Climate Politics
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$200 a day – why Sierra Leone will get screwed at Copenhagen
Behind the smart suits, tinted windows, and Swiss fountain pens of COP15 there are delegates from poorer countries who struggle to attend the conference and struggle to have a voice amongst the well-polished rhetoric of the E.U. and American delegations. One such country is Sierra Leone.
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Climate advocates should build ties with the public-health community
They can be climate activists too.“Green jobs now” has become the rallying cry for environmental activists over the last few years as they have worked to build political support for climate action by tying it to economic growth — a powerful message in a world rocked by the worst recession in decades. Politicians have responded […]
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The ‘leaked draft’ non-story and Copenhagen journo-hype
The latest story out of Copenhagen has to do with a leaked draft agreement put together by Denmark, the U.S., and the U.K. According to the Guardian‘s breathless coverage, the leak has climate talks in “disarray,” with developing countries at war with rich countries and the whole edifice getting ready to collapse. Disarray I tell […]
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Shared fate under the ‘fault lines’
We hear plenty about the divisions that make reaching a global climate agreement in Copenhagen daunting. “Negotiators at Climate Talks Face Deep Set of Fault Lines,” as the New York Times put it on Sunday. Indeed, the opening salvos from the negotiators confirm that they have a long way to go in less than 2 […]
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Money’s coming to cool the planet: What’s the winning spending plan?
With their natural resources pilfered, have Native American gambling casinos been payback, a further pillage (described as Tonto’s revenge during the Abramoff scandal) or perhaps both? It’s a relevant debate for today’s global warming talks. During these next weeks of climate change deliberations in Copenhagen, environmental service payment programs will be hammered out. What’s the […]
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FDA moves to reform nutrition labels
Still smarting over the industry’s shenanigans over the “Smart Choices” label, the FDA has decided to pick up the pace of change. Marion Nestle dug up a set of proposed new front-of-package nutrition labels that the FDA is studying, one of which may ultimately get the agency’s final approval. Here they are: My faves are […]
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How James Hansen gets cap-and-trade wrong
Climate scientist James Hansen has gone on the warpath against cap-and-trade. (See this op-ed in the NYT, among other recent examples.) Perhaps what’s most alarming is that, for all his intelligence, Hansen doesn’t appear to grasp even the basic elements of cap-and-trade systems. In a blog post last weekend, economist Paul Krugman took him to task: … […]
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Where is the fossil-fuel industry in Copenhagen?
The action at the Bella Center in Copenhagen. Can you find the oil lobbyist in this picture?Photo: doug mcneall Just past the security gates and the main entrance to the Bella Center, the site of the Copenhagen climate change conference, attendees must pass through a forest of exhibition booths—there are ones set up by conservation […]
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As the economy withers, thoughts on an inequitable food system
When my info-larder gets too packed, it’s time to serve up some choice nuggets from around the Web. —————- Get ’em while they’re hot. • Grist contributor Tom Laskawy did us proud with his participation in this New York Times “Room for Debate” forum on food stamps. Here’s how he starts: Anti-poverty programs in this […]
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Copenhagen climate talks: the story so far
“The conference, at this point, feels more like a trade show than a political event, but it’s cool to be surrounded by so many people from all over the world — imagine the international terminal at JFK, but with even worse food and people walking by in giant tree costumes.” — Nate Silver of political […]
