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 4 days, 9 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 35
Posted 5 days, 10 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 1 week, 1 day 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

Spin me baby one more time

On “climategate” 6
Posted 17 hours, 36 minutes ago by David Roberts
Jeff Masters gets at something in his great piece on the "climategate" e-maelstrom that most press coverage leaves out: this isn't our first time around the track. The Manufactured Doubt industry has been around for decades, working to thwart regulatory constraints on large corporations that make dangerous products. Not only are all the same techniques being used in the same way on climate change, in many cases they're being used by the same people and institutions that fought against tobacco, CFC,… Read More
We're with you. Really.

Climate deniers, hold your fire! 10
Posted 1 day, 4 hours ago by Andrée Zaleska
As climate change skeptics ratchet up the rhetoric, climate activist Andree Zaleska has an urgent message for the deniers out there: we agree! Read More
China, India, U.S. commit to seal Copenhagen deal 2
Posted 3 days, 10 hours ago by Keith Schneider
With global allies pressing for a commitment to emissions reductions, the White House and Beijing announced critical steps in the last week that may move the world as close to a binding agreement on climate change as possible. Read More
Don't mess with Texas (Ranger)

Chuck Norris on Copenhagen 15
Posted 4 days, 3 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 4 days, 3 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 4 days, 5 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 4 days, 8 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 41
Posted 4 days, 17 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 5 days 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 24
Posted 5 days, 1 hour 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 8
Posted 5 days, 1 hour 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 5 days, 6 hours ago by Adam Browning
Read More
Kids just say no—to fossil fuels 0
Posted 5 days, 10 hours ago by Osha Gray Davidson
Making buildings more efficient: rationalizing retrofit markets 5
Posted 5 days, 17 hours ago by David Roberts
Capturing the massive social benefits of fuel efficiency requires regulation 6
Posted 6 days ago by Michael A. Livermore
Copenhagen talks ready for take off: 5, 4, 3… 0
Posted 6 days, 1 hour ago by Geoffrey Lean
Treat energy efficiency like a utility 0
Posted 6 days, 5 hours ago by Tom Laskawy
Bring on all the water news—the good, the bad and the ugly 0
Posted 6 days, 5 hours ago by Daniel Moss
Is there a tradeoff between economics and the environment? 0
Posted 6 days, 4 hours ago by Tom Konrad
Bill McKibben says time is running out on climate delays 1
Posted 6 days, 4 hours ago
Copenhagen, U.S.A. December 7 2
Posted 6 days, 6 hours ago by Jeff Biggers
Obama administration may (finally) offer greenhouse-gas targets 4
Posted 6 days, 5 hours ago by Jonathan Hiskes