Climate Politics

What will a conservative Canada look like?

While we were busy fretting about eco-terrorists, Canada went and had itself an e-lection.

Newly elected Conservative PM Stephen Harper is a likely Bush ally, says CNN, and aims to "move beyond the Kyoto debate by establishing different environmental controls." Meanwhile, the BBC doesn't pussyfoot: "[he] is known to be hostile to gay marriage and the Kyoto Protocol on climate change."

Sigh. On the other hand, the CBC reports that Harper "believe[s] it's better to light one candle than to promise a million light bulbs." So maybe he's into conservation after all.

Johnson Left Hanging

Six former EPA chiefs tell Bush to cap and cut greenhouse gases Six former heads of the U.S. EPA — including five Republicans — have blasted the Bush administration for failing to act on global warming. In an unprecedented united front, the ex-chiefs, gathered yesterday to commemorate the agency’s 35th anniversary, agreed that debating the […]

The Sound of One Hand Tapping

Greenpeace joins lawsuit against Bush admin’s secret wiretap program On Tuesday, a diverse group of individuals and organizations filed suit against the National Security Agency, asking a federal court in Detroit to declare the agency’s clandestine domestic eavesdropping program unconstitutional. The plaintiffs — ranging from Greenpeace to stalwart Iraq war booster Christopher Hitchens — have […]

Montana’s landscape is changing — will America’s be next?

Montana's governor is a politician of such breathtaking dexterity, ability, and raw, hungry, political instinct that your first thought upon witnessing him -- no matter whether you're a Republican or Democrat -- is likely to be, "When does he explode, and in what manner?" For rarely in American politics has anyone this good been that way indefinitely.

Land-rich regions’ residents tell hungry politicians to back off

It is difficult to recognize change while living through it. However, two recent decisions involving the use of the public’s lands signal a historic political and policy transition, particularly here in the Rocky Mountain West. The first of those two is the almost unanimous rejection by Western governors of the Bush administration’s multiyear attempt to […]

Keeping Up With the Bushes

Conservative Canadian politico vows to back out of Kyoto agreement As Canada’s federal election looms — yes, Canada is having an election — Conservative leader Stephen Harper is campaigning on virtually abandoning the Kyoto accord on climate change. Harper, who proclaimed in 2004 that the treaty would never become international law (oops), says victorious Conservatives […]

RFK Jr. and other prominent enviros face off over Cape Cod wind farm

A long-simmering disagreement within the environmental community over a plan to build a massive wind farm off the coast of Cape Cod, Mass., is now boiling over into a highly public quarrel. The future of Nantucket Sound? Photo: NREL. The four-year-old battle started heating up last summer when Greenpeace USA staged a demonstration against well-known […]

Climate change is pushing this easygoing enviro over the edge

The one and only time I ever saw my mother become aggressive in public went like this. We were out as a family for a weekend leaf-peeping drive, an impulse apparently shared by most of the rest of New England, because the traffic along New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway was endless 90-degree gridlock. Every once in […]

The Green Mileage

Mileage estimates likely to decline under EPA’s proposed new system The U.S. EPA has proposed new standards for calculating auto fuel-economy ratings, expected to reduce by 5 to 30 percent the mileage estimates in window stickers on new cars and trucks. Ouch. It’s the first ratings overhaul since 1985, intended to reflect changes in driving […]

Enviros plot to beat Pombo in November

Just a week into this election year and already environmental strategists are up to their elbows in plots to snatch Congress from the grip of anti-environment GOP leaders and turn it over to a conservation-minded majority. Leaders of green groups including the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife are hatching plans to help political allies […]