Climate Politics
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What Obama could have said to the House Republican from West Virginia
In his extraordinary, unscripted dialogue with House Republicans last Friday, Obama had an interesting exchange with Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. It’s worth reprinting in full: CONGRESSWOMAN CAPITO: Thank you, Mr. President, for joining us here today. As you said in the State of the Union address on Wednesday, jobs and the economy […]
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Pentagon: ‘Climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked’
Cross-posted from The Wonk Room. For the first time, the Pentagon’s primary planning document addresses the threat of global warming, noting that it will accelerate instability and conflict around the globe. Former Senators John Warner (R-Va.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) added language requiring the department to consider the effects of climate change on its facilities, […]
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Where things stand on the Copenhagen Accord and international climate politics
After the Copenhagen Accord was “noted” by the UN in December, there was a great deal of insta-analysis. In truth, there was no real way to evaluate the Accord because the meat of it — the emission-reduction commitments from participating countries — was blank. Literally: The deadline for participating countries to submit their commitments was […]
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Orwellian censorship
This (censored) commentary appeared today on Joe Romm’s blog: Ken Johnson says:January 31, 2010 at 9:39 pm Regarding Fred Krupp’s comment about China’s “centralized industrial policy that we can’t match and don’t want in the United States …,” that sounds to me a lot like a top-down, economy-wide cap-and-trade system in which central planners set […]
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Echoing Michelle Obama, a D.C. pol pushes ‘healthy schools’
D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) has introduced landmark “Healthy Schools” legislation that integrates nutrition standards, locally produced foods, school gardening, broader access to subsidized meals and increased physical exercise to address obesity and other children’s health issues in the nation’s capitol. I recently submitted questions to Cheh about her bill, resulting in this interview by e-mail. The questions […]
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Cities vs. suburbs: The next big green battle?
Alex Steffen—futurist, Worldchanging editor, tall person—makes the provocative argument that there’s really no way to make outer-ring suburbs sustainable. He thinks cities vs. suburbs is the political conflict that will define the next decade, a fact that climate-focused groups have been slow to acknowledge. The real potential, he suggests, lies with urban dwellers who don’t […]
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Unintended Consequences of Government Policies: The Depletion of America’s Wetlands
Private land-use decisions can be affected dramatically by public investments in highways, waterways, flood control, or other infrastructure. The large movement of jobs from central cities to suburbs in the postwar United States and the ongoing destruction of Amazon rain forests have occurred with major public investment in supporting infrastructure. As these examples suggest, private […]
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Battle for the soul of organic dairy farmers goes on behind the scenes
There is a battle going on in the White House for the very soul of the organic dairy movement — and possibly over the future of small family-operated dairy farms — and you don’t even know it. I’d like to think that I’m overstating things but no. At issue is an obscure rule in the […]
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Green celebs bring sexy back to Senate politics
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is taking a page out of David Roberts’ book by railing on the U.S. Senate to pass the clean energy jobs bill in this celebri-full video. It formally launches a new video advocacy campaign called This is Our Moment, which is banking on the pure pop-sexiness of stars like […]
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The Climate Post: The documents … they are … Alive! Alive!
First things first: With the electorate angry and frustrated, President Obama delivered a State of the Union address last night that articulated his goals for, among other things, modernizing the U.S. energy system and infrastructure, and addressing climate change. The president called for “a comprehensive energy and climate bill with incentives that will finally make […]
