Climate Change

Just a quick note:  A former student of mine jumped in the other day with some comment about the recent nuclear power announcement from the White House.  Here is her take and my response. For a stunningly strong and incisive analysis, go to Kate Sheppard’s article yesterday at “Mother Jones.”  One of the several eye-opening […]

I’ve been trying to stay out of the thick of the vastly media-inflated controversy over the science.  There are folks, in any event, who are much better grounded in the complexities of the arguments than I am.  These include the very good minds at RealClimate, Skeptical Science, Stoat and Climate Feedback, among others.  I have […]

I’ve been looking at energy and environmental policy for many years and I’m usually happily surprised when things take a smart turn.  Even thoughtful, progressive policymakers like Barack Obama, though, wind up making bone-headed calls.  Obama offers nuclear plant loan guarantee, as the FT reports, is one good example. I’m, to put it politely, less-than-sanguine […]

There was, of course, a lot of coverage from me, and much of the rest of the world it seems, on the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) in Copenhagen in December – before, during and since.  One of the critical agreements to come out of the conference was on finance.  Pledges were made by […]

I’ve written about the environmental devastation inherent in the development of Canada’s tar sands a few times, so here’s a quick update:  ForestEthics is effecting change in getting some big companies to tell their fuel suppliers they don’t want gasoline that uses tar sands oil.  Whole Foods and Bed Bath & Beyond are on board.  […]

The Obama Administration has announced the creation of a new national service to study and report on climate change.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, already deeply involved in climate science and reporting, will be the parent agency.  In this article, CBS News quotes NOAA’s head, Dr. Jane Lubchenco:  “More and more people are asking […]

Sorry if I seem to be (relatively) blithely indifferent to the many and varied blows that climate change legislation, international agreement and even climate science appear to have been sustaining over the past several months, but I remain quite hopeful that legislation and diplomacy will continue to advance and, even more so, that clean tech […]

In a story yesterday in the “NY Times” about the Europeans upgrading their factories – and saving jobs while doing it – a Siemens operation in Berlin was highlighted.  Because of the commitment by this 163-year-old company to sustainability, they have spent $700 million to develop new, low carbon turbines.  The kicker for me comes […]

I had a good time the other night talking about climate change policy and politics with Amanda Little on The Hyperbole Hour. We’re on the same wavelength.  (You can download the show as an mp3 file and listen in from around 29 minutes.) One of the points we made was that we really need to […]

You can’t beat that.  Catching up on my reading, I came across this terrific article, Construction plant, from the FT from a couple of weeks ago.  Hemp is the building material that can work wonders.  (This reminds me of biochar, one of the most exciting developments in agriculture and horticulture to come along in a […]

I wrote in September about what I identified as Tom Friedman’s Strange Call on China.  I was reporting that the “NY Times” hadn’t printed a letter I’d written in response to one of Friedman’s columns – Our One-Party Democracy – and so wanted to share the column and response.   Funny thing:  They did print […]

I’ll be in august company tonight, discussing climate change on The Hyperbole Hour.  Gavin Schmidt will be talking about climate science, and Amanda Little and I will be kicking around some policy and politics.  I had the opportunity to review Gavin’s book, Climate Change: Picturing the Science, for “Nature Reports Climate Change” and I had […]