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793 days ago
So I must sadly inform all of you dear readers that today will be my last day posting here at Down To Earth. I may still be writing about climate change and other environmental topics for MSN occasionally, so I won't say farewell forever. In the meantime, be sure to check out my daily blogging over on Tapped, and my regular articles on The American Prospect online. I will also be writing for WireTap when I can, blogging at Grist occasionally, and I'll probably turn up a few other places as well. Who knows? And just so you're not without daily green news, be sure to check out these sites: Grist, and its blog, Gristmill, give you environmental news with a sense of humor. Treehugger gives you green lifestyle, tech, and news coverage. Ecorazzi lets you in on the green news among celebs. RealClimate is a blog about climate change run by real climate scientists. The Intersection pools some of the best science writers from the Seed crowd ...
794 days ago
Earlier this week, I mentioned some of the cool work going on at Bill Clinton's Global Initiative meeting in New York, like Brad Pitt giving away a huge chunk of change to rebuild New Orleans greenly. The summit has made a lot of other environmental strides this week as well. It has brought together 1,200+ people from 72 countries, 52 current and former heads of state, and of course famous people and people who work for aid and charity organizations. And via Reuters, some other stats: People who do not make good on their commitments are not invited back. This year five people who had paid the membership fee to attend were asked not to come and had their money returned for not fulfilling their pledges, down from 17 people last year. During the past two years the initiative has avoided or reduced 20,070,524 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions. The initiative has helped 3,234,800 people gain access to clean energy services in the developing world. By the end of this ...
794 days ago
I've got two new stories up this week that I've been meaning to point out to everyone. On Tuesday, my piece about different green legislation in the works in the U.S. went up on the main page of this site. It talks about what's going on with the energy bill, which passed in both the House and Senate last summer, but their versions differed somewhat, and now they're in negotiations about what a compromise will look like. It also looks at some of the climate change legislation that our senators and representatives are hard at work on, and the prospects of getting a good one passed this session. And though I only mention it briefly in that article, the other agenda item at the top of the list for addressing climate change is international legislation. The UN hosted a summit on it earlier this week, and for the past two days, Bush has been leading meetings in DC with the leaders of other major-emitting nations. I weighed in on the relevance of those two summits over at The ...
794 days ago
I'm writing live from the GOP debates at Morgan State University in Baltimore tonight, waiting for them to begin. Only four of the candidates are slated to appear – less than half of them, which is pretty depressing. I'm not sure if they'll address climate change. Updates later if they do. While we're on the topic of the GOP, since I blogged about the Dems last night, I figure I should touch about their climate change policies and stances while I'm at it. So, a run down: Sam Brownback thinks ethanol is cool, but he doesn't want cap on carbon because he still thinks it will hurt the economy. Too bad there won't be an economy if we don't get our stuff together. Anyway, he also thinks we should solve our energy woes by drilling for oil at home. Duncan Hunter doesn't really talk about climate or energy, but doesn't have a good record on it, either. Mike Huckabee thinks we should be energy independent and wants to do it by his second term, saying it will be a top priority if he's ...
794 days ago
I know I like to complain about climate change, but these guys really have something to complain about: tiny islands in the middle of the ever-rising seas. From Planet Ark: Small islands, home to 5 percent of the world's population, could disappear under rising oceans as the Earth warms, delegates from 37 small island states warned on Monday. "As the proverbial canary in the coal mine, small island states have repeatedly raised the alarm bells of global warming over the last 15 years," Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Patteson Oti told a news conference. The Solomon Islands have teamed up with the other 36 islands to form the Alliance of Small Island States. These guys will have to deal with more frequent and more severe storms, dying fish, ruined coral reefs, and possibly the elimination of their entire nation. Think of places like Tuvalu, the Polynesian Island that might be gone within our lifetime. Pretty soon the concept of a small, desert island might be ...
