|
| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Cluster frack
Rights of humans, rights of nature |
Erik Hoffner |
03 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Two items I've been tracking while away for a blissful two weeks of vacation here on the Atlantic shore, one hopeful, one awful: Hopeful: Ecuador is poised to grant rights to nature and ecosystems in a referendum this month. The idea originated in the U.S. -- in Pennsylvania -- as some small towns fought odious land uses like hog farms. Some language from the proposal is here. Rest assured that oil companies busily fouling Ecuadoran forests are not in favor. ... |
|
| Topics: climate, climate equity, international politics, politics, wilderness (all these topics) |
|
|
Putin's ruthless gambit
The Bush administration falters in a geopolitical chess match |
Guest author |
02 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from energy analyst Michael T. Klare. It was originally run on TomDispatch; it is reprinted here with Tom's kind permission. ----- Many Western analysts have chosen to interpret the recent fighting in the Caucasus as the onset of a new Cold War, with a small pro-Western democracy bravely resisting a brutal reincarnation of Stalin's jack-booted Soviet Union. Others have viewed it a throwback to the age-old ethnic politics of southeastern Europe, ... |
|
| Topics: fossil fuels, international politics, natural gas, oil, politics, Russia (all these topics) |
|
|
Bona Biden
Why Biden is such an important pick for those who care about the climate |
Joseph Romm |
25 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Catastrophic climate change is the primary preventable threat to the health and well-being of all Americans -- as readers of this blog already understand and as pretty much everyone else will figure out in the coming years. Keeping total planetary warming as low as possible -- ideally below 2°C, which it turn requires keeping atmospheric concentrations of CO2 below 450 ppm -- will become the central organizing principle for all U.S. energy, environmental, economic, ... |
|
| Topics: China, climate, international politics, politics, presidential race 08, Russia (all these topics) |
|
|
Globalization death watch, part III
Either we'll be green or we'll be poor |
Jon Rynn |
19 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The United States trade deficit is threatening to upend globalization as we've known it. The rise in the price of oil has been leading to a similar result: an international trading system in which there is much less trading. Now, that may actually be a good thing, in the long-run, but in the case of the United States it might happen in a very chaotic way. This problem that has been accelerating since George W. Bush took office: The United States has been buying many mor ... |
|
| Topics: business, economy, green jobs, international politics, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Somebody has to be Hitler
Time to choose between a new cold war with Russia and a new cold war with Iran |
Gar Lipow |
19 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| It seems that centrist Mark Kleiman thinks continued Iran bashing is a bad idea because it is time 'to give a hard time to' Russia. This belated opponent of the Iraq war seems to think that the point of ending that bloodbath is to turn our firepower against the appropriate new enemy -- to be named later. Apparently, it is not just Republican hawks for whom the 21st century will never arrive, because the year is eternally 1938, and the place eternally Munich. Peace is fo ... |
|
| Topics: international politics, Iran, oil, politics, Russia (all these topics) |
|
|
Russia and the limits of oil wealth
Oil wealth contains the 'seeds of its own destruction' |
Michael Moynihan |
15 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Originally posted to the NDN blog. The reappearance of a belligerent Russia on the world stage, buoyed by high oil prices and newfound wealth, would appear to signal a new era in global politics. For anyone still clinging to the idea of the unipolar moment, the spectacle of Nicholas Sarkozy brokering a deal between Russia and Georgia, shows that the moment of a single superpower is probably over, and something like a return to the era of the Great Powers, at best, ... |
|
| Topics: economy, fossil fuels, international politics, oil, politics, Russia (all these topics) |
|
|
The (not-so) Great Game
Oil geopolitics of the Georgia pipeline |
Tom Philpott |
14 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I'd like to be a fly on the wall for the upcoming talks between Condoleezza Rice and the Russian leadership. From The New York Times, May 6, 2006: A day after chastising Moscow for its use of oil and natural gas as "tools for intimidation or blackmail," Vice President Dick Cheney visited Kazakhstan on Friday to promote export routes that bypass Russia and directly supply the West. With his comments, Mr. Cheney waded into a messy geopolitical struggle for ... |
|
| Topics: fossil fuels, international politics, oil, politics, Russia (all these topics) |
|
|
Re: the Russia-Georgia unpleasantness
|
David Roberts |
11 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Let's not forget that recent fossil fuel prices have boosted Russia's power considerably, and without any of the messy work required to empower an independent judiciary or build democratic institutions. Let's also not forget that Georgia houses two large oil pipelines.If John McCain really wants to constrain Russia, he'll help lead America and the rest of the developed world to a post-fossil-fuel energy system, ASAP. That will accomplish a hell of a lot more than chest ... |
