by David Roberts
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Jobs we can believe in
Merkley wants Senate jobs bill to help finance building efficiency retrofits 5
Posted 1 day, 17 hours ago Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with the chairs of six committees that might have some hand in developing the clean energy bill. The question at hand was whether the bill should be pushed back in favor of a short-term focus on finance reform, jobs, and the deficit. Though John Kerry argued vigorously that the clean energy is a jobs bill that won't grow the deficit, it looks like he lost out and there will be some kind of standalone jobs bill in the interim. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is now advocating that any jobs bill include support… Read More -
Won't you run come see St. Judy's Comet
Friday music blogging: Harper Simon 0
Posted 2 days, 1 hour ago I have a huge, huge soft spot for Paul Simon. Simon & Garfunkel was one of the first bands I ever got into (like when I was eight) and I still love virtually everything Simon's ever done. My musical tastes were shaped by his knack for catchy melodies and pretty harmonies. I'm one of the 12 people that bought the soundtrack to his Broadway play. So I was both excited and trepidatious about the musical debut of his son (with his first wife) Harper Simon. Read More -
Nobody knows nothin'
Reflecting on the lameness of my profession 9
Posted 3 days, 16 hours ago 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. Read More -
Life Magazine ad breaks my brain
Oil: enough energy to melt glaciers! 12
Posted 4 days, 4 hours ago The greatest oil ad of all time, from 1962. Read More -
Know thine enemy
Is Bill McKibben right to be angry with Obama? 35
Posted 5 days, 15 hours ago In his latest column, Bill McKibben lays into Obama for insufficient leadership on climate change. But the many sins ascribed to Obama almost all trace back to a different source. Properly identifying the barriers to change is the first step in effective political action. Read More -
Extending the runway
Delaying an international climate treaty: not as bad as it looks 27
Posted 6 days, 15 hours ago The big news this weekend was that a coalition of world leaders made it official: there will be no full-fledged, legally binding agreement out of the Copenhagen climate talks. Instead there will be what's being called a politically binding agreement, pledging to work out a full agreement in 2010 -- "one agreement, two steps." This was Denmark PM (and Copenhagen host) Lars Lokke Rasmussen's way of salvaging a half-win from what was threatening to be a total loss. Of course opponents of climate action are portraying it as a disaster that augers the death of UNFCCC process; they do that… Read More -
One reason Congress might consider scrapping the filibuster 9
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago Lester Brown came to our office today and had a nice chat with us Gristers. (Have you watched my diavlog with Brown? It's must-see tv!) The guy is wicked smart. One thing from our chat jumped out at me. Read More -
Cleaning up after the enemy of the human race
Is “we’re going to burn the coal anyway” an argument for carbon sequestration? 40
Posted 1 week, 2 days ago A frequent argument one hears in favor of a heavy focus on carbon sequestration goes like this: fossil fuels are fantastic energy carriers, dense, portable, and cheap. People will burn them up no matter what. So we might as well figure out a way to make them low-carbon by sequestering their emissions. It's a way to buy time as we figure out other clean energy options. It's a seductive argument -- it sounds easier to convince people to clean up what they're already doing than to persuade them to do something entirely different. But I don't think it holds up… Read More -
Wyoming uber alles
How 7.4% of Americans can block humanity’s efforts to save itself 9
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago A couple weeks ago I wrote a piece on what's really killing climate legislation: the absurd procedural chokepoints in the U.S. Senate, coupled with an unprincipled minority devoted to obstruction. I'm happy to report there's been an uptick lately in people trying to draw attention to this problem. One thing to add to the discussion is that it will take 67 U.S. senators to ratify an international treaty out of Copenhagen. That means representatives of a tiny minority in America can scuttle the entire undertaking. Read More -
Is this thing on?
Lester Brown and I, diavlogging 5
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago I recently recorded my first BloggingHeads TV ... episode? diavlog? not sure what they're called ... with Lester Brown, focused on the latest edition of his book: Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization. My main takeaway from the experience is that I need a much better microphone on my laptop. The sound is pretty awful on my end. Also I'm long overdue for some beard maintenance. And media training. There's some chit-chat and technical glitches toward the beginning, but we get rolling about 5 minutes in. Read More
