I had the good fortune to be involved with some very smart activists back in the 1980s who were working on acid rain. One of these was the Environmental Defense Fund’s senior scientist Michael Oppenheimer. Michael’s been at Princeton for a number of years and among his many projects, he co-curated the compelling climate change […]
I’ve written about the revolution in low-tech. “Teach us delight in simple things …” are words, in my opinion, by which to live. I wrote about a different view of freedom in which the idea of using less energy and consuming fewer resources might actually be construed as liberating. I’ve quoted Bill McKibben in my […]
India is under pressure to come forward with more assertive action indicating it is going to take part in a mandatory regime of greenhouse gas reductions. It has, unfortunately, been saying much the opposite: that it will not sign up to quantifiable emission reductions. (See last post below.) China and India have been marching, if […]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is off to India to talk of many things, not the least of which is climate change. In a session at the Council on Foreign Relations earlier in the week, she said “We know that India and China have understandable questions about what role they should be expected to play […]
Desertec Takes Another Giant Leap – I’ve written a few times about this project, bursting with promise to provide clean energy, build bridges and make the desert bloom, most recently here. The “FT” said today that Desertec has been embraced by several major European financial, utility and industrial concerns. “A dozen companies are today set […]
Senatus Populusque Romanus – The Senate and the People of Rome. The old Roman Senate was, on paper, representative of the people. Because the US is a representative democracy, the US Senate was meant, up to a certain point, to perpetuate this same principle. It was, however, certainly less representative, from Day One, than its […]
The Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) issued a declaration today after its leaders met in Italy. There were no big surprises, as I predicted yesterday. (See last post below.) However, there was some potentially useful language regarding the role of the developing economies. “Developing countries among us will promptly undertake actions whose […]
There’s some good news from Italy, and some bad news. I reported on the G-8 summit from a couple of years ago here. Then, President Bush (who?) derailed any substantive agreement. Now, although the G-8 itself seems fully loaded to attack climate change, the leading developing nations involved in the Major Economies Forum on Energy […]
I just had to flag this article, from the “NY Times” Sunday magazine, by Elizabeth Royte, a terrific writer with an unbeatable subject: Will Allen, an urban farmer who’s got a model that needs to be replicated, taught and otherwise advanced everywhere. This guy is really on it! He’s reducing waste (six million pounds of […]
I want to mark July 4th, Independence Day for Americans, by noting a few good renewable energy stories. There are scores of these stories, all over the world, every week, and I’m just sharing what I think are some of the plums that I’ve been seeing. Renewables are a theme I’ve visited here time and […]
I’ve written several times about the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) convened by President Obama to seriously address the critical international negotiations this year. Most of the governments that contribute 80% of the total GHG emissions have been engaged since April in extensive discussions. The leaders of the MEF countries will be […]
I want to flag four important major reports on the impacts from climate change. Three of these came out in June, the third a few months back. What all four do is underscore the urgency of our situation. As you know, the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came out […]
We were away for several days (see post below), otherwise I would’ve further deluged you with information on the passage of the landmark American Clean Energy and Security Act (H.R. 2454), aka ACES, beyond what you may already have been experiencing. I should, of course, weigh in with my humble opinion. My first impulse, given […]
The Adirondack Park “…is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States…” It’s protected by the NY State constitution and the publicly owned lands within it are to be kept “forever wild.” One of the many gems of the park is Lake George which Thomas Jefferson described in 1791 as “…without comparison the […]
I’ve written admiringly of Bill McKibben, one of our leading environmental philosophers and journalists. He reviewed Lord Stern’s The Global Deal: Climate Change and the Creation of a New Era of Progress and Prosperity in a recent issue of the “NY Review of Books.” The review covered a lot of good ground but it strayed […]