Australia’s repeal of its carbon tax
A lot of (bad) environmental law news has been coming out of Australia recently. The new Liberal government has attempted to dump dredging spoils on the Great Barrier Reef and open up protected Tasmanian forests to logging. But most importantly, the government has repealed the carbon tax enacted by the prior Labor government. The Australian carbon tax repeal is a cautionary tale for climate policy and politics. For climate policy, it makes clear the political risks of...
CONTINUE READINGSolar Plus Storage May Be a Good Deal for Some
One company says that photovoltaics with battery storage are cost-competitive for some businesses now.
A battery company called Coda Energy says that a combination of solar photovoltaics and onsite storage can be cost-competitive with utility electric service for some larger customers. That is according to an online article on greentechgrid. Solar is still a more expensive option for power production than fuels such as natural gas, and various energy storage options are considered to be overly expensive, as well. So how is it possible that Coda Energy has it right? If ...
CONTINUE READINGWorking-class Environmentalism
New JAH Article Points to Labor Support of Environmental Justice
Traditional histories of the environmental movement consider it to be a middle-class or upper-middle-class concern, removed from the grittier kitchen table issues of concern to working people. Not so, says Josiah Rector, in an article in the new Journal of American History, entitled "Environmental Justice at Work: The UAW, the War on cancer, and the Right to Equal Protection from Toxic Hazards in Postwar America." Here is the abstract: Josiah Rector analyzes a series o...
CONTINUE READINGCalifornia 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, SB 270 (Padilla), was signed into law by California Governor Jerry Brown today. (Governor Brown actually announced his ...
CONTINUE READING2014 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 both cases, the Republican candidates are have anti-environmental records. The difference is on the Democratic side, where the Alaskan candidate has a mi...
CONTINUE READINGHuman 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, contained the hottest month, and also the hottest day in Australian history. Now, the NY Times reports, five i...
CONTINUE READINGThe 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 something interesting about contemporary environmentalism. When I was growing up, post-apocalyptic literature w...
CONTINUE READINGReflections 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. The experience was an amazing one that I thought worth sharing. The ride was beautiful, hard, and moving. Five days, thr...
CONTINUE READINGBay 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 progressive is going too far: Bay Area public officials are challenging a state plan to spend hundreds of millions o...
CONTINUE READINGWhat’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 question. But media coverage is not a goal. It is a method, which brings us back to the original question. A method for what? The theory of social movements seems to b...
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