Economy | Grist

Forget Polar Bears and PPM

Top 25 reasons to give a damn about climate change 13
Posted 1 day, 2 hours ago So you're not moved by melting glaciers? Here are a few other reasons to pay attention to climate change, from supermodels to super-hungry rats.
More clunker debunkers

Cash for Clunkers brought us ... more clunkers! 29
Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago So how did Cash for Clunkers work out from an environmental standpoint? Don't ask. The most common deals swapped old pickup trucks for new pickup trucks that got only marginally better gas mileage.
Yeah, we said billion

A $4 billion push to make affordable housing green 0
Posted 1 month ago Today brings news of a major investment in making affordable housing greener, and an ambitious call for an even bigger national conversion. Find out who's behind it.
PONZICONOMY

Our global pyramid scheme 3
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Today's mismanaged world economy is like a giant global illusion. If we keep overpumping, overgrazing, overplowing, overfishing, and overloading the atmosphere with carbon dioxide, how long before our pumped up Ponzi-conomy unravels and collapses?
Placemakers

Stockton Williams on urban retrofits, Obama, and the sexiness of caulking guns 1
Posted 1 month, 3 weeks ago What do you call a consortium of global foundations and banks intent on using energy retrofits to create jobs for low-income people? You could call it dreamy -- or you could call it Living Cities. We talk with the group's green-economy expert.
Amigo, Can You Spare a BTU?

Mexican peasants pay the price for U.S. energy consumption 3
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago Chances are, the average U.S. citizen has no idea that their demand for electricity might require that a Mexican village be flooded for a hydroelectric dam.
The clean-energy investment agenda 6
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago The United States is having the wrong public debate about global warming.
Make way, wonks -- the rest of us are coming to the table

Climate change is a poverty issue 20
Posted 2 months ago
Why does an anti-poverty activist care about carbon emissions? Because climate change is an economic-justice issue. Regardless of how our government ultimately decides to handle climate change policy, poor people will be affected. They can be included in the new clean energy economy or they can be further pushed out in the cold.
Wonkeriffic!

An interview with Jason Burnett, who worked on EPA greenhouse gas regulations 0
Posted 2 months ago

The following is an interview with Jason Burnett, who worked in the EPA under President GW Bush, wherein we discuss efforts by the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases. Burnett quit the EPA in protest in June 2008, alleging interference from the Office of the Vice President.

The interview is meant as a supplement to the story, "Everything you always wanted to know about EPA greenhouse gas regulations, but were afraid to ask."
Everything old is new again

Thoreau, Walden and civil disobedience in the age of climate change 10
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
What the sacred text of old-school environmentalism can teach the climate change movement, and why it won't leave me alone.
Don't mess with him

Badass mayor builds bridges between working class and enviros 3
Posted 2 months, 4 weeks ago
John Fetterman might look like a steelworker, but he's actually the 40-year-old, Harvard-educated mayor of Braddock, Pa., trying to revitalize his town with green jobs and an urban farm.
Things that go clunk in the night

Cash-for-Clunkers to end Monday night, for real this time 2
Posted 3 months ago
The "Cash for Clunkers" program has been so successful that it will have to be wrapped up earlier than expected, the Obama administration announced on Thursday.
Ya down with NRDC?

NRDC Action Fund goes on offense against opponents of climate action 3
Posted 3 months ago
The Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund is bashing representatives who voted against the House climate bill as "villains" and lauding reps who voted for it as "heroes" in a new campaign.
Are you with Don Blankenship or against him?

We are all from Wise County 2
Posted 3 months ago
Want to get really angry about health care and global warming? Not the ginned-up rage of the Obama-was-really-born-in-Kenya crowd, but an anger that fires you up to take action in the name of justice? Anger like the rage felt by so many white Northerners and Southerners in 1963 when they saw Birmingham's fire hoses turned on patriotic African-Americans, a rage so profound that they too joined the civil rights revolution?

Well I invite you, in a brief audio and video tour, to bear witness to what's happening in Wise County, Virginia.
How much is that brainwashing in the window?

Our addiction to cheap stuff has become very expensive, new book argues 24
Posted 3 months ago
Ellen Ruppel Shell, author of Cheap: The High Cost of Discount Culture, explains the history, psychology, and dangers of the American romance with bargain hunting.
NAM spam

National Association of Manufacturers claims climate bill would crush economy 6
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
In shocking news, water is still wet, the sky is still blue, and the National Association of Manufacturers is still predicting economic catastrophe if the United States acts against climate change. NAM, in partnership with the American Council for Capital Formation, released a new study on Wednesday of the climate and energy bill that the House passed in June.
The revolution will be televised

Gore’s group targets swing senators in new climate ads 1
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
New ads from Al Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection are pushing swing-vote senators to back climate and clean-energy legislation, touting the job-creation angle.
But is it working?

Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes—and questions 2
Posted 3 months, 1 week ago
The sight of car buyers back in showrooms these past two weeks has raised hopes that U.S. consumers are ready, primed by government stimulus, to spend again. But questions remain.
Block party

Obama admin teams with grassroots groups to ‘Green the Block’ 1
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
Green the Block is a new effort by the White House and two grassroots organizations -- Green for All and Hip Hop Caucus -- to bring the benefits of green jobs and clean tech to poor and underserved communities.
Surprising?

GOP opposes successful “Cash for Clunkers” 2
Posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago
“Cash for Clunkers” proves better for saving oil and CO2 — and for the economy — than predicted. So of course Senate GOP opposes it