Articles by John McGrath

How does Jane Fonda keep defeating the U.S.?

Full disclosure: I was born in 1981, and as far as I can recall I never masturbated to a picture of Jane Fonda.

Too much information, I know. But what else can I do? An eternity ago (September) the guys who brought you Freakonomics brought you this little gem, blaming Jane Fonda for America's CO2 emissions. Seriously:

Nobody fights for change unless they see there’s a problem

Ugh. So my local paper decided to print its own local blend of Nordhaus-Shellenberger drivel. Did you know that "it's time to stop blaring dire warnings about the perils of climate change and, instead, start enthusiastically proclaiming solutions"? I sure didn't. It's not as if people like Amory Lovins, Paul Hawken, Bill McKibben, or I dunno, Gar Lipow have spent years talking about exactly that. It's not like the central message adopted by successful climate change activists for the last decade has been "hey, this will be easy and make you money!"

See, I thought I'd read Lovins' Natural Capitalism, all about solutions, when the paperback was put out in 2000. But apparently not!

Boy, if it weren't for the timely warnings of Nordhaus or Shellenberger, the environmental movement might not have embraced their positive brand of technological fixes and business-friendly activism ... ten years ago.

Level of GHG emissions may be much higher than predicted

There are those who argue that it's irresponsible or alarmist to argue that there will be any climate change effects beyond those cited by the IPCC. I wonder what they'll make of this:

Conservative candidate in Ontario will expand nuclear power industry, if elected

Me, a month ago: What the Ontario election needs is for the parties to talk more about energy issues!

Me, a few days ago: Crud.

Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said Saturday that environmental approval for energy projects is operating at a snail's pace, and if his party comes to power, he will revitalize the province's nuclear sector.

I would so love for the expansion of nuclear power to not be the one point of agreement between the two biggest parties in my province.