Climate Politics
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Colorado Springs experiments by slashing public services
Courtesy Jasen Miller via FlickrCivic-minded urbanist types like to experiment with collective projects. Apparently, so do people who don’t like civic projects, taxes, public parks, pools, police officers, or firefighters. Famously anti-tax Colorado Springs launched an astounding experiment this year: More than a third of the streetlights in Colorado Springs will go dark Monday. The […]
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Can federal courts help tackle global warming?
If Congress and the president fail to tackle global warming, can courts step in? Can federal judges allow people struggling with the losses of global warming to sue polluters directly? The idea may at first seem crazy. In a legal world obsessed with claims of judicial activism, the image of a judge taking on a […]
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Good news for Earth Day: We can reduce climate pollution and boost the economy, all at once
Putting a price on carbon pollution is an important part of tackling climate change. It’s a way of leveling the playing field, removing an unfair advantage that fossil fuels have always had over clean alternatives. However! Pricing carbon is not the only part of tackling climate change. It’s not even necessarily the most important part, […]
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USDA downplays own scientist’s research on ill effects of Monsanto herbicide
Sure, the crops are genetically engineered to withstand Roundup; but what about the soil? What would happen if a USDA scientist discovered that one of the most commonly used pesticides on the planet with a reputation for having saved millions of tons of US soil from erosion was — rather than a soil savior — […]
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Watch Interview with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson
Time to Act? What’s Next for Climate Policy With Special Guest: Lisa Jackson On April 20 I talked with Lisa Jackson, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency about about the upcoming climate legislation, innovation in carbon reductions and the upcoming priorities for the Obama Administration. Watch all clips with Lisa Jackson on Planet Forward>> […]
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There are reasons to be pessimistic about climate legislation
Maggie Fox of Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection has an opinion piece in Politico in which she repeatedly laments the pessimism many have expressed that the Senate will finally take action on climate change legislation this year: Even before the Senate starts debating clean energy and climate legislation, the professional pessimists are saying it […]
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Retired military officers issue an order: improve school lunches!
Now that guys like these are demanding significantly more funding for school lunches, will Congress and the President listen? School lunch advocates have found a new — and certainly unexpected — ally in the battle for school lunch reform: retired military officers. A group called Mission: Readiness is holding an event today in Washington, DC […]
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Time for the public to reinvest in food-system infrastructure
Want farmers market food to expand beynd niche status? We need to invest in infrastructure. Photo: Natalie Maynor, Flickr Creative CommonsWhen The New York Times invited me to participate in a “Room for Debate” forum on the infrastructure problem in agriculture, I wrote a 1400-word treatise (a Tolstoyan length in online-debate terms), before slashing it […]
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The “people’s climate conference” in Bolivia kicks off with ambitious aims
TIQUIPAYA, Bolivia — This small town outside Cochabamba, Bolivia — where cows roam freely and campesinos grow fruit, vegetables, and flowers to sell at the local market — is a far cry from Copenhagen. But it’s the latest gathering place in the ongoing effort to shape an effective global response to climate change. Here, Bolivian […]
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This Earth Day we need more than a celebration, we need a clean energy revolution
This Earth Day we need more than a celebration. We need a clean energy revolution that creates 2 million jobs, cuts 2 billion tons, and saves 2 trillion dollars. On the 40th anniversary of the first Earth Day there is much to celebrate: Our air is cleaner and our rivers no longer catch on fire. […]
