| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Create a diversion
Diverting war spending to green investments is both politically possible and neccesary |
Gar Lipow |
02 May 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Is it possible to divert war spending into green investment? (David is skeptical.) The current military budget for fiscal year 2008 is around 650 billion dollars, not including supplemental requests, which so far have been made every year since the Iraq war started. That $700 billion-plus total compares to the around $400 billion of military spending in 2001. Given the current unpopularity of the Iraq war, would it really be politically impossible to gain public support f ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, Congress, environmental movement, politics (all these topics) |
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Get it right the first time
Carl Pope of the Sierra Club lays out a blueprint for an effective climate bill |
Guest author |
14 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following is a guest essay by Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. ----- There are moments when a choice of pathways shapes the future -- and makes success either feasible or impossible. In light of the fact that all of the remaining leading presidential candidates call for some kind of action on global warming, and the Lieberman-Warner bill is already working its way through the Senate, almost everyone recognizes that sometime in the n ... |
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| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, environmental movement, legislation, politics (all these topics) |
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Newt Gingrich's 'green conservatism'
It's not an alternative, it's a subset |
David Roberts |
10 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Newt Gingrich has a new book out called A Contract with the Earth, which purports to outline a "green conservatism." For a summary, you can check out this brief op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. I approached it with an open mind -- eagerly, even. There's nothing I would like more than for a vibrant green conservatism to join the debate over the best way to accomplish green goals. That would be an enormous step forward from the current situation. ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, messaging, Newt Gingrich, politics (all these topics) |
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Why do we respond to bozos?
Churchill, not Chamberlain |
Ken Ward |
07 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| Why are we letting pro-fossil fuel bozos hijack the only forum that environmentalists and climate-change activists have for wrestling with the daunting task of transforming America? I posted a few practical suggestions in response to David's question, 'Should we be rebutting the skeptics?' I'm going to restate one proposal -- to adopt a Craigslist-type policy allowing Grist readers to flag inappropriate posts. Gristmill is a forum for conversation and debate between ... |
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| Topics: Al Gore, climate, climate change mitigation, climate change skepticism, climate science, environmental movement, politics (all these topics) |
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What to do now?: Conclusions and recommendations
A little something to take home with you |
Ken Ward |
07 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| ((brightlines_include)) It is within the capacity of U.S. environmentalists to refocus our energies on a tougher, more realistic climate agenda. We have the necessary resources, skills (in alumni as well as current staff and leadership), political power, and principles of action. The things we lack -- a national structure, institutional support services, strategic planning, a dedicated environmentalist core -- could be put in place if it were a priority. Cost, it mus ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change impacts, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, politics (all these topics) |
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Two kinds of environmentalism
Technoscientific and ... not |
David Roberts |
03 May 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I've been musing a bit on two different sorts of environmentalism, and I've recently come across two good exemplars. First, in Orion, Curtis White argues that environmentalists are involved in a futile enterprise as long as they fight from within the system -- as long as they use technoscientific, rationalist, bureaucratic language to fight problems that technoscientific, rationalist bureaucracies have wrought. We shouldn't blame big bad corporations. We are the pr ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, green living, politics (all these topics) |
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A convenient truth
In nearby Bothell |
Clark Williams-Derry |
17 Apr 2007 |
Gristmill |
| The Seattle Times is reporting on a Bothell family -- the Fraleys -- who are attempting to cut their family's greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 percent in May. Bully for them, and best of luck! Still, there's something about the Times account of their experiment that rankles, just a bit. It leaves a casual reader with the impression that reducing carbon emissions is a total pain in the behind. To wit: [The Fraleys] will try to reduce the household's greenhou ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, green living, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics, Seattle (all these topics) |
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No sweat solutions to global warming: a series
A reintroduction |
Gar Lipow |
16 Apr 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I'm restarting my series on solutions to global warming, both on how to phase out fossil fuels and the best means to sequester carbon, because I consider the topic a critical one. The carbon lobby has mostly (not entirely) given up disputing that global warming is occurring. They know that they won't be able to confuse the public on its human-caused nature much longer. But a final stalling tactic is open to deniers -- to pretend that nothing can be done, or at lea ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, green living, messaging, politics (all these topics) |
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Walking backwards from cataclysm: A strategic planning methodology
The basic approach of the Bright Lines project |
Ken Ward |
16 Apr 2007 |
Gristmill |
| ((brightlines_include)) After a decade of brutal political trench warfare, the surreal debate in the U.S. on the reality of climate change is over. A Democratic Congress looking to put climate in play in 2008, serious buy-in for federal regulation from a band of corporate heavyweights, and a rash of climate conversions from the likes of Pat Robertson and Frank Luntz (author of the infamous strategy memo advising Bush administration operatives how to muddle the clima ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, messaging, politics (all these topics) |
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Awkward thoughts
From a new contributor |
Tom Athanasiou |
28 Mar 2007 |
Gristmill |
| I feel like I ought to introduce myself, since Dave just upgraded me to contributor, but maybe I've already been introduced. I'm the 'more inconvenient truths' guy! But I take the point. The expiry date has passed. I won't say it any more. Not much anyway. All I ask is that nobody say 'tipping point' either. Or 'building momentum.' Nobody imply that technology is going to save us. And I won't say 'inconvenient truth' ever again. Actually, there is this one other ... |
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| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, environmental movement, politics (all these topics) |
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