These days, you have to find Presidential leadership on the West Coast, not in the West Wing. California Governor Jerry Brown deserves tremendous praise for demonstrating the sort of climate courage Donald Trump refuses to. Just as former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took steps to curb carbon pollution while George W. Bush dithered a decade […]
Bill McKibben
Posted inPolitical Animal
A Worsening Political Climate
Sometimes, you just have to appreciate the small things. Ten years ago Monday, George W. Bush–you know, the last Republican to slide into the Oval Office without winning the popular vote–delivered his second-to-last State of the Union Address, and for the first time in a Bush SOTU speech, he acknowledged the reality of a problem […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Moving Backwards
Did anyone seriously think Donald Trump would change his mind on climate change? Apparently, former Vice President Al Gore’s highly publicized efforts to convince the Addams, er, Trump family to give efforts to reduce CO2 their due were for naught, as the apparent President-elect went ahead with plans to hand the Environmental Protection Agency and […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Uprising: Part II
Two weeks ago, I noted that virtually no Republicans supported the self-described “water protectors” making their voices heard about the threat posed by the Dakota Access pipeline. The outcome of the 2016 presidential election demonstrates just how little Republican voters care about environmental protection. However, those who do recognize the importance of safe drinking water–and […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Way It Is
Just as there are virtually no Trump supporters who plan to watch Before the Flood and Years of Living Dangerously on the National Geographic Channel tonight, there are virtually no Republicans who support the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others who object to the highly controversial Dakota Access pipeline (which Trump reportedly has financial ties […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
The Path of the Sociopath
They did it while Louisiana drowned. They didn’t give a damn about how many people had lost their lives, or how many people will lose their lives if we don’t transition as quickly as possible away from fossil fuels. They couldn’t care less about the health impacts of carbon pollution, and the fact that it […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
Journey to the Center
Who knew that Bernie Sanders’s appointees to the Democratic platform committee were into self-mutilation? How else does one explain their willingness to cut off their noses to spite their faces? I don’t quite understand the logic of trying to force the platform to adopt every last one of the Vermont Senator’s preferred issues, in particular […]
Posted inPolitical Animal
A Taxing Effort
Will Congress actually pass carbon-pricing legislation by December 31, 2017? This ambitious goal is not as far-fetched as it may seem—especially if Donald Trump damages the Republican Party so severely that the GOP actually loses both houses of Congress (also not a far-fetched prospect). Having said that, the final version of a carbon-pricing bill may […]
