Climate Politics

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  • Rich countries halt Barcelona climate talks with inaction; Africa walks out

    African negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Barcelona refused to continue formal discussions about all other issues until wealthy countries live up to their legal and moral responsibility to commit to deep emissions reductions. Rich countries (also called “Annex 1 countries”) have ground negotiations to a halt by failing to agree to their new […]

    Joshua Kahn Russell Politics

  • Reactions to Al Gore’s book o’ solutions, “Our Choice”

    Al Gore’s last book, in case you hadn’t heard, was about the climate problem. The new followup to An Inconvenient Truth lays out solutions. The Vice President, Nobel laureate, and veteran climate advocate describes the most promising responses to the climate conundrum in Our Choice, released November 3. We’re tracking reviews, analysis, screeds, and tirades […]

    Grist staff Politics

  • Green jobs for real people: The story behind the recovery numbers

    640,329 That figure represents the number of jobs that have been created or saved so far through the Recovery Act, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Friday. But the true significance of this number lies in the people behind it. People like Thalia Williams. Thalia is a single mother of a […]

    Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins Politics

  • Sen. Inhofe and U.S. Farm Bureau chief casually chat about destroying the climate bill

    Break out the heavy artillery: Sen. Inhofe leads the denier brigades. Photo: U.S. ArmyPaging Michael Specter: I’ve got some live ones for you. Deniers, that is–folks who irrationally cling to faith-based beliefs, despite overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary. I’m not talking fear-mongering Internet bandits here–guys who amplify their dubious screeds on large-type blogs. I’m […]

    Tom Philpott Politics

  • The real reason the climate bill is going to suck

    The clean energy bill slogging through the U.S. Congress is far weaker than what’s needed. There’s every chance it will a) get weaker still and b) fail to pass in the end. These facts are widely acknowledged among progressives. What’s less agreed upon is who or what is to blame. You see a lot of […]

    David Roberts Politics

  • Graham and Kerry are in talks with White House “to discuss a possible compromise.”

    The big climate bill story of the last few weeks is the breakthrough Senate climate partnership between Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.). The result — E&E News’s latest analysis shows, “At least 67 senators are in play” on climate bill. This isn’t to say Senate passage will be easy, but I think it […]

    Joseph Romm Politics

  • Honey, I shrunk the GOP, Part 4

    We’ve seen how GOP conservatives want to cleanse their party of moderates — see “Honey, I shrunk the GOP, Part 1: Conservatives vow to purge all members who support clean energy or science-based policy.”  Even Lindsay Graham (R-S.C.), an American Conservative Union “Senate Standout,” among the 20 most conservative U.S. Senators in 2008, is being […]

    Joseph Romm Politics

  • Negotiators take aim at U.S. on day one of Barcelona climate talks

    The final round of negotiations prior to the Copenhagen Climate Summit kicked off Monday in Barcelona, Spain.  Delegates from around the world will meet for the next five days in an attempt to find common ground on multiple areas of disagreement before convening in Denmark this December to try to forge a legally binding international […]

    Brendan DeMelle Politics

  • The must-read solutions book by Al Gore

    The long-awaited sequel to An Inconvenient Truth comes out Tuesday, Nov. 3.  If you want a preview, Al Gore and the book are featured in an excellent Newsweek cover story, The Thinking Man’s Thinking Man. In September, Nature Reports Climate Change asked me (and several others) to suggest three books to read ahead of the […]

    Joseph Romm Politics

  • Michael Specter’s new book ‘Denialism’ misses its targets

    “The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon Earth, among a weak and degenerate race of […]

    Tom Philpott Politics