One of President Obama’s main climate policy thrusts was to persuade the world that since you often get what you pay for, the world should stop paying for more extreme climate disruption by subsidizing fossil fuels. Both the G7 and the G20 accepted Obama’s lead—at least nominally. Some countries did something. Revealingly, both rich and […]
It’s a big week for me. Monday was the official publication date of Climate of Hope, my new book co-authored with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The book’s premise is that climate solutions now constitute an enormous short term opportunity—healthier communities, greater prosperity, enhanced security—for both the U.S. and the world community. The […]
Perhaps the Senate, in its hearing on Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), should have questioned Pruitt as the chief pediatrician for America’s children. As head of the EPA Pruitt gets to decide what is safe for our kids—in the air they breathe, the water they drink, the food they […]
One of the biggest impacts of President Trump’s election is not the direct damage he may do—but the cultural shift he has unleashed among American business leaders. Assaults on decency and health that would have been unthinkable a few months ago are now the expected response by corporate executives pressured by short-term market pressures and […]
After a week in India, despite crowding, intensity and poverty, there is an undeniable lightness from plunging into a country firmly fixed on its future, not its past, moving forward however jerkily and energized. World's Largest Solar Farm Leapfrogs India to Third in Utility-Scale Solar https://t.co/25pE8C8quL @Solar_Builder @RealSolar — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) December 3, 2016 Here’s […]
The utterly avoidable, terrifying and still potentially catastrophic failures of the spillways of North America’s highest dam—California’s 170 foot, earth-filled Oroville—could, with the right national leadership, awaken America to the urgency of investing in our physical safety and future—our infrastructure. Sixty years old, Oroville single handedly provides one-third of the water for all of Southern […]
It’s staggering to recall that one of Donald Trump’s main appeals to many of his voters was a pledge to “drain the swamp” and rid Washington of corruption. In only two weeks he has, instead, begun stocking the swamp with new and poisonous creatures, making it yet more deadly, much as sugar planters did in […]
Last, week, under the cover of a media bliss-out except among Koch funded right-wing channels, the House of Representatives passed a bill which would effectively repeal future standard setting under every important environmental, public health, consumer protection, labor standards, occupational safety and civil rights law on the books. The bill, called the REINS Act, requires […]
Donald Trump has not yet been sworn in, but the Republican Congress has convened. Shortly it will begin hearings on Trump’s appointments—as a block more like a cabinet suited for a corporatist President Ted Cruz than a populist like candidate Trump. Trump and the Republicans control the White House and Congress. What they don’t control—where […]