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May 29th, 2013
The climate debate in Washington is stuck in a rut. Last week, we saw politicians playing another round of the climate change blame game. This time the topic was tornadoes. But connections between extreme weather and climate change are a scientific question, not a political one. Read More
April 10th, 2013
The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the nation’s largest scientific association, and publisher of the journal Science. Its president is always a distinguished scientist, elected each year by its nearly 120,000 members. On Monday, 6 of AAAS’s 7 most recent past presidents sent a letter to Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member David Vitter, supporting President’s Obama’s nomination of Gina McCarthy as the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Read More
January 17th, 2013
Since his re-election, President Obama has made it clear that he sees action on climate change as a major piece of unfinished business from his first term. In his election night victory speech, he said he wants “our children to live in an America that isn’t burdened by debt; that isn’t weakened by inequality; that isn’t threatened by the destructive power of a warming planet.” Read More
November 7th, 2012
After months of speeches and debates, and billions of dollars of campaign ads, the elections are over and President Obama has won a second term in office. Now comes the hard part: how to move forward in a polarized political environment where the two major parties don’t agree on the overall role of government, on most policies, and all too often, not even on the facts. Read More
October 24th, 2012
Last night, FRONTLINE premiered its new documentary, Climate of Doubt, a chilling chronicle of the decade-long-plus campaign to confuse the public and policy-makers about the reality of human-induced climate change. As the PBS press release puts it, “Climate of Doubt describes the individuals and groups behind an organized effort to attack science by undermining scientists, and to unseat politicians who say they believe there is current climate change caused by human activity.’ Read More
October 11th, 2012
Even as all too many politicians continue to question the very existence of human-induced climate change, cities and counties in Florida and other coastal states are already struggling with the reality of sea level rise and are looking at billions of dollars in expenditures to deal with its impacts. Read More
June 18th, 2012
This week, representatives from over 190 countries, including some 130 leaders, will be in Rio de Janeiro for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Read More
May 4th, 2012
The Heartland Institute, a leading climate denialist organization, has launched a billboard campaign in its hometown of Chicago featuring Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, mass murderer Charles Manson, and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The message? They “believe” in global warming, and they’re crazy; by implication, so are you if you “believe” in it too. Read More
April 23rd, 2012
I was pleased to see that late last week, the Mexican Senate unanimously passed domestic climate legislation that sets a target of cutting Mexico’s carbon emissions by 30 percent below business-as-usual levels by 2030, and 50 percent by 2050. The law, passed earlier in the House by a vote of 280 to 10, now goes to President Calderón for his signature. Read More
December 14th, 2011
US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern has a tough job.
He has to represent a country whose politics are dysfunctional and one of whose major parties is in a state of extreme denial about the scientific reality and urgency of climate change. Having failed to win Senate passage of a comprehensive climate bill last year, the Obama administration he represents must use its executive authority to try to meet the president’s commitment to reduce U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases some 17 percent below 2005 by 2020 levels Read More
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