Climate & Energy

What would Jacques do?

If Cousteau went to Copenhagen 0
Posted 1 week ago By Brad Matsen If Jacques Cousteau, legendary undersea explorer, were alive today, what he would he tell the gaggle of international delegates heading to Copenhagen in December for those critical climate talks? Cousteau biographer Brad Matsen speculates.
NYT: U.S. Chamber has not expressed support for any proposals to cap emissions 0
Posted 1 week ago By Peter Altman John Broder has an illuminating story in today's New York Times, "Storm Over the Chamber" discussing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's climate crisis and how Thomas Donohue's style exacerbates it. Tellingly, the story begins with an anecdote that suggests where the U.S. Chamber gets its tin ear.
How to Melt Glaciers and Influence People

API and ACCCE spend the big bucks 0
Posted 1 week ago By Peter Altman Coal companies and the nation's biggest railroad association accounted for 50 percent of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity's (ACCCE) $47 million budget in 2008, according to ACCCE's tax return, E&E News reported on Wednesday. Yowza!
Nobody knows nothin'

Reflecting on the lameness of my profession 10
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago By David Roberts For the past few weeks there has been a flood of news about the Copenhagen climate talks and the clean energy bill in the U.S. Senate. Standing in that flood it's easy to get caught up in the atmospherics of frantic action and constant crisis. But step out for a while and it becomes clear just how much of the "news" consists of people who don't really know anything guessing: what things mean, who's thinking what, what the future holds.
Copenhagen is not Kyoto 0
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago By Ned Helme The most common and widespread criticism of the Kyoto Protocol was that it did not require major developing countries like China and India to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and the burden for reducing emissions fell largely on richer nations, like the United States and the European Union. Those concerns will be alleviated in Copenhagen, where a high-level policy agreement is expected to ensure that developing countries take on more responsibility for cutting emissions and paying for programs to do so.
Make the kids pay: The economic effects of climate change on future generations 0
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago By Michael A. Livermore The debate over the economics of climate change boils down to that very calculation: how much are we willing to pay today to avoid climate risks in the future? The simple fact is that as we continue to use fuels that contribute to global warming today, we place major economic burdens on our kids and grandkids tomorrow.
Copenhagen climate crash

Hot planet to Obama: What’s your Plan B? 6
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago By Mike Tidwell The planet just can't endure another year of inaction. Obama should travel to the Copenhagen climate conference in December and guarantee dramatic action from the U.S. in 2010 even if it means blowing everything up in Congress and starting over.
The U.S. Chamber needs to get its story straight 0
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago By Peter Altman The U.S. Chamber seems to be going to great lengths these days persuade Congress that it really wants to help pass climate legislation. But a very different message is coming through its blogs, tweets, and unscripted comments.
Life Magazine ad breaks my brain

Oil: enough energy to melt glaciers! 13
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago By David Roberts The greatest oil ad of all time, from 1962.
Crisis or no crisis, you can't rush change

Copenhagen: Getting past the urgency trap 4
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago By Sara Robinson We didn't get into this mess overnight, and we're not going to get out of it in one dazzling planetary stroke of universal enlightenment, either.