|
| Topics: politics, international politics, fossil fuels (all these topics) |
|
|
It's Oly Temporary
Olympic Games begin; pollution worries, haze hang over opening ceremonies |
|
08 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 6:06 AM on 08 Aug 2008 The Beijing Olympic Games have officially begun. The opening ceremony kicked off at 8:08 p.m. local time on 08/08/08. So far, pollution readings are said to be moderate, with various Olympic officials and health authorities declaring the Games largely safe for athletes and visitors -- as long as they're just passing through and their sporting events last less than an hou ... |
|
| Topics: air pollution, China, international politics, news, Olympics, politics, sports (all these topics) |
|
|
The 'psychological effects' of threatening war with Iran
|
David Roberts |
06 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Steve Clemons makes a point worth repeating -- if you're worried about "psychological effects" on oil speculators, perhaps a better strategy than hyping offshore drilling is dialing back the warmongering rhetoric toward Iran. |
|
| Topics: economy, international politics, Iran, oil, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Notable quotable
Extreme exceptionalism |
David Roberts |
18 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| 'America is the most selfish country. From the way they talk, Americans believe even if the world disappears, America wouldn't disappear.' -- Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, on the U.S. not joining the Kyoto Protocol |
|
| Topics: international politics, Japan, Kyoto Protocol, politics, quotables, United States (all these topics) |
|
|
Notable quotable
We're number one! |
David Roberts |
10 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter!' -- President George W. Bush, bidding farewell to the G8 meeting with a joke, upon which 'Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy looked on in shock |
|
| Topics: G8, George Bush, international politics, politics, quotables (all these topics) |
|
|
The long journey from denier to delayer
Bush hits the climate alarm snooze button at G8 |
Joseph Romm |
09 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The NYT's Andy Revkin dissed the G8 climate statement with the blog headline, 'Rich and Emerging Greenhouse-Gas Emitters Fail to Set Common Long-Term Goal for Cuts.' The headline of the NYT's article on the subject, however, is 'Richest Nations Pledge to Halve Greenhouse Gas.' The Grist story begins, 'world leaders reached a landmark deal: agreeing to cut emissions in half by 2050,' calling it a 'significant step' for the Bush Administration, whereas NRDC's internatio ... |
|
| Topics: climate, G8, greenhouse-gas emissions, international politics, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
World Bank responds to Guardian biofuel report
Bank chief Zoelick hints his old boss Bush is full of it on biofuels and food prices |
Tom Philpott |
09 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| As I reported a few days ago, the Guardian recently uncovered what it called a 'secret' World Bank assessment holding U.S. and European biofuel boosterism largely responsible for the recent run-up in global food prices. You know, the one that has pushed 50 million new people under the poverty line globally, and essentially priced tens of millions of already-poor folks out of food markets. (The government-engineered biofuel boom has also unleashed a veritable tsunami of ... |
|
| Topics: biofuels, food, international politics, politics, World Bank (all these topics) |
|
|
We Said What We Parliament
E.U. committee vote signals backstep from biofuels |
|
08 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 5:11 PM on 08 Jul 2008 The European Union took another step back from biofuels late Monday, as the Parliament's environment committee approved 36-0 a proposal to lower the E.U.'s original target for biofueled transportation. The committee's proposal would have the E.U. source just 4 percent of transportation fuels from biomass by 2015, then do a major review before jumping to the current target of 10 percent ... |
|
| Topics: biofuels, energy, European Union, international politics, legislation, news, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Sachs Education
Jeffrey Sachs, economist and eco-problem solver, chats about his plans to save the world |
Amanda Griscom Little |
08 Jul 2008 |
Grist Feature |
| Jeffrey Sachs speaks at the University of North Carolina. Photo: Kevin Tsui Jeffrey Sachs -- the renowned economist who devised a grand plan in 2005 to rid the world of poverty -- is now focused on an even broader ambition: saving the planet and all of us who call it home. His new book, Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet, explores the crises ... |
|
| Topics: books, climate, environmental movement, international politics, United Nations (all these topics) |
|
|
To Half and to Hold
G8 nations agree to cut emissions 50 percent by 2050 (sort of) |
|
08 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 7:51 AM on 08 Jul 2008 At this year's Group of Eight meeting in Japan, the world's richest nations more or less agreed to cut greenhouse-gas emissions 50 percent by 2050. While the agreement is notable since it means President Bush has budged ever-so-slightly on the climate issue, the group's statement on the cuts is little more than a carefully worded pledge to keep negotiating. At last year's G8 meeti ... |
|
