EcocentricEcocentric
For the past four years, the U.N.’s annual climate talks have been led by a dapper Swiss diplomat named Yvo de Boer. In that time period, the chances of a global climate deal have gone from unthinkable to inevitable and now, seemingly impossible. Through the impossibly long negotiating sessions and the walkouts and the protests and …
EcocentricOil
Over the past week or so, as BP has blunted the Gulf spill by channeling more and more of the oil into containers on the surface, it’s been easy to think that the accident could be managed, even if sealing the well has proved impossible so far. But the challenge of working 5,000 feet beneath the surface of the ocean means that a …
EcocentricOil
Since the beginning of the oil spill—70 days ago, unbelievably—most of the focus has been on the environmental damage. That makes sense—this is the biggest environmental disaster the U.S. has ever faced, almost certainly, and Louisiana’s oiled brown pelicans and crude-soaked marshes have emerged as the symbols of the spill. …
EcocentricPolitics
Over at the Curious Capitalist blog–which I admit has both a better name and logo than Ecocentric—my TIME colleague Stephen Gandel looks at the common assumption that carbon pricing is bad for the economy. We hear rhetoric about carbon pricing being a “job-killing national energy tax” (thanks, House Republican leader John Boehner), …
EcocentricOil
Almost exactly a week ago, executives from the major international oil companies stood before Congress for questioning. They defended the oil industry’s record on offshore drilling and distanced themselves from BP and its mistakes. But on one area they had to admit defeat. After Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts showed copies …
EcocentricOil
Back on May 11, I had a chance to meet up with Andrew Sharpless, the CEO of the major environmental group Oceana, in Washington. I’d met Andrew on an expedition to the Galapagos Islands, and he’s a guy I rely on to get a read on what’s going on among the green groups, a guy who’s frank, smart and funny. At the time the BP oil spill was …
EcocentricOil
Energy—never has a political topic had so many bold words expended on it with so little to show. As Jon Stewart pointed out in his usual skewering fashion last week, the last eight American presidents promised to move America off oil and onto renewable energy, and all we have to show for it is increasing dependence on foreign …
EcocentricTechnology
Given that it’s World Cup month, even soccer-phobic Americans are getting into football of the non-padded variety. Part and parcel with the World Cup sporting experience—especially in the first round of matches—is an acceptance of ties. Ties are not something we like to do in American sports, especially in baseball, where two …
EcocentricOil
On the mainpage, TIME’s political pro Mark Halperin judges how much the oil spill has damaged Obama’s presidency. Not as much as many of us believe—Halperin argues that dealing with unforeseen catastrophes has become the “new normal” of life on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and that after an initially sluggish response, Obama’s team has …
EcocentricOil
Representative Edward Markey, the pugnacious Boston Democrat who has emerged as one of the political stars of the oil spill, may have the final word on what caused the accident—philosophically, at least. On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Markey released internal BP documents that showed the company believed that as much as 100,000 …
