Category Archives: activism

The new Pope, Benedict XVI, in his message for the first day of the new year, had some fascinating remarks to make about "the ecology of peace." Listen to this: Alongside the ecology of nature, there exists what can be called a “human” ecology, which in turn demands a “social” ecology. All this means thatContinue reading “The Ecology of Peace”

Genuine conservatives (as opposed to the Bush administration) have been pointing to the need for conservation of fossil fuel supplies and innovation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for some time now, but this is really a shocker. The prominent conservative Niall Ferguson calls not just for the usual measures of reducing emissions, but for flatContinue reading “Right-Wing Shocker: Conservative Endorses Regulation to Reduce Emissions”

Yesterday the California legislature reached agreement on a deal to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Here’s how the Washington Post introduced the story: In stark contrast to the Bush administration’s consistent opposition to mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change, California’s bill requires its industrial sectors to cut the state’s carbon dioxideContinue reading “California Leads the Way on Air Pollution…Again”

Want to keep your party going? Tired of being labeled a Gloomy Gus? Need something light to say to keep that cute blonde from walking away? Here are a couple of items likely-to-charm in a Cary Grant-ish way…

Don Boudreaux, an economist, argues that to doing nothing is the best policy for global warming. As David, biodiversivist, Deltroid, and Think Progress point out, this argument has a lot of screws loose. (Think Progress also has up a great picture of Boudroux, who looks truly insane. He is also, by sheerest chance, on theContinue reading “Capitalism v. Environmentalism”

I’ve been a bad blogger. Crushed under work, journalism, and a huge party for our good friend Deb Norton’s 40th birthday, I just haven’t been able to focus on blogging, dang it. But I’m not giving up; just trying to find some time. Here’s a snippet from a good column by Tom Friedman (or "TheContinue reading “The Mustache Calls Out Cheney on GOP Denial”

According to ABC News, a small rural electric co-operative in Colorado paid a climate change denier  $100,000 for unspecified activities without informing or asking its members.

"It’s outrageous," Ron Binz, a public utility consultant formerly with the state of Colorado, told ABC. "It’s an abuse of authority. The customers are member-owners. [General Manager] Stan Lewandowski is basically spending other people’s money."

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In Australia, for John Quiggin’s leading enviro blog, a special guest named Charles Young brilliantly deconstructs prominent climate change-dismisser Bjorn Lomborg. Lomborg is a statistician who convenes conferences in Europe to argue that climate change is a trivial problem compared to hunger and AIDS in Africa. (Though, as John Quiggin points out, he wasn’t outspokenContinue reading “Taking on the Skeptics, One by One”

The most entertaining of all nature writers is surely Ed Abbey, a pickup truck novelist and philosopher who pointedly refused to adopt "the lofty stance, the wise man’s tone" when it came to his desire to save the planet from rape and pillage. Orion magazine has just published a sheaf of letters from Abbey notContinue reading “Flower Wrenching! Or, Sunday Morning on the Planet (the Ed Abbey edition)”

If you take a look at media stories and scientific blogs from the UK on the subject of climate change, you cannot help but notice how much further down the road the Brits can see than Americans. Here in this country, for example, righties are a-tizzy over a column by Robert Samuelson calling current attemptsContinue reading “Thinking Ahead on Climate Change Over There: Falling Behind Over Here”