Climate Politics
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A familiar – and frightening – story in Wisconsin
David and Charles Koch, the billionaire oil baron brothers Greenpeace exposed last year for spending millions to gut environmental protections and fund junk climate change science, are at it again. This time in Wisconsin. According to the New York Times, the Kochs are major financial backers of Governor Scott Walker and are using one of […]
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A familiar – and frightening – story in Wisconsin
David and Charles Koch, the billionaire oil baron brothers Greenpeace exposed last year for spending millions to gut environmental protections and fund junk climate change science, are at it again. This time in Wisconsin. According to the New York Times, the Kochs are major financial backers of Governor Scott Walker and are using one of […]
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New polls: Americans trust the EPA over Congress
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Just days after a series of budget votes in the U.S. House, which NRDC Executive Director Peter Lehner called “an unprecedented assault on public health, clean air, fresh water, open space and wildlife,” NRDC is releasing 20 new polls to probe how Americans nationally and in 19 key […]
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Why using ‘live ammunition’ on Wisconsin protestors would be bad for the environment
Every year, bad taste kills way more people than gunsPhoto: StarMama Saturday night, a deputy attorney general for the state of Indiana said that police should shoot the peaceful U.S. citizens who have taken over the capital building in Wisconsin in protest. Update: The douchelord who sent the original Tweet has been fired! Yeah, so […]
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Prank call proves billionaire David Koch owns Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP
The editor of the Buffalo Beast blustered his way into a call with Wisconsin State Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday by claiming that he was billionaire David Koch, sworn enemy of environmentalism and all progressive causes and more or less the Darth Vader of the effort to destroy America’s cleantech competitiveness. Update: It’s been confirmed […]
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How to be as persuasive as Lincoln, Part 3
Metaphors are the Rolls Royce of figures. Or, to put it more aptly, metaphors are the Toyota Prius of figures because a metaphor is a hybrid, connecting two dissimilar things to achieve a unique turn of phrase. Metaphor, like verbal irony discussed in the previous post, is a trope, because it alters or enhances a […]
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Rush Limbaugh opens his fat mouth about Michelle Obama’s fat butt
Photo: Stefan KlooIf you look under “irony” in the dictionary, there’s a picture of Rush Limbaugh calling Michelle Obama fat. But that’s just what he did on Monday on his colonic irrigation of a radio show. Let’s take this piece by piece, because there is too much stupid to swallow without chewing. “The problem is, […]
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BP’s oil: still causing trouble in the Gulf
BP’s vast oil spill may be out of the headlines, but its oil isn’t out of the Gulf. Reports the Associated Press: Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a scientist’s video and slides that demonstrate the oil isn’t degrading as hoped and has decimated […]
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The shaky foundations of free-market environmentalism
Photo: Steve RhodesCross-posted from Sightline Daily. [CORRECTION: As mentioned in the comments under this post on Sightline, this discussion of the “Coase theorem” contains several errors — most notably, that Coase himself did not present his arguments mathematically. In fact, according to a number of sources, there really is no single “Coase theorem” — instead, […]
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Climate reformists challenge old economic models
A few weeks ago I wrote about the seemingly different futures foretold by climate science and climate economics. The former is filled with peril and haunted by the unthinkable, the latter blithely assured of continued prosperity. Most economic modeling, you’ll recall, forecasts the continued rise of global gross domestic product (GDP) — people in the […]