So, the environmental movement drew the proverbial line in the sand: no Keystone XL pipeline. We’ve been fighting the tar sands for years, and will continue, but the Keystone XL has been the first clear solid rallying point and the first time in years that we greens have
I went to an interesting event last week, the first of a four-part series: Discourses on Nature and Society. The discussion by a star panel of energy and environment experts was titled Energy for the Next 20 Years: Protecting the Environment and Meeting Our …
I’ve written a good number of times here about how I admire what the Obama Administration has achieved in the teeth of vigorous – some might say fanatical – opposition from Republicans on the Hill and elsewhere, as well as from Democrats too, mostly those beholden to …
Having done the Year End Review, I’ve been looking a bit at some of the end of year/beginning of year lists lately and thought I’d share some of these. (Sorry to have been off the air for so long, but I had final papers to …
The final paper assignment for my class on energy and the environment at NYU’s MS in Global Affairs program this semester was to “…provide for all the energy needs of the world in the year 2050.” I said “In the next 40 years, we will …
An agreed outcome with legal force – That’s the major aim of the conferees from the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that wrapped up its work this past weekend in Durban. What that headline phrase signifies, according to …
The year is certainly not over yet – the annual international UN climate conference is ongoing in South Africa for the next ten days. Nevertheless, here’s a quick look at what we’ve seen – and what we might expect in 2012.
Casting back to my …
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came into being at the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the convention got underway yesterday in Durban, South Africa. There are 194 countries …
As you undoubtedly know, thousands of people, young and old, descended on Washington on November 6th, ringed the White House and told the President that the Keystone XL pipeline was not in the best interests of either the US or the planet. The …
The UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has produced four comprehensive Assessment Reports since 1990 detailing the science behind climate change, the impacts, ways to mitigate our radical forcing of the climate system, and ways to adapt to the clear, present, and intensifying dangers that this crisis …
As I noted recently, the pressure is building on the Keystone XL pipeline. 350.org and the many brothers and sisters who have been affiliating themselves with their actions to stop the pipeline – and indeed the tar sands development in Alberta – were in Washington …
I went to hear a most interesting talk the other night, centered on how we need to get much smarter, quick, about agriculture and what we eat. Jonathan Foley, the Director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota, gave the broad …
I’ve written about or referenced the Keystone XL project and the Alberta tar sands a fair number of times, including at this post for DeSmogBlog. The picture shows protesters at the White House last summer. The folks at 350.org led the demonstrations there and are organizing another
Easy conversion of biomass to oil for transportation fuels and other purposes? It’s a fine thing, particularly if you are using waste products like forest or agricultural wastes, or garbage. I have two caveats, though: (1) Why not make the biomass into biochar? It does …
The good folks at Masters in Environmental Science have collated some very good infographics on climate change that are worth your seeing. Here is one on the “carbon footprint” that shows how different countries are performing both on a gross output basis and …
