Environment and Health
Climate Change Disaster Has Struck
Rats. I’d been counting on climate change. By some genetic quirk, my Scandinavian-bred body has always suffered badly from the cold. It’s a good thing that my grandfather settled near New York City rather than boarding the “Swede train” for Minnesota. Connecticut’s winters are bad enough.
Three Cheers for the Nine-Spotted Ladybug
Great news, people! A colony of nine-spotted ladybugs has been discovered in Amagansett, New York.
We’re Not Even Paving a Road to Nowhere
The term “American transportation policy” is an oxymoron. The United States has no policy regarding the nation’s transportation networks, no strategic plan, and no capacity to carry one out. We harbor only competing special interests.
Mitt’s Personhood Problem
During the presidential election season — which, in case you haven’t noticed, has already begun — it’s up to reporters to link major state-based political events to positions of the presidential candidates. One such event of late was Mississippi voters’ defeat of a constitutional measure known as a “personhood” amendment.
Durban Diary: Repaying Climate Debt
A major flashpoint at the UN Climate summit in Durban is how nations in the global north should deliver the money that they’re supposed to give countries in the global south to support efforts to deal with climate change.
Durban Diary: What’s on the Table?
There are hundreds of issues and interests at stake at the 2011 UN climate summit, as well as representatives of the 192 countries who signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. But just two questions are on everyone’s mind.
Durban Diary: UN Summit’s Stormy Backdrop
On Sunday night, as I met with colleagues from Africa, Asia, Europe, and Latin America to prepare for the UN climate summit, the unseasonably blustery evening went from windy to rainy to huge downpour.
A Blizzard of Bad Climate News
A tsunami of scientific studies is showing that global warming isn’t only real, it’s happening faster than we thought and our window of opportunity to act is shrinking. This is very scary stuff.
Climate Denial Man
Big Corporation, Tiny Heart
Just a couple of years ago, this $408 billion-a-year retailing colossus tried to hush critics of its Dickensian labor policies by ballyhooing a bare-bones health care plan for its “associates.” The insurance scheme had such high deductibles, however, that barely half of its employees bought into it.
