Carol Browner Tapped as ‘Climate Czar’

Along with Obama’s appointment of Stephen Chu to Energy Secretary comes word that he has chosen a so-called ‘climate czar’. Browner will likely be instrumental in implementing Obama’s climate policy. Like Obama, she supports a cap-and-trade policy, an extremely promising way to reduce greenhouse gases. In fact, Browner called for the winner of the 2008 [...]

Food and Climate Change: Part 1

The author attended a two-part lecture series on Food and Climate Change hosted by the Sustainable Food Initiative at Brown University. This is the first of two posts recapping the main points and providing analysis of the lectures.
Christopher Cook, journalist and author, gave the first in this two-part series. He called his “Just Food Nation”. [...]

OECD Nations Unwilling to Internalize the Costs of Climate Change

One of the developments out of the UN Climate Talks this week in Poland was the launching of an Adaptation Fund to help poorer nations deal with the disastrous effects of climate change such as drought, floods and rising sea levels. Where the fund fell short was its endowment as just $80 million dollars [...]

The “Smartest” Cabinet Choice Yet

According to NBC, President-elect Obama will choose Nobel laureate Steven Chu as his Energy Secretary.
MSNBC
In addition to being one of the brightest minds to ever occupy a cabinet position, Chu is also an incredible realist when it comes to biofuels. He has taken an environmental approach in his analysis of our energy situation, realizing [...]

The Inane Ramblings of a Climate Change Denier

Glenn Beck: Where’s the warming?
NOTE: I do not intend this as a straw man against climate change skeptics who have the ability to apply statistics and logic to their analysis. This is simply a critique of some terribly constructed and false arguments.
Glenn Beck on his radio show today:
All right, let’s see. Well, first [...]

Is this type of advocacy beneficial?

Reuters
A group of skiers, including former olympians, were brought in by the WWF on Friday to the U.N. climate talks in Poland. The group handed a petition to Polish Environment Minister Macjiec Nowicki, urging the U.N. talks to consider the impact climate change is having on their sport. Along with the irony of [...]

The Myth of Being Too Poor for Sustainability

One myth regarding sustainability just never seems to go away: the notion that it is expensive. It came to the forefront again during this past US Presidential Campaign. Mr. Obama has expressed strong support for environment, something for which he should be commended. Instead, he was attacked for being impractical.
The American voters subsequently choose Obama [...]

Worsening Greenhouse Gas Picture

Over the past month, new information has provided even more reason to get serious about greenhouse gases. Peat which has been absorbing  atmospheric carbon is drying out, and even more alarming, some scientists believe the carbon situation has already gone too far.

Continuing the Fight Against Buzzwords – “Green Job”

President-elect Obama’s proposed economic stimulus package, with the goal of creating millions of “green jobs”, seems like a panacea able to fix our ailing economy, cut our reliance on foreign energy and mitigate the effects of climate change. While the details and price of the plan have not yet been worked out, we know [...]

The Barrier to an Economic Recovery

As retirement accounts shrink, jobs become more difficult to find, houses are foreclosed upon and the nightly news is dominated by talk of recession, the price of energy has been one bright spot for people struggling to pay their bills.  While prices of gasoline have fallen by 50% since the middle of the summer, the [...]