Originally published on the NRDC Expert Blog. By Arjun Krishnaswami The cost of energy storage is plummeting as performance is improving, and Congress is moving to help storage technologies continue to advance. Spurring innovation is far from all we need to do to address the climate crisis facing us, but it’s a necessary component and a
A new report released by a groups of over 50 US government scientists asserts that the rapid pace at which modern climate change is occurring is almost definitely driven by human activity — making for a blunt contradiction of the stance taken by many members of the current administration of President Donald Trump. In particular,
Immediately after the last US general election, despite the fact that the Republican Party “won,” I wrote about Republican Party “civil war” and asked in the title of an article, “Can The GOP Survive?“ It may have seemed odd to write about political civil war in a party that just won a presidential election, but
Erin Schrode is a citizen activist that can inspire us all. Learn about how this young woman is shaping activism, engagement, and politics at home in California and beyond.
Recently about 700 moms, and children gathered in a park on Capitol Hill to draw attention to the negative impacts caused by climate change and air pollution. Premature deaths, asthma attacks, and infections result from excessive air pollution and climate change harms entire ecological systems. It has also been linked to extreme weather events. Renewable energy
West Africa may even reach 1,000 deaths from Ebola this weekend. That’s just a guess, but not a bad guess, considering the Olympic record of this hemorrhagic virus. At the beginning of July nearly 500 people had died from the disease; two weeks later, the numbers had increased by 20%,; and the most recent confirmed figure,
On Tuesday, one big handy graphic appeared online detailing what every state governor really believes about climate change. The Center for American Progress released an interactive map of the 50 states. It details the sad fact that half of America’s 29 Republican governors agree with the anti-science caucus of Congress. Tiffany Germain And Ryan Koronowski, who wrote the
On Wednesday, June 25, President Obama gave a one-year progress report for his climate plan. He presented the original speech on the climate change plan at a dinner with the League of Conservation Voters. On MSNBC, politics commenter Rachel Maddow showed a series of clips of the President’s LCV talk, saying she wasn’t sure if
A panel of extraordinary military leaders—16 men and women generals and admirals, including prior commanders, commandants, and members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff—came to a pretty devastating conclusion recently about climate strategy. The Military Advisory Board of the Center for Naval Analyses, a 70-year-old federally funded think tank, says that current actions by the
More imminent than deadly viruses or terrorists at national events is the phenomenon of climate change, a force examined in a groundbreaking new report released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Titled National Landmarks at Risk: How Rising Seas, Floods and Wildfires are Threatening the United States’ Most Cherished Historic Sites, the study examines
There are the good wildfires, and there are the bad. Unfortunately, the latter often overwhelm the beneficial ones. We’ll go on with stories from San Diego in a minute—it’s a long story of an actually short time—but here’s a word about the bright side first. Whoopi Goldberg had a thought that’s worth repeating: When you
I just ran across a couple of shocking stats, especially when combined: Congressional approval ratings dropped to a then-record-low 10% in 2012. Nonetheless, 90% of the representatives in the House of Representatives were re-elected. America! Why you haz so dumb? In all seriousness, here’s the good news: the US somehow realizes that Congress is broken. But
A firefighter pauses at the $2013 Rim Fire in Yosemite National Park, August-September 2013 (Calfire photo on facebook). President Obama released the federal budget for 2015 last week. Overall, it involves the lowest deficit ($514 billion) of his five-year tenure in office and restores some funding cut in last year’s sequester. Parts of the new
On October 1st, folks all across the country, regardless of their health, can begin signing up for the Affordable Care Act mandated health insurance co-ops, which offer substantial savings via pooling and government support for these new healthcare options. Obamacare, as it’s commonly called, officially kicks in on January 1st, 2014. Let’s not mistake this
President Obama’s Plan to Fight Climate Change has an initial Congressional hearing (whitehouse.gov). Here’s what happened: Perhaps the second great step the Obama Administration has made this year with respect to climate change–after the President’s June 25 iteration of his sketchy but essentially solid outline for a new climate plan–happened this past week. The House
To my friends, family, acquaintances, and readers who think that there isn’t enough of a difference between Democrats and Republicans to bother voting (i.e. for the Democrats), let me be absolutely 100% clear — actually, there are HUGE, HUGE differences between these two parties these days, and in nearly every situation I’m aware of, Democrats
Wrapping up my short series on 4 Senate candidates you should support and vote for (if you can), Chris Murphy of Connecticut is last but not least. Murphy has one of the best intro statements I’ve ever seen, maybe the best: “Chris has a real record of fighting for Connecticut’s working families and middle class. His
If you’re voting in the Massachusetts election today or tomorrow, you should be voting for Elizabeth Warren without any hesitation — she’s one of the best politicians I’m aware of. Here’s a quick rundown of how her and her opponent, Scott Brown, differ: Not many politicians are so dedicated to the people as Elizabeth
At the 11th hour here, I’m highlighting a handful of Senate candidates who I think are really outstanding potential congresspeople who I think deserve your support (your vote, and your help spreading the word and getting others to vote). #3 in this series is Sherrod Brown of Ohio. Mr Brown is a standout public
