What happens when you cross John Nash’s view of human behavior with Isaiah Berlin’s concept of human freedom? You get the reason why we may never chart an environmentally sustainable course. This is the interesting argument that Kurt Cobb lays out over at The Oil Drum. His conclusion is dispiriting: The way to win any…Continue Reading…
Would climate change have greater urgency in the public mind if we started talking more about adaptation? I realize many climate advocates fear that such a discussion is a slippery slope to non-action. But it needn’t be. In fact, I believe that more stories and chatter about the growing humanitarian concerns of near-term climate change…Continue Reading…
Last summer, Bill McKibben argued in Orion magazine that global warming is essentially a literary problem. A technological and scientific challenge, yes; an economic quandary, yes; a political dilemma, surely. But centrally? A crisis in metaphor, in analogy, in understanding. We haven’t come up with words big enough to communicate the magnitude of what we’re…Continue Reading…
Joe Romm rarely disappoints. Nary a day goes by when he isn’t showcasing his intolerance, inconsistency, and disaster fetishism. Let’s highlight the most recent best of the worst, starting with the bile he spewed on Friday to kick off the long holiday weekend. You won’t find any disgust expressed by Climate Progress readers (or such…Continue Reading…
Sure, Waxman-Markey has left the station, and that’s going to be reason enough for cap and trade fence-sitters to hop on. But as Grist’s Kate Sheppard reminds us, the ride is going to get pretty rough, with plenty of agonizing stops along the way. So with that in mind, if anybody wants to hop off,…Continue Reading…
If all the main players and policy instruments in the congressional debate over climate change were represented in a demolition derby, here’s what it might look like: In a brand new Lexus GS, a Democratic politician (Waxman-Markey) is behind the wheel, clumsily groping at an anorexic cap and trade bill in the front passenger seat….Continue Reading…
Environmentalism, for all its success, is still largely shaped by its elitist roots. It also remains a movement made up of upper-middle class whites, something leaders of established environmental groups had cause to lament after Obama was elected president. In recent years, scholars and journalists have written books on how this lack of racial and…Continue Reading…
Krugman goes to China and makes a stunning discovery: I have seen the future, and it won’t work. Seriously, though, the rest of his column effectively highlights–momentarily, at least–the grim specter hanging over the global warming debate, otherwise known as the “China problem.”
Are you having the same recurring nightmare, the one where you, WALL-E and Marc Morano (who is grinning maniacally) are the last inhabitants on earth? Does the sight of Bjorn Lomborg make you physically ill? Do you find yourself crying uncontrollably every time another chunk of the Antarctic ice sheet melts into the sea? If…Continue Reading…
The riddle of EPA’s reluctance to consider soot a contributor to global warming has befuddled me since I read this story, which I thought made a solid case: While carbon dioxide may be the No. 1 contributor to rising global temperatures, scientists say, black carbon has emerged as an important No. 2, with recent studies…Continue Reading…