Climate Change
California Works to Promote Energy Efficiency Retrofits
California has much to brag about when it comes to energy efficiency. Per capita, the state’s residents use far less energy than our national counterparts while enjoying an equal or better standard of living, thanks to energy efficiency standards developed in the 1970s: But the state is committed to doing better. Last week, I was …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate, Energy, and the Presidential Race
Michele Bachmann ripped into Tim Pawlenty last night for his past support of cap-and-trade. “When you were governor of Minnesota, you implemented cap and trade in our state…. you said the era of small government was over. That sounds a lot more like Barack Obama if you ask me.” Several of the other candidates have …
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CONTINUE READINGClimate Deniers: Stupid or Evil?
It’s an interesting psychological question, actually. Fox News’ climate change “expert,” the appropriately-named Joe Bastardi, claims that the theory of anthropogenic climate change cannot be true because it contradicts what we call the 1st law of thermodynamics. Energy can be neither created nor destroyed. So to look for input of energy into the atmosphere, you have …
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CONTINUE READINGSome Thoughts About Environmental Disasters
In an environmental disaster, a disaster causes environmental harm, environmental change causes an acute risk to humans, or both take place. Examples include the BP Oil Spill, the London killer for of 1952, the 2003 European heat wave, and the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Climate change will intensify the connection between disaster issues and the environment. …
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CONTINUE READINGHow Do You Solve a Problem Like Conservative White Men? Ask the Ol’ Perfesser
Dave Roberts wants to know. Roberts alludes to a recent survey showing that conservative white men are the most likely group to be climate deniers. (We can put this in the “knock-me-over-with-a-feather” department, although it would be interesting to see how this works with conservative white women). More interestingly, the study (with assistance from Roberts) …
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CONTINUE READINGComparing the future of marriage equality and climate change policy
A little under 15 years ago (Sept. 21, 1996) President Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which prohibited same-sex marriage for federal purposes. Just over a year later, global negotiators agreed to the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was intended to create an international framework to control …
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CONTINUE READINGMillenium Development Goals Report 2011
We’re a little late on this, but early last month the United Nations issued its 2011 Millenium Development Goals report, which really should be at the top of the environmental community’s focus. Usually, the MDGs are thought of simply as concerning poverty and development, but of course these issues deeply concern the environment. More directly, although not …
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CONTINUE READINGPricing Carbon: How Would It Affect the Poor?
We need to put a price on carbon, but there is no reason why we should do so in a way that harms the poor.
CONTINUE READINGSome Good News, For a Change
The NY Times reports: On Friday, when President Obama is scheduled to announce even stricter standards — in fact, the largest increase in mileage requirements since the government began regulating consumption of gasoline by cars in the 1970s — the chief executives of Detroit’s Big Three are expected to be in Washington again. But this …
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CONTINUE READINGIs Climate Denial Like Appeasing Hitler?
Britain’s Energy Secretary thinks so: World leaders who oppose a global agreement to tackle climate change are making a similar mistake to the one made by politicians who tried to appease Adolf Hitler before World War Two, British Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Huhne said on Thursday…. “This is our Munich moment,” he added, referring to …
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