EcocentricGlobalization
Sometimes, I admit, this green beat can be a little depressing. Shrinking icecaps. Rising seas. Endangered species. Air pollution. Acidifying oceans. Oil spills. Invasive Asian carp. And perhaps worst of all, the United States Senate. It can seem as if life is getting is worse every day—like a Beatles record played …
EcocentricPolitics
[Update 1:10 PM]: Ryan Cunningham of Glover Park Group wrote to me to note that by the numbers, Democrats who voted against cap-and-trade were three times more likely to lose then those who voted for it. That’s a striking number, though most of the anti-cap Democrats who lost were Blue Dogs representing generally conservative …
EcocentricGeoengineering
Although most of the attention on the end of last week’s meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nagoya focused on the modest agreement made to reduce biodiversity loss, that wasn’t the only outcome of the two week-long summit. Member nations at Nagoya also agreed on a possible moratorium on research into the …
EcocentricEcocentric
The world’s politicians have, so far, done a perfectly crap job of dealing with climate change. The bold promises of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, which led to the creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have yet to be fulfilled. Kyoto Protocol or no Kyoto Protocol, global carbon …
EcocentricPolitics
So there seems to be an election coming up tomorrow—or at least that’s what I can tell from all of the writers and editors scurrying around TIME HQ this morning, trying to make sure John Boehner’s deep orange tint doesn’t throw off the visual balance of the next issue. The sad truth for environmentalists—or “climate hawks,” or …
EcocentricPolitics
Over on the Time.com mainpage, I have a Going Green column about the Prop 23 battle in California. The ballot initiative would all but repeal California’s landmark global warming law, but during an election cycle where fossil-fuel interests have dominated the money game, green forces have a distinct cash advantage in California. Check …
EcocentricWildlife
Bucking the trend of global environmental summits over-promising and under-delivering, representatives from nearly 190 nations came together in Nagoya at the end of the two week-long Convention on Biological Diversity and signed an important deal that aims to greatly expand the portions of the planet that are under protection and …
EcocentricWildlife
As every writer knows—even those who’d prefer they didn’t—Oprah Winfrey possess an unmatched ability to drive American consumers. If Oprah identifies a product as one of her Favorite Things, the masses—or at least a large chunk of them—will follow, as if tugged by the inescapable force of gravity.
It was that tremendous power …
EcocentricWater
You remember water fountains, right? If your grade school experience was anything like mine (Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Class of ’93!), you’ll recall getting your water not from a plastic Evian bottle, but straight from the ceramic fountain—usually kid-sized. The same went for parks, museums and public buildings—water fountains were …
EcocentricInvasive Species
Sometime after World War II, the Boiga irregularis, or the brown tree snake, is believed to have hitched a ride on a cargo ship and landed on the Pacifc island of Guam. For the snake, Guam was paradise, home to a large number of prey and no natural predators. By 1970, the snake had colonized the entire island, pushing several bird
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