Climate Politics
All Stories
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Sultans of Swing
Environmental Issues May Matter After All, Via Swing States Conventional wisdom has it that environmental issues are low priorities for most voters, and thus for most presidential campaigns. However, this year’s squeaker of a presidential election will be decided by voters in a small handful of swing states — and in many of those states, […]
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By Any Greens Necessary
Enviro Justice Center Works to Link Green and Civil-Rights Movements Environmental degradation often falls hardest on poor and minority communities, but these communities can have difficulty organizing to fight for environmental justice, and they’ve received too little help from a mainstream environmental movement perceived as a white, middle- and upper-class affair. Sociology professor Robert Bullard […]
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Good Times, Good Times
Federal Report on Global Warming Produces Beltway Drama When The New York Times reported yesterday on a new Bush administration report to Congress which acknowledged the human causes of global warming, characterizing it as an abrupt shift in policy, some Beltway wags speculated that the newspaper was trying to box the administration in and embarrass […]
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Classified Adds
As Feds Classify More Info, Environment Could Be Affected Since 9/11, the Bush administration has upped secrecy at a growing number of agencies, all in the name of fighting terrorism. Much of the information newly deemed sensitive has direct implications for the environment and public health. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will no longer make safety […]
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Smears of a Clown
Auto Industry-Backed PR Firm Claims California Emissions Regs Will Kill A new ad campaign by the Sport Utility Vehicle Owners of America uses “Squeezy the Clown” to warn that proposed carbon-dioxide emissions regulations in California would force automakers to (gasp!) build smaller cars, which in turn will lead to increased traffic fatalities. (You see, they […]
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Dismission: Impossible
New U.S. Government Report Acknowledges Human-Caused Climate Change President Bush famously dismissed a 2002 U.S. government report that acknowledged the human causes of climate change as something “put out by the bureaucracy.” Well, it looks like the bureaucracy’s at it again: A new administration report to Congress indicates that human production of heat-trapping greenhouse gases […]
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Mainstream green groups opt out of GOP convention protests
Image: Indymedia.org. New York City expects protests at next week’s Republican National Convention to be the most widespread and strident to hit any political convention since Chicago in 1968, when the Democrats nominated Hubert H. Humphrey over Eugene McCarthy at the height of Vietnam furor, and chaos stole the political spotlight. Already GOP spinners have […]
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Behind the Green Door-to-Door
Enviro Groups Go Door-to-Door to Reach Swing Voters Environmental organizations like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters are mounting get-out-the-vote operations of unprecedented vigor and sophistication this election year. They are targeting what the Sierra Club calls “infrequent environmental voters,” folks concerned about natural resources and environmental degradation who do not typically […]
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Good for the Goose, Good for the Pander
Kerry Trumpets the Benefits of Coal In 2000, Al Gore narrowly lost the swing state of West Virginia, which (like so many other things) cost him the election. Many observers speculated that the loss resulted from Gore’s reputation as a “radical” environmentalist, particularly his opposition to coal, which many state residents depend on for their […]
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Tree Amigos
Bush Roadless-Rule Rollback Opposed by Tree Farmers The Bush administration’s proposal to revamp (critics say gut) the Clinton-Era Roadless Rule, which prohibits road construction on some 60 Million acres of federal forestland, is finding opposition in some odd places. Owners of tree farms, not typically considered a natural ally of greens, are backing the Sierra […]
