Politics | Grist

A Walk Through the Week's Climate News

The Climate Post: You heard it here first—Copenhagen a success 0
Posted 1 week, 4 days ago By Eric Roston A week of anticlimaxes saw President Barack Obama conducting a less-than-exuberant swing through China, the international community conceding a binding climate treaty at the COP-15 negotiations in Copenhagen, and U.S. lawmakers postponing to the spring of 2010 consideration of climate policy -- even as talk of a legislative "plan B" surfaced.
NYT: U.S. Chamber has not expressed support for any proposals to cap emissions 0
Posted 1 week, 4 days 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.
Nobody knows nothin'

Reflecting on the lameness of my profession 11
Posted 1 week, 4 days 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 1
Posted 1 week, 5 days 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.
Copenhagen climate crash

Hot planet to Obama: What’s your Plan B? 6
Posted 1 week, 5 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.
Crisis or no crisis, you can't rush change

Copenhagen: Getting past the urgency trap 4
Posted 1 week, 5 days 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.
Tuna Blues

So long and thanks for all the fish 47
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago By Tom Laskawy There was some hope recently that the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the organization charged with managing the Atlantic tuna fishery, would listen to its own scientists and ban commercial Atlantic bluefin tuna fishing so that the species might survive. Nope.
Two senators push to ramp up nuclear energy 3
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago By Agence France-Presse Two senators unveiled legislation Monday to double U.S. nuclear energy output in 20 years and foster clean energy options with "mini-Manhattan Projects" named for the original U.S. atomic bomb push.
U.S. Senate puts off action on climate bill until 2010 1
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago By Agence France-Presse The U.S. Senate will act in early 2010 on legislation to battle climate change, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Tuesday, ending hopes of a breakthrough by next month's global talks.
Hu knew what progress they'd make!

Subtle but important shifts in global warming positions announced by U.S. & China 6
Posted 1 week, 6 days ago By Jake Schmidt China and the U.S. announced on Tuesday a Joint Statement and a package of agreed actions on clean energy.