Climate Politics

Left and Fright

Is there a place for fear in environmentalism? Fear: it’s as American as freedom fries these days, and the Right isn’t afraid to manipulate you with it. Anger and fear are good motivators, like it or not, and violence is oft cited as effectively “sending a message.” Should environmentalists be focusing more energies on scare […]

A Ploy Named Sue

With feds asleep at the wheel, states sue to protect air and water Frustrated by federal inaction, states and localities are increasingly suing companies and even each other in attempts to curb air and water pollution. Oklahoma, for instance, has filed suit against eight companies that operate chicken farms in neighboring Arkansas, charging that farm […]

Sticker Shock Absorber

Some hybrids can pay back their price premium over time High price of hybrids got you down? According to the gurus at Edmunds.com, the cash some hybrid owners save on gas can make up for the sticker price. Hybrid cars and trucks cost between $1,200 and $7,000 more than their gas-chugging counterparts, but as analyst […]

A Breyer Power

Federal judge rejects Forest Service plan to log in national monument A federal judge put the smackdown yesterday on a U.S. Forest Service plan to allow increased logging in California’s Giant Sequoia National Monument, home to about two-thirds of the world’s largest trees. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer said the USFS forest management plan lacked […]

Adieu, Advisinator

Environmental adviser to Schwarzenegger steps down Terry Tamminen, influential environmental adviser to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is leaving his post, taking with him some of the green — ethos, that is. Tamminen, a Democrat, was part of the Governator’s inner circle and an outspoken voice for environmental protection. Republicans in the California legislature won’t miss […]

Being exploited? Exploit them back.

Tomorrow, Alaska's primary election will include an important ballot measure that imposes new regulations and taxes on the cruise ship industry. For environmental protection, it includes beefed-up regulations that will hold cruise corporations more accountable to Alaska's strict pollution controls, as well as allowing civil action suits against violators.

For economic growth, it proposes a head tax on all cruise passengers coming into the state, the revenue of which will be used for services and infrastructure related to the cruise industry. Further, it will tax income from onboard gambling and force companies to pay corporate income tax. And it will require onboard tour sellers to disclose how much they mark up tours from the price offered directly from the tour operators on shore.

The Anchorage Daily News has a good piece about it here. Full text of the measure here (it's not that long). More below the fold.

Six Nations, Under Siege

Native Canadians fight for land rights Suburban sprawl has encroached on the once-pristine wilderness of southern Ontario’s Six Nations Reserve — and the residents of Canada’s First Nations that live there have had enough. Since February, hundreds of Native protestors have blocked roads, lit bonfires, confronted police, raised traditional First Nation flags, destroyed national flags […]

Dodge Not Lest Ye Be Judged

Court rules with EPA on power-plant pollution controls Imagine that gavel sound from Law & Order, and here we go: In 1999, the U.S. EPA sued Cinergy Corp. for modifying several coal-fueled power plants without following Clean Air Act pollution-control requirements. (Moment of silence for the days when eco-laws were enforced.) One month before President […]

Capitalism v. environmentalism: a poll

Don Boudreaux, an economist, argues that doing nothing is the best policy for global warming.

As David, biodiversivist, Tim Lambert, and ThinkProgress point out, this argument has a lot of screws loose. (ThinkProgress also has a picture of Boudreaux, who looks slightly insane. He is also, by sheerest chance, with the Cato Institute, which according to a book by two University of Colorado law school scholars, "receives most of its financial support from entrepreneurs, securities and commodities traders, and corporations such as oil and gas companies, Federal Express, and Philip Morris that abhor government regulation.")

Just for a moment, let's ignore the whiff of prostitution. Let's ignore the alarming changes that global warming is expected to bring to climate, and the worsening of drought, floods, forest insect pests, hurricanes, species extinctions, among other aspects of life on earth.

Let's focus instead on the politics of the claim.

Going to jail for the environment

Today I received an email from my friend Kate, with whom I studied environmental politics and geology in college, and who now works for the Cascadia Wildlands Project in Eugene, Oregon. On Monday, she was arrested in Medford, Oregon, during a protest against the roadless-area logging recently approved by the Bush Administration. Below the fold is her letter describing her experience and explaining why she chose to participate in an act of civil disobedience. I've added links to relevant bits of background.