environmental movement

Inside the climate movement’s Trump-fighting strategy

It will take a combination of political, legal, and social pressure to reduce his administration's damage.

Time for environmental funders to stop neglecting the grassroots

The top-down, elite-focused strategy that has come to dominate the environmental movement is not working. The philanthropic community needs to get serious about funding the grassroots.

As Keystone XL victory looms, a ‘top enviro’ games out how to lose

Some guys just don’t know how to win gracefully.Over at Rolling Stone, Jeff Goodell has a piece gaming out scenarios for the Keystone XL pipeline. It’s worth a read. Just to briefly recap: There was a cut in payroll taxes. It was set to expire at the end of the year, thus raising taxes on […]

Greens poised to win on Keystone, refuse to act like it

Cheer up! We’re winning!Like everyone else, I have no idea how this fight over the payroll tax bill is going to play out. Things looked resolved on Saturday when the Senate voted 89 to 10 for a compromise bill. House majority leader John Boehner said it was a “good deal.” But then, as usual, the […]

Why brown spin keeps beating green spin

Spin it, baby, spin it.Photo: Sinan CeylanOne of the perennial complaints of the green community is that the Beltway — the ecosystem of politicians, staffers, lobbyists, NGOs, and media that influence federal policy in D.C. — is dominated by what I guess you’d call the brown community: fossil-fuel lobbyists, conservative think tanks, and politicians who, […]

What the Keystone XL delay means for tar sands and the green movement

The Obama administration announced late last week that the Keystone XL tar-sands pipeline is going to be reassessed and possibly rerouted, delaying the final decision on its fate until after the election. The coalition that fought the pipeline — enviros, indigenous communities, Nebraska farmers, etc. — is, naturally, over the moon. (See Bill McKibben here […]

Attention climate wonks: you can't take the politics out of politics

Princeton's Robert Socolow is the latest climate wonk to wistfully hope that we can tackle climate change through reasoned persuasion. That's unlikely.

Doing civil disobedience with style

Civil disobedience doesn't accomplish anything if it's boring. To make a real impact, direct action must involve the crucial elements of surprise and delight -- just like Tim DeChristopher's stunt.

Balancing climate pragmatism with moral clarity

The Breakthrough Institute crew has a new report called "Climate Pragmatism." It's got a few reasonable ideas and some not-so-reasonable ones.