greenhouse-gas emissions

Obama needs to stop propping up inefficient cars and dirty coal

We’ve got to clean up our cars, and do away with some clunkers.Photo: Mary Anne EnriquezCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. President Obama today renewed his call to move America forward by reducing our dependence on imported oil and dirty coal at a Georgetown University speech. Meanwhile at the other end of town, members […]

Dan Lashof Energy

World’s cities are the ‘battleground’ in fight against climate change

Or, the other option.The world’s cities are going to have to move aggressively to curb their greenhouse-gas emissions, or the whole planet is going to pay for it. That’s the word in a new report from the United Nations Human Settlement Program, or UN-HABITAT. The report is called “Hot Cities: Battle-Ground for Climate Change,” (you […]

Sarah Goodyear Buildings

Ask Umbra on flatulence and climate change

Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, The other day I was sitting on the couch after a day of eating an onion-rich diet and wondered … how much impact can a person have on climate change by avoiding flatulence-producing foods? Resourcefully yours,Rob D. Troubled by your bubbles?A. Dearest Rob, I appreciate your desire […]

Ask Umbra® Agriculture

The Climate Post: Trace radiation isn’t the only global fallout from Fukushima

As Japan’s nuclear disaster stretched into its second week, traces of radiation from the stricken power plants showed up in several U.S. states, and as far away as Iceland. With the reactors and uranium fuel rods still proving difficult to bring under control, the disaster could be the “death knell” for nuclear power, some analysts said. Countries around the […]

Mason Inman Science

Lesson from Japan: We don’t need nuclear power to solve the climate crisis

Anyone watching the aftermath of the earthquake in Japan can see: The human and ecological costs of nuclear power far outweigh those of any renewable energy.Cross-posted from New Deal 2.0. On March 14, an editorial in The New York Times stated, “This page has endorsed nuclear power as one tool to head off global warming. We […]

Jon Rynn Energy

Sen. Jay Rockefeller: Climate science is ‘unequivocally true’

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Opposing Republican efforts to forbid climate regulations, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that the science of human-made climate change is “unequivocally true.” Rockefeller, a strong defender of his state’s coal industry, spoke out on the Senate floor against an amendment submitted to a small business bill by Senate Minority […]

Brad Johnson Science

Grading cities on their carbon emissions

The folks at Global Green USA have come up with an easy way to tell how a city is doing on its carbon emissions: give it a grade. That’s the idea behind Global Green’s City Carbon Index, an online tool unveiled late last month. It aims to measure a city’s emissions and helps to set […]

Sarah Goodyear Cities

‘Mad Men’ star Vincent Kartheiser wants to sell the country on high-speed rail [VIDEO]

Mad Men‘s Vincent Kartheiser is really, really excited about high-speed rail. “I’m just amped up about it, you can tell,” he told me yesterday. “I’m going a million miles an hour. I’m going as fast as high-speed rail.” Kartheiser was on the phone with me to talk about the new video he and fellow Mad […]