Climate Politics

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  • Here’s what Republicans are trying to shove into must-pass bills

    Politicians are always trying to sneak shit into important bills, so that when you vote to pass the Don't Starve America's Children Act you are also sneakily funding the Rich People Get To Use You As A Coffee Table rider. Because congressional Republicans evidently hate you and the world, they're shoving a bunch of anti-environmental […]

    Jess Zimmerman Climate & Energy

  • Crazy Taiwanese animation explains Canada’s Kyoto withdrawal

    Canada's craven withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol just got the Taiwanese animation it deserves. For those of you who aren't up on your international climate treaties, it's hard to put it more succinctly than New Media Animation itself has: Canada is withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, Environment Minister Peter Kent said Monday, […]

    Christopher Mims Politics

  • Tokelau, population 1,500, goes renewables-only

    At the U.N. climate talks in Durban, the South Pacific micro-state of Tokelau announced that it would be switching entirely to renewable energy. Tokelau has 1,500 people and three cars, but, uh, it's the thought that counts? Tokelau, which has 1,000 fewer people than my high school, currently runs diesel generators that eat up imported […]

    Jess Zimmerman Energy

  • Hacking the Farm Bill

    A slide from the winning entry. Rebecca Klein wasn’t expecting a lot when she signed up to attend last week’s Farm Bill Hackathon. This public health expert from the Center for a Livable Future at Johns Hopkins University had never heard of a hackathon — a gathering of computer programmers who lock themselves in a […]

    Twilight Greenaway Agriculture

  • Funniest thing in months: Conan O’Brien’s parody of Ron Paul’s campaign video

    [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.1011875&w=425&h=350&fv=] Ron Paul made a campaign video that borders on self-parody, and if you haven’t seen it, do yourself the favor of watching it immediately. Keep in mind when you do that the budget cuts Paul is touting will come in part from eliminating the EPA (in addition to basically every other damn thing). […]

    Christopher Mims Politics

  • Crop insurance: This year’s Farm Bill frontier

    2011 was a record year for liability, with drought in Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, and Hurricane Irene taking out crops along the Eastern seaboard. Photo: Bob Gutowski One of the great battles of the 2012 Farm Bill might concern … (drumroll) … crop insurance! Don’t roll your eyes: At $8 billion, it’s the largest part […]

    Heather Smith Agriculture

  • Can Obama go back to political base(ics)?

    An Obama 2012 rally in Chicago in April.Photo: Barack ObamaCross-posted from the Great Energy Challenge blog. President Obama made a smart move this month by putting the Keystone XL pipeline project into the deep freeze. It had been poor politics for him — and it would have been even worse policy for the country, especially when you consider […]

    Mike Casey Politics

  • Study: Climate skepticism leads directly to climate inaction

    If you were wondering why industry heavies and their media housepets traffic in climate change skepticism, here’s why: It works. A study just published in the journal Nature Climate Change confirms that if you sow skepticism, you reap inaction. When Americans believe that there is widespread disagreement among climate scientists that climate change is real, […]

    Christopher Mims Politics

  • What can we expect from the Durban climate talks?

    Cross-posted from Climate Progress. Next week, Climate Progress will be heading to the COP 17 climate conference in Durban, South Africa, to report on any developments coming out of the meeting. Hopes are not high for any major progress. But Andrew Light, coordinator of international climate policy at the Center for American Progress (CAP), warns against […]

    Stephen Lacey Politics

  • Why brown spin keeps beating green spin

    Spin it, baby, spin it.Photo: Sinan CeylanOne of the perennial complaints of the green community is that the Beltway — the ecosystem of politicians, staffers, lobbyists, NGOs, and media that influence federal policy in D.C. — is dominated by what I guess you’d call the brown community: fossil-fuel lobbyists, conservative think tanks, and politicians who, […]

    David Roberts Politics