Skip to content

Category Archives: Environment

Those were the days

It’s easy to forget that it wasn’t that long ago that the United States of America was capable of rational environmental action. But it was, and though it gets little attention, we are reaping the benefits of our past rationality: It’s the beginning of the end for the Antarctic ozone hole. A new analysis shows […]

Another major surprise: Government works!

I'm currently making my way through Doris Kearns Goodwin's latest, The Bully Pulpit, a sort of dual political biography of Teddy Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Without getting explicit, she's making a lot of points about our current situation. Among other things, she claims, and I think I agree, that one of Teddy's greatest accomplishments […]

Good News Day

The week’s almost over, so I’ve got to get this in. No, Obama has not come to his senses and called off the humanitarian bombing, but this is still good news, if it’s true. This man from Japan has invented a process to turn plastic back to oil. I suppose there’s some questions not answered […]

Obama punts on climate

No surprises here: The Obama Administration has, tragically, signaled it may retreat on two major climate issues. The UK Guardian reported Friday: Barack Obama’s grand vision of action on climate change shrank to $200m a year to fund research into clean fuel cars, with signs of retreat on the big environmental issues of the day…. […]

Don’t mention climate change

  Something missing here: Across a wide stretch of Midwestern farms, sweltering temperatures and a dearth of rain are threatening what was expected to be the nation’s largest corn crop in generations. Already, some farmers in Illinois and Missouri have given up on parched and stunted fields, mowing them over. National specialists say parts of […]

Back from the Shadows again

So, my wife and I were sitting at our dining room table, bitching and moaning about CL&P’s lousy repair record (according to their website, not a single customer in Groton had gotten power for about a day and a half) when suddenly, a fan went on. It took us several seconds to realize what that […]

Our nuclear future

As recent events have demonstrated, one of Obama’s more dubious energy proposals has been a reinvigoration of the nuclear power industry. Mother Jones reports that he, along with a number of other politicians in the tank for the industry, have held up Japan as an example of nuclear power’s safety. In general, they have all […]

Global Warming Myth Debunked

Since everything is evidence that global warming is a myth, I submit the following as exhibits, pictures of roses taken today in my wife’s garden. Some might argue that the existence of blooming Connecticut roses (and should the tiny little fellow in the second picture still be alive?) in November is more substantial evidence of […]

Book review

I don’t normally recommend books on this blog, particularly books I may never finish, but I would urge any person of reason,particularly anyone who doubts the seriousness of the threat of climate change, to read eaarth, by Bill McKibben. I have a fairly strict rule when it comes to books: if I start one I […]

It’s getting warm out there

If I read this right, it appears we have just passed through the warmest summer in a very long time. The article is very wonky, but the thrust of it appears to be that July was extremely hot, and so were May and June. Funny, how Fox always seems to talk about global warming on […]