Climate Change & the Clean Air Act
Bryan Walsh at Time has put up a good
Author Archive
Double Shocker
The mind reels: In what might be one of the most remarkable about-faces ever to come from within the beltway, James Inhofe, Senator and minority ranking member of the Environment and Public Works Committee (R. OKLA), apologized to a stunned Senate chamber for calling climate change the “greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people.”…Continue Reading…
The Oil Price Lever
Steve LeVine at Foreign Policy has a fascinating post that is best described by his tweet: Could we be headed back to $55-a-barrel #oil? If you believe that#stimulus money saved the economy, the answer is yes.
Global Warming Flashback
Leo Hickman at the Guardian unearths a time capsule. He asks of his readers: But does anyone remember this advert from 1993, let alone a resulting controversy? And if shown again today on primetime television, would it go uncontested? In an update at the end of his post, Hickman reports that only two complaints were…Continue Reading…
India's Suicide Epidemic
Earlier this week, I wrote a post that questioned the accuracy of this statistic in an article by Michael Kugelman, a scholar in the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson Center: Yet, when food prices fall, India’s small farmers suffer. Already crippled by debt and encumbered by water shortages, 200,000 of them have committed suicide over…Continue Reading…
Gallup Poll: Climate Change is Least of Concerns
There’s a new Gallup survey on environmental issues that will trigger a round of cheers and jeers in the climate blogosphere, depending on where you align. The main finding: With Earth Day about a month away, Americans tell Gallup they worry the most about several water-related risks and issues among nine major environmental issues. They…Continue Reading…
Follow the Cotton
Global food security concerns are about to ratchet up: “There’s a lot more money to be made in cotton right now,” said Ramon Vela, a farmer here in the Texas Panhandle, as he stood in a field where he grew wheat last year, its stubble now plowed under to make way for cotton. Around the first…Continue Reading…
The Peak Oil "Crush"
Charlie Petit at Science Tracker has a confession. He doesn’t think he’s the only one, either: A lot of science journalists who cover energy issues have probably gone through an infatuation stage, and then break-up, with a seductive actor: Peak Oil. It appeals to any reporter trying to cover a beat where numbers and natural…Continue Reading…
The Zero Sum Nuclear Debate
Michael Levi on why we don’t have a rational discussion: Most advocates can’t admit that there are any downsides to nuclear power. Most opponents can’t accept that nuclear power has anything going for it. But a commenter at his site, who is a Stanford law professor and energy policy expert, makes a good point about…Continue Reading…