People’s Climate March

pcm-march-logo-badgeNew York City this week and next is the center of the Climate Activist universe.  I define activism broadly:  it means not only being in the streets and expressing discontent with the pace of change toward decarbonizing and denuclearizing our energy economies to save the climate system, but also doing the hard work of researching, litigating, legislating, organizing, writing, speaking, making movies, teaching, farming, financing, designing, planning, building, regulating, and working, day after day, to create the newer world that we need.  I celebrate everybody and all the energy and focus and commitment brought over the past 50 years of the modern environmental movement that has brought us forward.  The first environmental journalist, Phil Shabecoff, wrote a great book, A Fierce Green Fire, about the movement.  (They made a documentary last year too.)

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New Resource from the UNFCCC

unfccc newsroomThere’s a useful and interesting new site from the good folks at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change:  their Newsroom.  What they’ve done is create a clearing house for news from all over the world in five general categories:  Financial Flows, Green Urban, Clean Energy, Nature’s Role, and Action to Adapt.  There are, of course, also updates on important meetings including the upcoming Climate Summit in New York in September. Continue reading

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The Kalundborg Symbiosis at Ensia

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I’m happy to report that I’ve got a new article at Ensia, the magazine and website of the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.  Denmark’s Near-Zero-Waste Wonder is about the longstanding and ongoing successes at Kalundborg, the site of one of the world’s best examples of industrial ecology. Continue reading

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Good Energy

northamerican-hor-clrI had the pleasure a few weeks ago to lend a small helping hand to the good folks at Student Energy.  They organized a series of regional summits and I helped provide some guidance to students who were engaged in an exercise to sharpen their blogging skills.  Jared Anderson, the Managing Editor of Breaking Energy (and an alum of the grad program at NYU where I teach), was the other guide.  Continue reading

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How Funny is Denialism?

db doc and climate stripOnce again Gary Trudeau nails it on the head.  There’s really not a lot to add.  However, if your appetite is whetted, you might like to check out some of what Barack Obama said at a commencement address a little over a week ago in California.

For instance:  “And today’s Congress, though, is full of folks who stubbornly and automatically reject the scientific evidence about climate change. They will tell you it is a hoax, or a fad. One member of Congress actually says the world is cooling. There was one member of Congress who mentioned a theory involving ‘dinosaur flatulence’ — which I won’t get into.” Continue reading

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The Heart of the Matter

powerplantbanner_0The President announced his intention a year ago to cut American greenhouse gases from power plants.  The Climate Action Plan he unveiled in a comprehensive speech on June 25, 2013, was clear about his directive that EPA craft a rule to reduce carbon dioxide from existing power plants.  What’s the burden?  A good one third of our total greenhouse gas emissions come from the electricity sector and 75% of that comes from coal-fired plants.  Nearly one quarter of all American greenhouse gas emissions come from power made from burning coal.  It simply does not have to be that way. Continue reading

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Podesta and Obama

DSCN1813The star attraction at last week’s energy conference at Columbia was, for my money, John Podesta.  He was Bill Clinton’s chief of staff at the White House, founder of the Center for American Progress – an indispensable think tank, director of the Obama-Biden transition team in 2008, and now Counselor to President Obama.  The principal reason he was brought in for the second term was to help the White House realize its critical goals on climate and energy.  Podesta reminded us that the President considers it a “moral imperative” to act on climate change – as should we all. Continue reading

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Columbia Energy Conference

cgep_banner_home_main3_0I was up at Columbia University Thursday for the Spring 2014 Energy Policy Conference convened by the Center on Global Energy Policy.  The very interesting line up of experts included the head of Statoil, Helge Lund; the former head of Duke Energy (the nation’s largest electric power utility), Jim Rogers; and superstar energy analyst and author, Dan Yergin, among a number of other worthies.  I came to hear John Podesta, Counselor to President Obama, and the White House point man on climate and energy. Continue reading

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