Climate Politics
All Stories
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If the Government Says It's Safe, It's Safe, Right?
The folks who bring us gene-spliced soybeans, corn, potatoes, and other foods like to make a point of the U.S. government’s approval of their products. The feds OK’d it. That must mean biotech foods are safe, right? Right. Sure. This is the government that declared DDT safe and thalidomide and DES and dozens of other […]
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But a cool new plan could save the day
Announcements of the “hottest year in recorded history” are becoming annual events. Another beautiful sunset. Evidence is mounting that drastic climatic changes are under way, driven by the 6 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide that humans pump into our atmosphere each year. In 1998 alone, we saw a crippling ice storm in Quebec and […]
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Sweet Georgie green?
Dubya. Texas Gov. George W. Bush may not be about to sit down and pen a sequel to Al Gore‘s environmental manifesto Earth in the Balance, but he has done something several other GOP presidential candidates appear reluctant to do: acknowledge the existence of global warming. On May 12, Bush told a news conference in […]
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There's What They Tell Us — And What They Don't Tell Us
What they tell us: The income tax is unfair. The top one percent of income earners pay one-third of all income tax. What they don’t tell us: The reason the top one percent pay so much of the income tax is that they have so much of the income. The richest 2.7 million Americans — […]
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Where the Sidewalk Ends
Texas Gov. George W. Bush dodged one legal bullet this week when a judge ruled that he could not be subpoenaed in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by the state’s former funeral commission director, who claims she was fired after attempting to investigate a funeral services company that has contributed large sums to Bush’s gubernatorial campaigns. […]
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A Godsend for Enviros?
It’s all but official. Hollywood actor Warren Beatty may have hedged his bets somewhat in a New York Times op-ed last Sunday, but he already has a presidential campaign website, which is this column’s fin de siècle measure of candidatehood, be it virtual or actual. Leaving aside the question of why certain individuals with no […]
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What I Did on My Summer Vacation
August is prime R&R time for lawmakers, who are kicking back in their home states and pressing the all-important constituent flesh. No such vacation at the Sierra Club, however, where summer means it’s time to drive lawmakers crazy by running ads against them. On the receiving end of the group’s radio spots this time around […]
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Endless Summer?
It’s August, Washington is on vacation, and your faithful columnist has just returned from four blissful days soaking up sweet rays and digging his toes into the soggy, welcoming sand of Rehoboth Beach, Del. In fact, slathered in sunscreen and buffeted by crisp breezes rippling off the Atlantic, we couldn’t help but notice how much […]
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Magic Carpet Riders
Despite a stern tongue lashing from the New York Times editorial page on Monday, the Senate version of the Interior appropriations bill continues to provide a comfy roosting spot for a handful of anti-environmental riders. Some of the offending items got sliced off when the Senate reinstated Rule 16, the sensible old regulation requiring that […]
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Absolut Advertising
If you are like us (and we bet you are) you were sipping your coffee and peacefully perusing your New York Times Tuesday morning when POW! you were smacked upside the head by a clever full-page ad from the Environmental Working Group previewing its release of a study on the effects of the herbicide atrazine. […]
