Barack Obama

A Walk Through the Week's Climate News

The Climate Post: You heard it here first—Copenhagen a success 0
Posted 1 day, 3 hours ago 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.
Australia’s Rudd slams the “deniers” and the “gaggle” of “conspiracy theorists” opposing climate action

Obama takes on the anti-scientific delayers 0
Posted 2 days, 4 hours ago
Tortoise and the hare -- a clean energy tale

Winning the clean energy race: a new strategy for American leadership 3
Posted 2 days, 16 hours ago You know times are changing when China, the world’s greatest polluter, and other Asian nations are poised to dominate the burgeoning global clean-tech industry by out-investing the United States. That’s the conclusion of a large new report we co-authored called "Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant," released this week by the Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.
BFF's?

U.S. and China announce plan for collaboration on clean energy and climate change 0
Posted 3 days, 5 hours ago On Tuesday in Beijing, U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao announced a comprehensive plan for U.S.-China cooperation on clean energy and climate change, and it's much more ambitious than we had anticipated. The plan calls for a number of cooperative programs on clean energy technologies and capacity building, and some important steps to help China build an accurate inventory of its greenhouse-gas emissions.
Know thine enemy

Is Bill McKibben right to be angry with Obama? 34
Posted 3 days, 17 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.
We need more than rhetoric and excuses

Mr. President: Time to quit fibbing and spinning 10
Posted 3 days, 18 hours ago President Obama has, at least for now, punted on the hard questions around climate, as evidenced by the announcement from the APEC meeting in Singapore that next month's Copenhagen climate talks will be nothing more than a glorified talking session.
On what day will Obama sign the bipartisan climate and clean energy bill into law?

The environMENTALIST contest 0
Posted 4 days, 10 hours ago
Letter From Europe

From hopeful climate to climate of despair 11
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago Barack Obama's 2008 election victory sparked real hope in international circles that the United States would again be a leader on addressing climate change. Less than a year later, the mood has shifted as it becomes increasingly clear that Obama's hands are tied by an intransigent Congress.
A Walk Through the Week's Climate News

The Climate Post: Where there’s a Will there’s a fray 0
Posted 1 week, 1 day ago No prominent columnist spends more energy prying climate rhetoric and understanding farther apart than Newsweek and Washington Post columnist George Will.
Merkel threatens no-show at Copenhagen climate talks 1
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday she would only attend December's crunch climate conference in Copenhagen if the U.S., China, and India first make clear their negotiating positions.
Obama will go to Copenhagen—if he can seal a deal 3
Posted 1 week, 3 days ago President Barack Obama said on Monday that he would go to the Copenhagen climate conference in December if his presence there would really help clinch a deal. Will there be enough progress to motivate him to come?
ISI isn't so popular

New allies in fight against Obama’s pesticide lobbyist nominee 1
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago I'm sure many of you have seen the various petitions zipping around the Internet encouraging opposition to President Obama's nomination of pesticide lobbyist Islam "Isi" Siddiqui to the Office of the United State's Trade Representative. The argument against him goes something like this:
Fulfilling his promise as the green FDR

One year after his election, Obama on verge of audaciously fulfilling his promise as the green FDR 1
Posted 2 weeks, 2 days ago What team Obama has accomplished in the year since he was elected is nothing less than an unprecedented reversal of decades of unsustainable national policy forced down the throat of the American public by conservatives.
pressure cooker

Obama urges climate action as Europe ups pressure on U.S. 3
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago President Obama on Tuesday said it was "imperative to redouble our efforts" to combat global warming, as European leaders pressed Washington to take action on climate change ahead of next month's summit in Copenhagen.
common but differentiated despondencies

Rich countries halt Barcelona climate talks with inaction; Africa walks out 4
Posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago African negotiators at the U.N. climate talks in Barcelona refused to continue formal discussions about all other issues until wealthy countries live up to their legal and moral responsibility to commit to deep emissions reductions.
Obama launches climate push with December goal 0
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago U.S. President Barack Obama's Senate allies launched a major push Tuesday behind sweeping legislation to battle climate change, with time running short before a high-stakes global summit in December.
President Obama announces $3.4 billion investment to spur transition to smart energy grid 0
Posted 3 weeks, 3 days ago As the Senate debates the Kerry-Boxer climate bill in Washington, President Obama travelled to Arcadia, Florida to announce a $3.4 billion investment in to modernize the U.S. energy grid. Grist shares the official White House press release on the president’s new smart grid proposal.
Open Letter from a Coal River resident

Dear Mr. President: We face a national security threat on Coal River Mountain 2
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago I write to you in a moment of urgency. In your address at MIT last week, you told students that the “Pentagon has declared our dependence on fossil fuels to be a security threat.” Here in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, our mountain communities face a security threat that calls for immediate federal intervention.
Obama speaks on climate action from MIT 0
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago
Obama says ‘It’s hard to say’ why critics of clean energy accuse him of socialism 1
Posted 4 weeks ago The current system has reaped great rewards for the ultra-wealthy and the industrial polluters at the expense of the health and welfare of their fellow Americans. To avoid blame for their malfeasance, they must paint Obama as the villain, and his essential reform agenda as even scarier than the status quo, with language that taps into the darkest fears of the American public.