interview

Mark Warner talks to Grist about his energy vision and upcoming keynote address

Mark Warner. Photo: John Rohrbach “I’m a big believer that to get the American people to agree on transformative change, you’ve got to show bipartisan support,” Virginia Democratic Senate candidate Mark Warner tells Grist. “And I think if we’re really going to get the change in the energy field, it’s going to take that.” Warner, […]

Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney talks to Grist

Cynthia McKinney. Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney sums up her energy policy with a simple, memorable rhyme: “Leave the oil in the soil.” “Right now we’ve got two energy policies in this country,” McKinney told Grist. “One is war, the other is drilling. And neither one of them works.” It’s a message she hopes […]

Author Claire Hope Cummings dishes the dirt on genetically modified food

One of the most encouraging things about the sustainable-food movement is how effortlessly it crosses traditional political-party, religious, ethnic, and other lines. The right to good, clean, and fair food, to borrow Slow Food‘s shorthand, seems to unite people who’d never otherwise find themselves chatting at the same party: Home schoolers and dreadlocked hippies, libertarian […]

Grist talks to New Hampshire Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen

“We can’t depend just on oil,” says Democratic Senate candidate Jeanne Shaheen. “I think people want choices. They understand that we’ve got to address this issue and they want some leadership to get it done.” Shaheen is taking a second shot at beating New Hampshire’s first-term Sen. John Sununu, a Republican with a mediocre record […]

Richard Cizik and enviro religious leaders speak to Grist on climate leadership

Evangelicals have been absent without leave from the climate change discussion, failing to push the Republican Party to take the issue seriously, according to Richard Cizik, the vice president for governmental affairs at the National Association of Evangelicals. Evangelicals, Cizik said, are looking for "prophetic leadership" to champion the climate cause. Surprisingly, he said that voice may not come from traditional conservative circles.

"The advantage that Barack Obama brings to the equation is that he doesn't have the rest of his party -- a significant wing of his party -- telling him to go slow or do nothing," Cizik told Grist last week when he was in Seattle for an exhibition of wildlife photography at the Burke Museum on the University of Washington campus. He stopped by Grist's office with LeeAnne Beres of Earth Ministry and Peter Illyn of Restoring Eden to discuss the need for religion to engage in the climate debate and take responsibility for its lack of action on the "moral and spiritual problems" of climate change.

Evangelicals AWOL from climate debate

2008 presidential race

Though unwilling to endorse any political candidate and open about his personal alliances to the GOP, Cizik did express his disapproval of the Republican party's stick-in-the-mud attitude toward climate change. He called for "bold action," and rejected the "climate-light Bushisms" that the party has been dangling before the American people. He said he "always liked John McCain for his green stand," but recognized Barack Obama as the "greener" candidate who could take climate action without having to drag his party along kicking and screaming.

A pro-life view of creation

Known primarily for focusing on abortion and other social issues, Evangelicals are latecomers to the climate debate. However, as Illyn said, "creation care" can be considered a way to strengthen and enlarge the pro-life vision.

Illyn also acknowledged Barack Obama for his climate positions, but he's not eager to give up on John McCain:

Sen. Robert Menendez chats with Grist about climate legislation

Sen. Robert Menendez. In the Senate debate over the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act last month, Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) stood out as one of the most vocal advocates for making polluters pay to emit greenhouse gases rather than giving them free carbon credits. He also spoke up about the need to spend more on clean technology […]

Green jobs advocate calls on web activists to lead the call for a new, green economy

Van Jones. Van Jones delivered the final keynote address at Netroots Nation today, stopping in Austin to talk about green jobs and the political prospects for addressing both the energy and climate woes of the country. The message from the netroots, he said, should be clear: “We cannot drill and burn our way out of […]

Grist/ReGeneration.org talks to bloggers about how to address the climate and energy challenge

A few more blogger-on-the-street interviews from Netroots Nation. Here’s blogger Liane Allen, who writes at DailyKos and Green Mountain Daily, on climate, energy, and the netroots: Here’s blogger Natasha Chart, who writes at Pacific View: Here’s Gus Ayer of California: And Ilyse Hogue of MoveOn.org, who also blogs at Huffington Post:

Lessig and Netroots folks on climate change

We’re still here at Netroots Nation in Austin, Texas, where Stanford Law School professor and internet guru Lawrence Lessig just noted that climate change is the “most important public policy issue we will face in this generation.” He also talked up Al Gore, referring to himself as a “Gore-ophile.” Lessig recently launched Change Congress, which […]