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  • California’s water woes worsen

    NASA just released a disturbing report on California’s shrinking water supplies: New space observations reveal that since October 2003, the aquifers for California’s primary agricultural region — the Central Valley — and its major mountain water source — the Sierra Nevadas — have lost nearly enough water combined to fill Lake Mead, America’s largest reservoir. […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • George W. Bush’s man in Copenhagen

    COPENHAGEN — To understand how global climate negotiations reached such a troubled state before the U.N. talks began here last week, one could do worse than to look to James L. Connaughton. James L. Connaughton headed George W. Bush’s Council for Environmental QualityFile photo / Wikimedia CommonsFor eight years, Connaughton was the top White House […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology

  • Gregoire: ‘America is back in its rightful position’

    Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire (D) is in Copenhagen for the last few days of the climate conference. I sat down with her for a brief interview. An edited transcript follows: Q. The spirit of optimism is higher in my conversations with governors than with any other officials at this conference. What drives your optimism and […]

    Amanda Little Technology

  • Big business’ climate conundrum: lead, follow or obstruct

    Is that government out front, or big business?iStock PhotoCOPENHAGEN — The most popular American CEO here these two weeks, at least among other business leaders, has been Duke Energy chief Jim Rogers. Which doesn’t make much sense, as Duke generates most of its electricity from coal, the dirtiest of fossil fuels. Consider Rogers’ own confession: […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology

  • Natural gas as a near-term CO2 mitigation strategy

    Discussions of CO2 reduction tend to start from a presumption of near-term economic disruption coupled to long-term investment in green technology. The presumption isn’t right. The U.S. could reduce its total CO2 footprint by 14-20 percent tomorrow with no disruption in our access to energy services, without investing in any new infrastructure. The Waxman-Markey proposal […]

    Sean Casten Technology

  • The Governors are Coming

    What do a thousand jailed demonstrators, President Obama, a dozen Fortune 100 CEOs, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, and a melting ice sculpture of a polar bear have in common? Two things. First, they are all part of the climate talks in Copenhagen that finally start in earnest this week after ten days of street […]

    Terry Tamminen Technology

  • New research: Fructose increases risk of diabetes, heart disease [UPDATED]

    You should lay off the sauce–it’s not good for your liver. [Author’s Note:] This post, reacting to the findings of a University of California, Davis, study on fructose, quoted and relied heavily on an error-laden Times of London story. That said, the post generated a lot of valuable discussion in the comments section below, including […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • Cellulosic ethanol: time to ‘party like it’s 2014’?

    Cellulosic ethanol, after 30 years of R&D (much of it on the public dime), is ready to deliver on its promises. No longer perpetually five years away from commercial viability, the technology has come into its own. Unlike pretender energy sources like wind and solar, cellulosic is the “‘shovel-ready,’ ‘fire when ready’ technology for short-term […]

    Tom Philpott Technology

  • Silicon Valley to Copenhagen: It’s OK to fail, if you do it right

    If at first you don’t succeed …a lesson from Silicon Valley for climate policymakers.iStock PhotoCOPENHAGEN — At the “To Be or Not To Be” business summit at Hamlet’s Castle over the weekend, one French executive joked about not trusting a business that was less than 150 years old (ah, those witty folk from “old Europe” […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology

  • In Hamlet’s Castle, a royal court looks out for itself

    Forty-seven kilometers up the coast from Copenhagen, at the narrowest passage between Denmark and Sweden, the 435-year-old Kronborg Castle stands as one of the most magnificent structures in a country that does not lack for stunning architecture. It was the setting where Shakespeare imagined his Hamlet, the clash of rivalries among aristocrats that ends in […]

    Jonathan Hiskes Technology