Articles by Amanda Little
Amanda Little is author of Power Trip: The Story of America's Love Affair with Energy. She is a contributor to Bloomberg Businessweek and a writer-in-residence in the English department at Vanderbilt University, where she teaches investigative journalism and creative nonfiction.
All Articles
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Virgin founder’s $3 billion climate pledge heralds new era in philanthropy
Richard Branson, founder and chair of the British conglomerate Virgin Group, has racked up more than his share of high-profile high jinks over the years. Among them, signing the notorious […]
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Worth about $20 million per word
Eliciting gasps and goosebumps at a press conference this morning at the Clinton Global Initiative in midtown Manhattan, Richard Branson, CEO of the mega-conglomerate Virgin Group, announced a commitment to invest a staggering $3 billion toward solving climate change, focusing his investments on developing biofuels and other oil alternatives. The transcript of his public vow follows:
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After months of gloom and doom, Gore’s all about solutions
Against a backdrop of eight American flags -- ceremoniously arranged behind a podium emblazoned with the scales of justice -- Al Gore took the stage at the New York University Law School early this afternoon to deliver what was billed in press releases as a "major policy address on global warming."Major it was -- in terms of the media turnout, anyway. There were nearly a half-dozen cameras rolling and most major publications represented.
It was also major in terms of length (over an hour of factually dense commentary, sans visual aids) and gravitas (a more somber, more serious, dare I say more presidential Gore than the one we've seen pumping his fists and cracking jokes as he roars across the country on his climate lecture circuit). And major enough to have elicited rumors, as reported in the Independent yesterday, that the White House is hoping to steal Gore's climate thunder.
As with most policy addresses billed as "major," the rhetorical flourishes were legion. Take, for instance, the way Gore framed the address:
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Environmentalists pick their sides in key Senate races
It’s a rare political event that can draw applause from both the White House and environmental groups, but Lincoln Chafee’s victory in the Rhode Island Republican primary on Tuesday was […]
