Climate Politics

Bush admin unveils meek new fuel-economy standards for light trucks

The Bush administration yesterday raised fuel-economy standards for SUVs, minivans, and many pickup trucks — the most significant boost to efficiency requirements for the big vehicles in three decades. Exempt no more. Photo: iStockphoto. Of course, as enviros have been quick to point out, that’s not saying much. These final CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) […]

Two eco-leaders — one mainstream, one radical — debate the movement’s past and future

Eric Mann. When Eric Mann first encountered environmentalists, he saw them as a bunch of “arrogant, racist airheads.” When Frances Beinecke first encountered environmentalists, she felt she’d found her cause. Frances Beinecke. Nearly four decades later, both are tireless proponents of environmental sanity, but they work in very different ways. Mann is director of the […]

In the world’s slums, the worst of poverty and environmental degradation collide

This article was originally published in OrionOnline. Precarious dwellings in North Sulawasi, Indonesia. Photos: iStockphoto. A villa miseria outside Buenos Aires, Argentina, may have the worst feng shui in the world: it is built in a flood zone over a former lake, a toxic dump, and a cemetery. Then there’s the barrio perched precariously on […]

Will an Atlanta parks and redevelopment project benefit low-income residents?

Atlanta, Ga.: the famous “Hot-lanta” of Southern heat and hospitality, home of “down-home” fried chicken and a growing black middle class, cradle of the largest historically black college community in the world, hotbed of the civil-rights movement, and … the sprawl capital of the South. As Atlanta gets greener, who will benefit? Photo: iStockphoto. As […]

Speechifying.

Hmm ... New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is writing editorials for the Manchester Union-Leader? Whatever interest could the governor have in New Hampshire?

The piece itself verges on parody, it is such a generic recitation of Democratic talking points on energy. "Foreign oil," check. "Apollo-like project," check. "Can't drill our way out of the problem," check. "Big oil companies with record profits," check.

Of course, I think it's all to the good that this has so quickly become conventional wisdom. It's all true. But Richardson has always struck me as a bit smarmy and unimaginative. This piece of writing, which may as well have come from the Democratic Central Computer's Energy Phrase Generator, only reinforces that impression.

On Hollywood’s downtrodden eco-chicks, and how they’ve changed

“A working-class hero is something to be,” said John Lennon. But for Hollywood, it’s more likely to be a working-class heroine — at least when environmental issues enter the picture. Charlize Theron in North Country. Photo: 78th Academy Awards® This year, Charlize Theron’s crusading miner-activist in North Country garnered an Oscar nomination, following in the […]

A virtual walking tour through Wisconsin’s Sokaogon Chippewa community with Tina Van Zile

Like many tribal lands across North America, the Sokaogon Chippewa reservation in Northern Wisconsin faces environmental perils that threaten not only the land, but also the livelihood and culture of the people who live on it. The Sokaogon spent close to three decades battling one of those perils: the proposed reopening of a nearby zinc […]

At Long Last: More of the Same

Bush administration backs industry-friendly chemical-security rules After years of foot dragging, the Bush administration is now backing federal security regulations to protect the nation’s chemical plants from terrorist attacks — but critics say the new rules may as well have been written by the industry itself. Speaking Tuesday at a forum organized by chemical-industry spokesflacks, […]

Barack Obama chats with Grist about energy independence and ethanol

The weight of much hope and expectation rests on the narrow shoulders of Barack Obama, the first-term Democratic senator from Illinois. Barack Obama. His eventual presidential run is seen as inevitable (some pundits even hype a 2008 bid). He’s a phenomenon, and everyone wants to see him up close. That’s fundraising manna for the Democrats: […]

An interview with integration advocate Sheryll Cashin

Space is the place where race, poverty, and the environment get sorted out, for better or worse. And the spaces where we live, work, learn, and play are the places where integration succeeds or fails, argues Sheryll Cashin. The Georgetown University law professor wrote 2004’s The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class Are Undermining […]