To tell you that I haven’t been skeptical about the value of a weak Senate climate and energy bill would be lying to you. For one thing, I’m pretty happy with how the EPA has been approaching the regulation of greenhouse gases. I’d hate to see strong programs like this and the Regional Greenhouse Gas […]
The publication of the National Peace Corps Association, WorldView Magazine, takes on global food issues in its latest edition. In the article, “A Push for Self-Determination” Kyle Freund, the Communications Manager for Coffee Kids, writes about the campaign for food sovereignty in Veracruz, Mexico. The article discusses how the people of Veracruz have, with the […]
I was a fan of Gordon Brown on climate change. Among other virtues, he was outspoken about the Denialists and he picked up the ball on climate finance and ran with it after Copenhagen. He is leaving No. 10 today and David Cameron will soon be the new Prime Minister. See this from the AP. […]
Kanayo Nwanze, president of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), recently told Reuters that African governments need to invest more in agriculture to not only feed their people, but to secure jobs and prevent flight from rural areas to urban areas. “You have to invest in the rural economy if you want people […]
I wrote about The Melting Himalayas over a year ago. Notwithstanding the relatively absurd brouhaha in January caused by the discovery of a one-paragraph error in the 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, research on glacier loss in the Himalayas has been continuing apace. The minor peccadillo in the report was […]
I told one of my classes last week, after the Gulf of Mexico disaster, that the next time I heard someone talk about the romance of the internal combustion engine, I was going to deck them. As with coal, so with oil. (See last post below.) We don’t need it, and the sooner we transition […]
I wrote a couple of weeks ago that we most certainly can eliminate coal-fired power plants. Well, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), we not only can, we’re on that track now. How? The answer lies partly in the switch to natural gas. The FT quotes the EIA here: “… in 2009, the […]
In the latest edition of Foreign Policy Magazine, Robert Paarlberg writes about how despite high-profile campaigns to raise awareness of the benefits of growing food organically, the movement’s ethos of “…organic, local, and slow — is no recipe for saving the world’s hungry millions.” Instead, Paarlberg defends industrial farming as the method to ensure a […]
The Petersberg Climate Dialogue took place near Bonn this week. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Mexican President Felipe Calderón brought together environment and climate ministers from 45 countries to “discuss what concrete steps should be taken” prior to the next UNFCCC “Conference of the Parties” (COP) in Cancún in December. Merkel said prior to these […]
I would be remiss if I didn’t point you in the direction of this thoughtful and impassioned column today by Paul Krugman: Drilling, Disaster, Denial. Krugman is eloquent about our complacency. He attributes this, in part, to our many successes in fighting the visible manifestations of pollution: smog-enveloped cities, burning rivers, garbage barges, etc. He […]
Finally! See this from Juliet Eilperin at the WaPo and this from the “Boston Globe.” Plus, here’s the press release from the Department of the Interior. Interior Secretary Salazar said: “With this decision we are beginning a new direction in our Nation’s energy future, ushering in America’s first offshore wind energy facility and opening a […]
Foreign Policy Magazine offers two unique views of global food in its latest issue. In a feature called “The List”, FP‘s Annie Lowrey highlights five global “Food Fights” or disputes linked to food production, trade, safety or national pride. In a photo essay titled, “An Ode to Farming”, FP presents 27 “images of agriculture [from] […]
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