Environment and Health
Dumping on Texas for Fun and Profit
Thank you, California. And you, too, Florida, Maine, Missouri, and the 32 other states that intend to send a very special gift to Texas–namely, their radioactive waste. Now there’s a gift that truly keeps on giving!
Climate Change is Here to Stay
It wasn’t long ago that climate change was all the rage. Newspaper headlines were touting the Kyoto Protocol. Scientists and citizens alike were discussing Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Individuals were offering personal pledges of reform. Folks were downright scared.
Our Slow-Motion Global Accident
The Cancun agreement could open a loophole that lets companies in the United States continue to pollute–as long as they pay someone else in another country to reduce their emissions. It’s called carbon offsetting, and it means U.S. families living in the toxic shadow of big polluters will have to suffer the health impacts of dirty energy, while companies get to claim credit for cleaning up their act.
Energy Beast Still Running Wild
There is doubtless some solace in learning that China is now the world’s top energy glutton. That takes a bit of the pressure off us. America’s slip to second place, however, isn’t due to any moral superiority. Our chief energy subsidies still go to oil, coal, gas, ethanol, and nuclear energy.
It’s Time to Protect Consumers from Toxic Chemicals
When most people hear the word “hormones” they have a flashback to high school science class or think of their adolescent children. But rarely do we think about staples of our everyday lives such as receipts, water bottles, and baby bottles. So what do hormones have to do with a host of consumer products?
Clean Corn
Denying Health Care to Americans is Un-American
Critical issues demand high levels of dialogue that political debate seldom provides. For instance, the profound legislative step forward of health care reform has been pounded with shallow, misleading attacks. There may be honest questions about plan’s specifics, but they don’t justify the vituperative distortions its critics have flung about so irresponsibly.
Monumental Wilderness
Environmentalists are ready to defend our country’s coastlines and wild places from a new Congress with the same old energy policy: Drill, baby, drill.
This isn’t Sarah Palin’s Alaska
With the holidays upon us again, I think back with both pleasure and distress to the feast I was welcomed to a few seasons ago at the top of Alaska.
The Lineup: Week of November 29-December 5, 2010
As global climate talks get underway in Cancun, Miriam Pemberton calls for more parity in spending on climate and military security and Diana Bronson warns that “geoengineering” fixes for the world’s climate problems could do far more harm than good.
