During George W. Bush’s two terms, environmentalists and archaeologists complained (with justification) that the oil & gas industry was allowed to run roughshod over Western public lands. I wrote a bunch about this for numerous magazines, from Audubon and Mother Jones to High Country News and Archaeology. The same question arose in all these stories:…Continue Reading…
That’s what Geoffrey Lean suggests is needed to counter what he calls the “swiftboating” of climate science in the wake of Climategate. He argues that “environmentalists must bear a fair share of the responsibility” for the rising number of people who don’t believe in global warming (according to recent polls). He partly blames the “backlash”…Continue Reading…
That’s the title of a fantastic piece by Chris Turner in the October issue of The Walrus, a Canadian magazine. He turns the typical environmental tale of crisis on its head, suggesting that, We need a new kind of story, a new template for our ecological philosophy “” one that acknowledges what we have lost…Continue Reading…
Do leading Democrats and enviros want a climate change bill so bad that they are being snookered by Republicans? Absolutely, argues Roger Pielke, Jr: The take over of climate policy by the Republican agenda is the most over-looked aspect of this entire debate. Perhaps those covering the horse race can’t see the forest for the…Continue Reading…
Jackson Lears has a must-read essay in the current issue of TNR that leads off: In contemporary public discourse, concern for “the environment” is a mile wide and an inch deep. Even free-market fundamentalists strain to display their ecological credentials, while corporations that sell fossil fuels genuflect at the altar of sustainability. Everyone has discovered…Continue Reading…
Following the logic of that Grist article I cited in my last post, this commentary on the congressional climate bill strikes me as pretty “radical,” coming from a well-respected, mainstream greenie like Bill McKibben: If you pass half a health care bill, you can always come back in a decade. People will suffer in the…Continue Reading…
Interesting headline by Grist. Once upon a time, radical greens might have been called monkey-wrenchers, bombers, arsonists, whale defenders, even tree-sitters. Today, if you belong to a green group that is agitating against the congressional climate bill, because you think it’s not strong enough to curb global warming, you might as well be a traitor…Continue Reading…
I’m starting to feel bad for No Impact Man. He’s not getting much respect lately from NY media elites. Several weeks ago, Elizabeth Kolbert dissed him in The New Yorker, prompting his eloquent and polite rejoinder here. Today, with the release of the movie that chronicles his widely publicized environmental stunt, (he must hate that…Continue Reading…
Who knew (or remembers) that George Kennan, the father of U.S. containment policy, once argued for a world environmental organization? Will Rogers over at Natural Security has a nice retrospective post on Kennan’s 1970s clarion call, which appeared in the pages of Foreign Policy. As Rogers summarizes, Kennan notably advanced the international environmental governance debate…Continue Reading…
There’s no doubt that I live a “greener” life in Brooklyn than I did while living in crunchy granola Boulder the previous year. Of course, I already miss Colorado’s vistas, the fox bounding past our spacious abode in the glorious foothills, and most of all, the house’s washer/dryer. But the one thing I don’t miss…Continue Reading…