Copenhagen climate talks
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If Cousteau went to Copenhagen
As we grapple with global warming, ocean acidification, and the possibility that life on earth really is doomed, it is with considerable chagrin that we recall how Jacques Cousteau sounded the general alarm thirty years ago. The celebrated underwater filmmaker, co-inventor of scuba diving, television star, sage of the environmental movement, and bon vivant died […]
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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 […]
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Hot planet to Obama: What’s your Plan B?
“Never again.” Those ought to be the words coming from the White House right now on global warming. Never again can we tolerate a year like 2009, where attempts to cap carbon pollution experience such profound stagnation. Already this month President Obama has confirmed two painful truths. First: Congress will not complete work on a […]
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Copenhagen panic is premature
As resurrections go, it was a speedy one. On Monday, much of the world’s media declared that the chances of a worthwhile deal being reached at next month’s international climate talks were as dead as the proverbial dodo. By Tuesday, however, the conjectured corpse was clearly still alive, if not exactly kicking. President Barack Obama […]
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Time: “The science of climate change grows more dire.”
“World leaders say Copenhagen to be a steppingstone to final climate deal,” as I wrote on Sunday. Here is an excerpt from Time magazine’s take on the matter, “World Leaders Put Off a Climate Change Treaty,” by Bryan Walsh: If there is a bright side, however, the deliberate downshift in expectations for Copenhagen could make […]
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U.S. and China announce plan for collaboration on clean energy and climate change
Cross-posted from Climate Progress. Co-written by Julian L. Wong of the Center for American Progress. Obama and President Hu Jintao together at a reception before the formal state dinner in Beijing.Photo: whitehouse.govTuesday, a comprehensive plan for U.S.-China cooperation on clean energy and climate change was announced in Beijing by President Obama and President Hu Jintao. […]
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Mr. President: Time to quit fibbing and spinning
This essay appeared first on MotherJones.com. Bill McKibben is chronicling his journey into climate activism with a series of columns leading up to the global climate summit in Copenhagen this December. You can find the others here. And you can put yourself on the cover of MoJo’s special issue on climate change here. Two caveats. […]
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Rumors of Copenhagen’s demise have been greatly exaggerated
Waking up on a dreary Sunday morning this weekend in Copenhagen (where I’ve recently moved to prepare for the upcoming climate talks in December), I was met with a barrage of headlines, mostly from U.S. media, telling me that Copenhagen is doomed to total failure and I might as well head off to Mexico City […]
