As you undoubtedly heard, climate change was mentioned prominently by President Obama in his second inaugural speech. Greens are applauding the strong words but based on his record (or lack thereof) on the climate issue (some believe he is unfairly maligned), and his lofty (unfulfilled) 2008 promises, many are taking a wait-and-see approach. Meanwhile, what to…Continue Reading…
I imagine that some folks in the climate policy and politics arena have been growling at this essay in Nature by Jane C. S. Long. Why would that be? Let’s just say that some advocates for climate reality have a little problem with energy reality. And some of them are probably howling at Andy Revkin for his follow-on…Continue Reading…
I’d say this qualifies for President Obama.
Michael Levi sounds almost bemused as he’s filleting the authors of this argument for a carbon tax: These are very smart guys. The puzzle for me, then, is why they believe what they’ve written. I can’t help but think that there’s a case of climate change myopia at work. A big slice of the political spectrum…Continue Reading…
This is good that The Breakthrough Institute (TBI) is calling out the Heritage Foundation. Even better would be if TBI’s Post-Partisan Power collaborator, the American Enterprise Institute, pushed back, too. Or is this a fight that Steven Hayward would rather avoid? I guess it depends on how strongly he feels about that part in the Post-Partisan…Continue Reading…
This is quite an interesting scoop (underplayed with a bland headline) that John Broder posted last night at the NYT Green blog. Here are the money quotes: “I failed in one aspect of my job,” said General Jones, a former Marine Corps commandant. “I should have advocated much more persuasively for the creation of a…Continue Reading…
This is painful to rehash, but I want to draw your attention to a streak of foreign policy ignorance that persisted in the 2000s. On a related (and more recent) note, four days after President Obama authorized a military campaign against Libya, I found this headline disconcerting: Who are the Libyan Rebels? U.S. tries to…Continue Reading…
That’s essentially what Michael Levi is saying in this smart post. His lament is that energy and related environmental issues are not viewed through a wider lens: Until we can think about security, economics, and environmental risk at the same time, we’re going to have a lot of trouble developing an energy policy that makes sense….Continue Reading…
Guess who’s asking the hard questions on climate science and policy. The U.S. military and geopolitical/security specialists. Earlier this week, an array of of defense, national security and climate experts took part in a conference hosted by the Scripps Oceanography Center for Environment and National Security. This was the symposium agenda and here’s the opener…Continue Reading…
Keith Johnson over at Environmental Capital nails it while sorting out the conflicting goals of Obama’s energy policy. Here’s the kicker of his post that should be read in full: This whole debate just serves to highlight one big truth: The three pillars of Western energy policy””energy security, a cleaner environment, and proper markets””are devilishly…Continue Reading…