| Topics: climate, climate change mitigation, G8, international politics, news (all these topics) |
|
|
Humanity's meltdown
Living on the ice shelf |
Guest author |
26 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from Mike Davis, author of In Praise of Barbarians: Essays against Empire and Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom's kind permission. ----- Farewell to the Holocene Our world, our old world that we have inhabited for the last 12,000 years, has ended, even if no newspaper in North America or Europe has yet printed its scientific obituary. This Feb ... |
|
| Topics: carbon trading, climate, climate science, economy, energy, international politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Mother Earth's triple whammy
Why North Korea was a global crisis canary |
Guest author |
18 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This is a guest essay from John Feffer, co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies and the author of numerous articles on food policy and on North Korea. It was originally published on TomDispatch and is reprinted here with Tom's kind permission. ----- Gas prices are above $4 a gallon; global food prices surged 39 percent last year; and an environmental disaster looms as carbon emissions continue to spiral upward. The global ... |
|
| Topics: agriculture, climate, energy, international politics, North Korea (all these topics) |
|
|
Boon for bluefins
The European Union closes fishing season early |
Andrew Sharpless |
17 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| It's been said over and over again: Eastern bluefin tuna cannot handle the pressure they face from overfishing. These sleek and powerful fish are unlucky enough to be among the world's most coveted seafood species, and for years scientists have called for a moratorium as a last-ditch effort to save these genetically pure, irreplaceable creatures. While strict quotas have been in place for years, poor quota enforcement and illegal fishing have driven the bluefin ... |
|
| Topics: agriculture, endangered species, European Union, fishing, international politics (all these topics) |
|
|
In China, we'll win or lose
China's emissions are an argument for, not against, America taking action |
Ryan Avent |
16 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The fight against global warming: China has clearly overtaken the United States as the world's leading emitter of carbon dioxide, the main heat-trapping gas, a new study has found, its emissions increasing 8 percent in 2007. The Chinese increase accounted for two-thirds of the growth in the year's global greenhouse gas emissions, the study found. But here's the kicker: The United States still has a vast lead in carbon dioxide emissions per person. The average ... |
|
| Topics: China, climate, economy, greenhouse-gas emissions, international politics (all these topics) |
|
|
Better Living Through Chem-Mystery?
E.U. chemical-registration and testing law kicks in; industry gets huffy |
|
12 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:58 PM on 12 Jun 2008 The European Union's comprehensive chemical law, REACH, is finally starting to take effect, requiring manufacturers and importers of chemicals to begin registering their products with a new regulatory agency. The REACH law was heavily diluted between its first introduction and final passage due to heavy pressure from the chemical industry, but it's still ... |
|
| Topics: business, European Union, international politics, news, politics, toxics (all these topics) |
|
|
We'd Like to Thank the Academies
Science academies of 13 nations urge G8 to tackle climate change |
|
10 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 7:27 AM on 10 Jun 2008 Ahead of the G8 summit in Japan next month, the science academies of 13 nations, including the United States, urged the G8 nations as well as Brazil, China, India, Mexico, and South Africa (G8+5) to agree to cut world greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2050. "We urge G8+5 leaders to make maximum efforts to carry this forward and commit to these emission reduct ... |
|
| Topics: climate, international politics, news, politics (all these topics) |
|
|
I Know What You Did Last Summit
U.N. food summit ends without agreement on solutions |
|
05 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 12:14 PM on 05 Jun 2008 A high-level three-day United Nations food summit ended Thursday without wide agreement on solutions to the world food crisis. At the meeting, delegates sparred over trade barriers, biofuels' role in keeping food prices high, agricultural subsidies, how food aid should be spent, and how much aid to give. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the conference by declaring that ... |
|
| Topics: agriculture, food, international politics, news, politics, United Nations (all these topics) |
|
|
At Least He'll Be Better Than Ours
Brazil swears in new environment minister |
|
28 May 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 3:01 PM on 28 May 2008 Carlos Minc was sworn in as Brazil's environment minister on Tuesday. Minc succeeds Marina Silva, who quit after six years of uphill battling to protect the Amazon rainforest from development. Greens are cautiously optimistic about Minc, who was a founder of Brazil's Green Party, a former environment secretary in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and one of 500 winners of a 1989 United Natio ... |
|
| Topics: Amazon, Brazil, international politics, news, politics, rainforests (all these topics) |
|
|
|
©2008. Grist Magazine, Inc. All rights reserved. Gloom and doom with a sense of humor®.