Climate Politics
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John McCain’s troubles are the world’s troubles
You could make a pretty simple argument that the fate of the world rests with the United States Senate Republicans: 1. It takes 60 votes to pass a climate bill in the U.S. Senate (assuming it won’t be done through budget reconciliation). Getting the votes of all 58 Democrats and two Independents will be just […]
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Are carbon taxes a viable option?
According to Sen. John Kerry, no. There has been a lively discussion of this topic on James Handley’s blog at carbontax.org. My last comment, responding to Dan’s 11/19/2009 comment, was blocked, but is replicated below: Dan, Thank you for the calculations. This is excellent. One point of clarification, re “As I understand, Ken would have […]
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Ecological farms: the only real way to feed an increasingly hungry world
Image: Tom Twigg for GristThere are those who would like us to believe that industrialized farming is the only way to feed the earth’s growing population. Disinformation comes daily from powerful industrial agricultural companies whose profits depend entirely on the sale of chemicals, genetically modified (GM) seeds, and food processing. Furthermore, they maintain that massive-scale […]
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No to Obama’s agrichemical industry man, yes to Bed-Stuy Farm
This post marks the launch of “Plate Tectonics,” a new feature that highlights ways that citizen action can move the food system in more sustainable directions. —————– How do we stop this thing?Like many people, I applauded when Michelle Obama broke ground on her organic garden–and jeered when Croplife America, the pesticide industry’s main lobby […]
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15 people worth watching in Copenhagen [SLIDESHOW]
So who will be the real power players in Copenhagen? The official estimate for official delegates attending the U.N. climate conference hovers somewhere around a gajillion. OK, seriously, it’s a mere 20,000. Then there are thousands of activists, journalists, business leaders, and NGO reps who will be seeking the delegates’ ears. Here are 15 people […]
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Climate talks timeline: From 350 to Kyoto to Copenhagen and beyond
Whether you’ve been hitting snooze each time a global climate conference rolls around or you’re looking for a refresher before the Copenhagen climate talks coming up, Grist has an interactive timeline to bring you up to speed. And don’t forget to keep tabs on all our juicy coverage of the Copenhagen climate talks. The road […]
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The Climate Post: You heard it here first — Copenhagen a success
First things first: A week of anticlimaxes saw President Barack Obama conducting a less-than-exuberant swing through China, the international community conceding a binding climate treaty at the COP-15 negotiations in Copenhagen, and U.S. lawmakers postponing to the spring of 2010 consideration of climate policy — even as talk of a legislative “plan B” surfaced. A […]
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NYT: U.S. Chamber has not expressed support for any proposals to cap emissions
John Broder has an illuminating story in today’s New York Times, “Storm Over the Chamber” discussing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s climate crisis and how Thomas Donohue’s style exacerbates it. Tellingly, the story begins with an anecdote that suggests where the U.S. Chamber gets its tin ear. BACK in the 1990s when Thomas J. Donohue […]
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Reflecting on the lameness of my profession
For the past few weeks there has been the appearance of a flood of news about the Copenhagen climate talks and the clean energy bill in the U.S. Senate. Standing in that flood it’s easy to get caught up in the atmospherics of frantic action and constant crisis. But step out for a while and […]
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Copenhagen is not Kyoto
On the eve of the 1998 United Nations climate change conference in Buenos Aires, U.S. Senator Robert Byrd sent a letter to President Clinton urging him not to sign the Kyoto Protocol. Doing so, he said, would not “do more than plug the holes in one end of a leaky boat, while leaving the biggest […]
