Category Archives: Politics

Fractals, fossil fuels and effective change

Words matter, and by extension so, too, do conceptualizing and framing. We’ve endured the world’s leaders failing to take effective action on the climate emergency. A pair of University of…

How-to guide aims to grease the skids for climate legislation

If cities and states are shouldering much of the burden of fighting climate change, it’s important that they have all the resources they need to draft effective legislation for curbing…

Cities and states show the way on net-zero buildings

Vox’s David Roberts pointed out that the work of a key aspect of the Green New Deal – net-zero buildings – is already underway in several states and cities. Anyone…

Heartening news in the face of worsening climate change

Following on the heels of the IPCC special report and the National Climate Assessment, the news that the world’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels increased in 2018 can feel…

A reading to share on Thanksgiving

If you’re looking for a good big-picture read on the state of climate change to share with friends and family this Thanksgiving, Bill McKibben’s latest article in the New Yorker…

Doom and hope

It’s been difficult to think about climate change during this time of deeply counterproductive practices and policies. Then the IPCC’s latest report came out. The impacts and costs of 2.7…

Renewables are here: don’t build that bridge!

Vox’s David Roberts has a nice article about what the falling costs of renewable energy mean for the notion of using natural gas as a “bridge” from coal and oil…

Reflecting on James Hansen

We have reached the 30 year mark of James Hansen’s landmark testimony to Congress about climate change. There’s been a lot of coverage about how strikingly accurate Hansen’s projections were….

Gina McCarthy says don’t get down, get out there

Obama EPA head Gina McCarthy says she’s mad about what Scott Pruitt and Donald Trump are doing to the agency she once ran, but she’s not letting it get her…

Kids making a difference – Utah edition

Once again, high school kids are getting results. In the deeply red state of Utah, students got the state government to reverse course and acknowledge climate change. The keys to…