Climate Politics
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Write your members of Congress about climate change
Help us find out where members of Congress stand on climate change–they haven’t all been clear on this. Send the message below to your U.S. senators and/or representative, then post the lawmaker’s reply in comments below or email it to us. Dear __________: I am writing to learn more about your views on the important […]
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The Unsettling Case of Shell Nigeria
After thirteen years and countless hours by lawyers, community members, and activists around the world, Royal Dutch Shell finally settled the Wiwa v Shell case in a New York court for $15.5 million. Plaintiffs in the case, which included Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., and the families of other Ogoni men hanged in November 1995, charged that […]
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Will Big Ag plow under Waxman-Markey?
Waxman and Markey prepare for the ag lobby. As the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill moves forward in the House, Big Ag interest groups are circling their plows and sharpening their pitchforks. Some of the largest corporations in the agribusiness sector–including the GMO-and-herbicide giant Monsanto–are pushing to control how agriculture would fit into the bill’s […]
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Transparency at the Bonn climate negotiations
You might think that the international global warming negotiations are occurring in some backroom, filled with smoke, and outside the view of the world. That is after all, what some opponents to global warming solutions would have you believe. But that is the farthest thing from the truth. Let me give you some examples from […]
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Agriculture: A necessary complication in the climate negotiations
Despite a sense that the international climate change negotiations, convened in Bonn, Germany this week, are grinding forward at a painfully slow pace, there is a momentum to the process that makes adding new ideas very difficult. It took several years of behind the scenes technical work and at least two years of carefully planned […]
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House approves “Cash for Clunkers” bill, enviros unimpressed
The House approved a measure on Tuesday that would give Americans a cash incentive to trade in their old, gas-guzzling automobiles for slightly more efficient models. The “Cash for Clunkers” bill passed through the chamber with a 298 to 119 vote, and the Senate could vote on similar legislation later this week. The bill would […]
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Newt Gingrich: “I am not a citizen of the world.”
“Ich bin ein Berliner” – not! The other intellectual leader of the GOP – the one whose first name isn’t Sarah – summed up the narrow minded and ultimately self-destructive “every-country-for-themselves” mentality of the modern conservative movement Monday. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was keynoting the biggest GOP fundraiser of the year for the Senate […]
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Waxman-Markey could save $3,900 per household and create 650,000 jobs by 2030
The energy efficiency provisions in the House energy and climate bill (H.R. 2454) could save $750 per household by 2020 and $3,900 per household by 2030, according to an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). An ACEEE news release notes that not only will efficiency reduce the costs to consumers and […]
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Offsets: Pissing the earth away
More than 2 and half years ago I wrote: “Mommy, where do carbon offsets come from?” “Well, you see sweetheart, when a major polluter and a consultant love money very, very much, they express that love in a special way. Nine months later, the consultant produces an extremely large paper packet.” Offsets, the idea that […]
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Why do U.S. environmentalists remain irrationally committed to a losing strategy?
Watching the remains of a movement strain our every organizational fiber to advance a climate bill we know is a travesty reminds me of G.K. Chesterton’s observation about sex: the pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable. Waxman-Markey ought to be opposed by U.S. environmentalists for obvious and pragmatic reasons — street […]
