Climate & Energy

News and views on global warming, the impact of coal and other fossil fuels, and alternative energy options

Maverick harms

For McCain, it’s really all about the fake snow 0
Posted 2 days, 12 hours ago by Tom Philpott
Once a fighter on behalf of climate legislation, McCain has recently been mumbling Palinesque denialist platitudes. What gets his famous temper boiling these days? Two words: fake snow. As in, not enough of it. Read More
Cloudy with a chance of apocalypse

‘Copenhagen Diagnosis’ offers a grim update to the IPCC’s climate science 30
Posted 3 days, 13 hours ago by Jonathan Hiskes
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- the world’s foremost body for weighing and assessing climate science -- received a kick in the pants today from members who say the climate situation is much worse than the IPCC has so far reported. Read More
From wreaths to positions

City preps and countries posture ahead of Copenhagen talks 4
Posted 6 days, 12 hours ago by David Turnbull
It's an exciting time to be in Copenhagen reflecting on a year of intense pressure, activity, and engagement around the world. The last time I wrote, I was convincing myself, and others, that all was not lost for December. Now, on this bright and sunny day, I'm as convinced as ever that world leaders can achieve an ambitious outcome in Copenhagen if they try. Read More

More Climate & Energy

Don't mess with Texas (Ranger)

Chuck Norris on Copenhagen 9
Posted 2 days, 6 hours ago by Tom Athanasiou
A lot of dreck comes across my desktop. I'm even on a list called "ennui mail," and some of it is utterly irredeemable. But still I took notice when Chuck Norris: Copenhagen Talks To Forge "One World Order" blew in. Read More
One of Climate Deniers favorite dodges is Water Vapor

Climate Denial Crock of the Week: The big mist take 1
Posted 2 days, 7 hours ago by Peter Sinclair
One of the most contentious of climate crocks is the role of water vapor in climate change. And climate deniers are always trying to fog the issue. But don't be scared, Crock of the Week is here, to help make sure you don't get sucked in. Read More
The U.S.-India climate ‘partnership’ 0
Posted 2 days, 8 hours ago by Jonathan Zasloff
At least that’s what the White House is calling it. Does it mean anything? Maybe. Read More
Obama going to Copenhagen 0
Posted 2 days, 11 hours ago by Agence France-Presse
President Barack Obama will attend the climate summit in Copenhagen next month and offer to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent from 2005 levels by 2020, officials said Wednesday. Read More
Singin' in the rain

What to make of the new climate poll 36
Posted 2 days, 20 hours ago by David Roberts
There's a new Washington Post-ABC News poll out on climate change; Juliet Eilperin's got a good piece up about it (despite the terrible headline, for which she is not responsible). Having watched this story bounce around, I'm frustrated yet again by how these polls are discussed. Here's how I would write the lede to the story. Read More
Remembering People Power in Seattle in 1999 and Berlin in 1989

Learning how to count to 350 0
Posted 3 days, 4 hours ago by Rebecca Solnit
Next month, at the climate change summit in Copenhagen, the wealthy nations that produce most of the excess carbon in our atmosphere will almost certainly fail to embrace measures adequate to ward off the devastation of our planet by heat and chaotic weather. Activists -- farmers, environmentalists, island-dwellers -- around the world will try to write a different future, a bolder one, and if anniversaries are an omen, then they have history on their side. Read More
‘Everybody’s Scared To Be A Skeptic’

SuperFreak Dubner embraces ClimateGate conspiracy theories 17
Posted 3 days, 4 hours ago by Brad Johnson
Stephen J. Dubner, co-author of SuperFreakonomics, has embraced charges by the right wing that a handful of illegally obtained private emails means that the scientific consensus on climate change is actually a dangerous conspiracy. Read More
Notable Quotable

Obama administration officials grateful for early spring 2
Posted 3 days, 4 hours ago by Ashley Braun
When a bill to address climate change gets put off, be grateful that climate change itself pitches in to help. Read More
Grading the states on net metering and interconnection standards

Freeing the grid 0
Posted 3 days, 9 hours ago by Adam Browning
Read More
The Kids Are Alright. Not So Sure About the Adults.

Kids just say no—to fossil fuels 0
Posted 3 days, 13 hours ago by Osha Gray Davidson
See how one young activist is rallying his fellow teens to fight climate change -- and what happened when he took his message to D.C. Read More
Toward a more perfect invisible hand

Making buildings more efficient: rationalizing retrofit markets 5
Posted 3 days, 20 hours ago by David Roberts
As I said in my last post, taking energy efficiency in buildings seriously means expanding our policy horizons beyond the blunt tool of raising energy prices. We have to think in creative ways about how to remove market and behavioral failures that inhibit cost-effective responses to today's energy prices. How can we make efficiency markets more rational and robust? What follows is not intended to be comprehensive, just to call out some of the bigger challenges and a few interesting attempts to overcome… Read More
Capturing the massive social benefits of fuel efficiency requires regulation 6
Posted 4 days, 4 hours ago by Michael A. Livermore
This Friday is the deadline for public comments on the stricter vehicle efficiency standards from EPA and the Department of Transportation. The docket is likely to be overrun with statements for and against the regulation that would make cars and light trucks 30 percent more efficient in 5 years. Read More
Copenhagen talks ready for take off: 5, 4, 3… 0
Posted 4 days, 4 hours ago by Geoffrey Lean
Treat energy efficiency like a utility 0
Posted 4 days, 8 hours ago by Tom Laskawy
Bring on all the water news—the good, the bad and the ugly 0
Posted 4 days, 8 hours ago by Daniel Moss
Is there a tradeoff between economics and the environment? 0
Posted 4 days, 7 hours ago by Tom Konrad
Bill McKibben says time is running out on climate delays 1
Posted 4 days, 8 hours ago
Copenhagen, U.S.A. December 7 2
Posted 4 days, 9 hours ago by Jeff Biggers
Obama administration may (finally) offer greenhouse-gas targets 4
Posted 4 days, 8 hours ago by Jonathan Hiskes
Environmental education in Guinea Bissau 0
Posted 4 days, 10 hours ago by Tim Bromfield
Making buildings more efficient: looking beyond price 5
Posted 4 days, 18 hours ago by David Roberts
Newtongate: the final nail in the coffin of Enlightenment thinking 0
Posted 5 days, 5 hours ago by Gar Lipow