Month: September 2014

California Becomes First State to Ban Disposable Plastic Bags

Other Single-Use Shopping Bags Also Restricted Under New Law

California has become the first state in the nation to ban major retail stores from providing single-use carryout plastic bags to their customers.  The new legislation similarly prohibits stores from selling or distributing recycled paper bags unless the store makes such bags available for purchase for no less than 10 cents per bag. The new law, …

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2014 Senate Races and the Environment: Alaska and Colorado

Two anti-environmental Republicans versus a moderate and an environmental advocate.

Alaska and Colorado may both think of themselves as having a link to the frontier, but they’re also very different in terms of demographics and dependence on the oil industry.  The Senate races in the two states are also similar in some ways but not others, perhaps reflecting the more diverse economy of Colorado. In …

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Human Fingerprints on Australia’s Record Heatwave

Australia — or at least Australia’s current government — downplays the danger of climate change.   But, as a famous physicist once said, “reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.” Last summer in Australia (corresponding to the winter months up here) broke many, many records.  it was the hottest summer on record, …

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The Greening of Post-Apocalypticism?

David Mitchell’s Masterpiece Provides a Perfect Epigraph — and Epitaph — for Environmentalism

A few weeks ago, I finished reading David Mitchell’s magnificent Cloud Atlas, a few months after seeing the still-excellent but-not-as-magnificent movie based upon it. The novel comprises a series of linked stories ranging from the mid-19th century to a post-apocalyptic future 300 years in the future. And that last story, profound and heartbreaking, tells us …

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Reflections on My Climate Ride for UCLA’s Emmett Institute

I’ve just returned from completing the Climate Ride from New York City to Washington this week, on behalf of UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. As Ann posted earlier, funds raised through the ride benefit the Emmett Institute and Dan Emmett is generously matching, dollar for dollar, every contribution up to $50,000.  …

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Bay Area Tries to Screw the Poor

It’s bad enough when folks from the Bay Area pretend that they are smarter and more sophisticated than everyone else. It’s bad enough that they trash southern California (inaccurately) for “stealing” its water from the Owens Valley while enjoying water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. But trying to undermine environmental justice while pretending to be …

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What’s a March FOR?

Increase Your Intensity

With all the coverage that the huge (400,000 person) People’s Climate March has received in the media, we still have to ask: what is a march for? How exactly does it fit into a coherent political strategy to combat global warming? You might say that by pointing to the media coverage, I have answered the …

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Two Voices from the UN Climate Summit Today

Flags of the Union for the Mediterranean

A President and a poet on our climate future

If you want a sense of the tone of today’s UN climate summit in NY, check out the remarks by President Obama (pasted below in full) and this remarkable poem, composed and read to the General Assembly today by Kathy Jenil Kajiner of the Marshall Islands.  Ms. Kajiner was selected as a key speaker from …

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Guest Blogger David Schraub: Vermont Environmentalists File FTC Challenge over “Double-Counting” RECs

David Schraub is the Darling Foundation Fellow in Public Law at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Represented by Patrick A. Parenteau and Douglas A. Ruley of the Vermont Law School’s Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic, four Vermont residents have petitioned the FTC to investigate alleged misleading marketing practices by Green Mountain …

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2014 Senate Races and the Environment: Georgia and North Carolina

Two GOP candidates: a cipher on environmental issues and a Romney clone.

Last week, I looked at the Republican Senate candidates in the neighboring states of Arkansas and Louisiana.  This week, we turn to two other Southern neighbors, Georgia and North Carolina.  (Before you rush to email me that they’re not neighbors because South Carolina is between them, take another look at the map — Georgia and …

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