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No, you watch it

Michael Crichton appeared on Charlie Rose last night, for an hour of conversation in defense of his global warming skepticism. I have not seen it, and don’t think I’d be […]

Smackdown!

File this under "A sign of things to come." A coworker here at Orion magazine buys corn to feed his daughter's sheep, and he reports that his supplier is in a quandary about how to afford the stuff himself these days. Everyone and his brother sees the demand for corn to make ethanol coming, sending corn futures through the roof and driving up prices today.

Rebutting some common criticisms of the carbon tax

Charles Komanoff's excellent work on carbon taxes vs. emission trading tends to attract certain frequent objections. This is an attempt to answer some of them:

Cap and trade is the way we do things now. Politically, we can never win a carbon tax.

Answer: Cap and trade has political heft mainly because it was instituted at a low level over a long period of time -- thus it did not require very high emission reductions. Further, because the emission cap was confined to a few nations, but emission credits can be bought from nations without such caps, the emission reduction as a percent of total emissions in countries taking part in the Kyoto negotiations is even lower than the nominal target.

In addition, emission reductions are measured against a 1990 baseline, which has been increased by 3% due to various revisions (subscription). And while there is room for argument over just how many, there is no question that a fair percentage of Kyoto credits are fraudulent -- excessive credits were granted to EU utilities, and many of the CDM credits sold in China are bogus.

Put a tight enough cap on the number of credits, with stricter controls to prevent fraud, and you will find political resistance is as great as resistance to a carbon tax.

Stars align for climate mega-concerts, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: It’s Official: He Rocks It Takes a Vilsack to Raise Our Hopes Biz, Biz, Oh What a Relief It Is […]

You be the judge

The American Association for the Advancement of Science joins the ranks of the alarmists, calling global warming "a growing threat to society" that should be countered with "rapidly reducing greenhouse […]

Bush’s USDA plays footsie with ADM, Cargill, and even the API on farm policy.

Federal investment in agriculture is a very wise, thoughtful investment. How we do it is the critical issue. At the end, I believe strongly it must be predictable, equitable, and […]

One great way to increase environmental awareness? That’s entertainment.

Whenever a Hollywood star steps behind a podium in support of a cause, you can almost hear the sound of millions of Americans rolling their eyes. What right, goes the thinking, do actors/pop stars/celebutantes have to tell us, the workaday citizens of the real world, what we should and should not believe about the political issue du jour?

And global warming

I’m seeing lots of links to this ScienceDaily story on Anthony Leiserowitz, a prof at the Univ. of Oregon who studies public risk perception. I mentioned his work here, and […]

David Feld, director of GeesePeace, answers questions

David Feld. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I am the national program director of GeesePeace. What does your organization do? GeesePeace is an educational nonprofit organization that helps […]

The wages of vanity

Roger Pielke Jr. has written a classic of the vanity-blogging genre, a long post about his Wikipedia biography that concludes with the question, “should I care about the Wikipedia biography?” […]