Month: February 2010

Stormy Weather

Saying that climate change is a hoax because there’s a lot of snow in Washington is childish. Can’t we at least pretend to be grown-ups?

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The “Write Your Own Permit” Approach to Climate Mitigation

We seem to be at an impasse. Cap-and-trade seems to be in political disrepute; market-oriented economists must find it aggravating that their idea is now considered too “liberal.”  Carbon taxes give politicians cardiac arrest.  “Command and control” regulation is out of fashion. Perhaps it’s time to try something new. Here’s an alternative that has some …

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The trouble with Chinatown

Ann proposes Chinatown as the greatest environmental movie of all time.  Now, Chinatown is my favorite movie: the poster above is currently hanging on my office wall.  it is a great movie.  But Chinatown can’t be a great environmental movie for one simple reason: It gets the environment wrong. The conceit of Chinatown is that a diabolical …

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The Nuclear Option

According to an NYT report, President Obama has offered loan guarantees for two new reactors. If the project goes forward, it would be the first nuclear reactor built in the United States since the 1970s. In a speech in Lanham, Md., Mr. Obama announced government approval of an $8.3 billion loan guarantee to help the …

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Answering the Climategaters

Want to create a scandal?  Just add “gate” to the end of any noun.  Climategate is a good example.  Real Climate ha an excellent post dissecting the charges of error in the IPCC report, which turn out to be quite insignificant  (and some of them not even errors at all.)  Of course, if you come …

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A Website Named DSIRE

Those who are interested in Clean Tech, particularly from the investment point of view, will want to take a look at the DSIRE site.  Sorry, it doesn’t actually have anything to do with the Tennessee Williams play, I jsut couldn’t resist the play on words. DSIRE stands for Database of State Incentives for Renewables and …

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Pesticides, Science and Politics

Those three can make for a toxic environment, literally and figuratively.  Take the case of methyl iodide, a material so obviously toxic that scientists use it to induce cancer in laboratory experiments.  Arysta LifeScience Corporation has obtained a federal pesticide registration from EPA for use as a fumigant, despite a letter from 50 scientists, including five …

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Simple Answers to Simple Questions

After noting some positive poll results regarding climate change, Cara asks: So, can we get cracking on a clean energy and jobs bill in the Senate? No. This has been another edition of simple answers to simple questions.

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From Songs to Film

So the obvious next step —  in follow-up to the debate about the top ten environmental songs —  is to debate film.  Sean, Cara and I had an e-mail exchange about the topic and decided that environmental films could be divided, roughly,  into three or four categories.  First are the toxic torts/nuclear horror films.  Silkwood, The …

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