ditching the […]
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She prefers a ‘people’s waterfront’
Seattle is facing a difficult decision: what to do with a crumbling highway that serves as a major north-south corridor through the city? Below, we hear from Cary Moon. Cary is a landscape and urban designer and co-founder of the People’s Waterfront Coalition. The PWC’s No-Highway option won second prize in a national design competition […]
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She says no and hell no
Seattle is facing a difficult decision: what to do with a crumbling highway that serves as a major north-south corridor through the city? Below, we hear from Erica C. Barnett. Erica is the senior news writer for Seattle’s alternative newsweekly, The Stranger, where she covers City Hall and transportation, writes a weekly politics column, and […]
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Because local transportation choices aren’t local any more
As Bradley noted below, the citizens of Seattle face a dilemma. The Alaskan Way Viaduct — an elevated highway that enters Seattle on its west flank, offering stunning views (to drivers) of the city and the waterfront — is falling apart. There’s real danger that an earthquake, or just Father Time, could send it tumbling […]
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The last to react
We all know and love the "canary in a coal mine" analogy, where the canary is a first warning sign of some potential catastrophe. The Arctic is a good example of a canary for climate change, since we expect (and indeed see) the effects of climate change there first.
Then there's the anti-canary. Rather than being the first to react, the anti-canary is the last. When the anti-canary moves on an issue, you know that everyone else has already moved.
In the climate change debate, Texas is the anti-canary. With the Governor, Lt. Governor, and other senior legislators arguing that the science is not proven, Texas has been stuck in neutral on this issue while other states have taken the lead. But there are indications that the anti-canary is beginning to take climate change seriously.
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One Giant Bleep for Mankind
Bush, Brazil sign controversial biofuels pact Faced with protests and anger at home? Why not escape to a place where you can take solace in … protests and anger. President Bush is making few friends in Brazil, on the first stop of a Latin American tour that will see him visit four other countries. But […]
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All but one of the R’s voted against it
Pelosi has announced the membership of her new global warming committee. Here are the Democrats, appointed by Pelosi: Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Chairman Earl Blumenauer of Oregon Jay Inslee of Washington John Larson of Connecticut Hilda Solis of California Stephanie Herseth of South Dakota Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri John Hall of New York Jerry McNerney […]
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Spring summit underway
From an article in the Guardian:
Divisions over nuclear power and renewable energy threatened to derail the EU's campaign to assume a global leadership role in the fight against climate change at the bloc's spring summit which began last night. [...]
But France, backed by several east European countries, insisted carbon-free nuclear power be included within the EU energy mix and rejected [German Chancellor] Angela Merkel's proposal to make a 20 percent target for renewable energy binding on all 27 members.
At his swansong summit, the outgoing French president Jacques Chirac insisted that he would only agree to binding energy targets if nuclear power were included and proposed that 45 percent of the mix come from non-fossil fuel sources. France gets 80 percent of its power from nuclear power plants.