If you live in Wisconsin, I’d highly recommend that you do your best to get your friends, family members, and strangers on the street to go to the polls and vote for Tammy Baldwin. Tammy has a repertoire of great qualities and policies that should earn her a seat in the Senate, but for
OK, I’m not going to lie, the presidential election is important, but congressional and state elections may be equally or more important (I’d say “more important” with no hesitation). The sad thing is, we are so uninvolved and ill-informed in “smaller elections” that we often get what we are given rather than what we
You know what moral people do? They rig the game when they’re losing. Or they say the game isn’t over when they’re losing, but as soon as they’re winning, they say it is over. You know what else they do? When they find out that their holy grail economics policy (i.e. lowering taxes on
In the latest example of the widening gap in climate change policies between the USA and Europe, the Government of Norway last week announced the world’s largest new tax on carbon emissions, stating in explicit terms its desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate against global warming — just two weeks after the
Over the past few days, a strange and unexpected role reversal has come into focus in the realm of international energy policies. On September 21, the US House of Representatives voted in favor of the “Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act,” an aggressively anti-environment call which, despite the lofty title, represents a shrill
Recent reports from IMS Research and the Energy Department suggest that energy production from solar and wind in the United States are set to rapidly increase in the coming years. Though China and Germany have dominated the race to create a robust clean energy sector so far, the United States has taken steps to
Tomorrow, the US House of Representatives will vote on H.R. 3409, the “Coal Miner Employment and Domestic Energy Infrastructure Protection Act.” The bill has been called the “single worst environmental law” proposed by the most virulently anti-environmental US legislators in history. The bill is aggressively anti-science and anti-public health. Its priority is made clear:
If you follow the Washington Post, or are a political junkie, perhaps you’ve already seen this story, but if you haven’t, it’s a must read. A couple of moderate, centrist, or even conservative political scientists recently tore into the extremist Republican leadership of today, spelling out the simple fact that Congress and our whole
Love this video of Elizabeth Warren talking about politics in the U.S. today, oil company subsidies, and more. Check her out: http://youtu.be/aLgklbZ4y8c h/t MoveOn
There was a beacon in the smog surrounding the U.S. Capitol building this week. While the House and Senate pushed for arctic drilling, attempted to revive the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and tried to delay rules on mercury emissions standards — all while failing to extend a key tax credit for wind —
Democrats Stand Up to House GOP Senate Democrats have stood up to the constant assault on the environment a bit and told the House GOP to “stop polluting [a] middle-class tax bill with poison pills,” as Brad Johnson of Think Progress writes. “Instead of finding commonsense solutions, the Republicans are talking about things that
350.org uploaded over a dozen photos of activists delivering over 800,000 petitions against the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline to Congress, petitions which were gathered in 24 hours! Here’s the slideshow of that delivery, followed by text from 350.org: “On Tuesday, February 14, representatives from a coalition of over 30 environmental and progressive groups
Oh my, they just can’t stop. The House GOP seems dead set on destroying the country and destroying the planet. Here’s the latest, via Climate Progress, on its push to develop the dirtiest fuel on the planet (you thought tar sands were bad?!): by Joe Romm Rep. Cantor (R-VA): In addition, Chairman Hastings will add provisions
The total loonies in the Republican branch of the House of Representatives have tossed a bill on the American public that basically attacks every form of transportation other than the automobile. It’s insane. Even some top Republicans have admonished it. Here’s some more info from Streesblog, the American Public Transportation Association (APTA), and others on
Wowza, that’s some surprising news to come home to. Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director of Gasland, Josh Fox, was arrested today at Congress. Why? Well, he was trying to film a committee meeting about fracking. Hmm,… that’s illegal? Filming our publicly-elected Congresspeople at work is illegal? Yikes. “The House Science Committee had convened to discuss the
by Bill McKibben Hey everyone, Yesterday was one of the truly fun days in this whole wild year of organizing. We had hundreds of referees outside the Capitol, and we blew our whistles like crazy, and we threw penalty flags, and we had a hell of a good time. My favorite scene, actually, was watching hundreds
This video is a little long, which is why it’s gotten me awhile to post on it. However, after watching it, I am labeling it a MUST-WATCH. If you think it’s too long, just watch a few minutes, at least. The whole thing, really, in one awesome segment after another. Senator Franken and Senator
Editor’s Note: yes, I just posted a victory story on the Keystone XL oil pipeline, following Obama’s announcement rejecting it. However, as Bill McKibben of 350.org points out below (and we could all expect), some in Congress thing they can force the pipeline down America’s neck still. Here’s more from Bill, and some key action
Via DailyKos, here’s the “official meme of 2011“: Seems spot on to me. We certainly covered the Japan nuclear meltdowns, Arctic ice cap meltdown, and multiple (Republican-driven) Congressional meltdowns repeatedly here on Planetsave. Though, decided that the Charlie Sheen and other meltdowns were outside our jurisdiction, somewhat thankfully. What will 2012 bring?
2011 was a big year for the environment, in some good ways and some bad ways. Here’s a quick run-down of the top 10 stories of the year, in my opinion: 1. Tremendously high levels of carbon emissions continue to warm Earth. Despite efforts to switch to clean energy, increase energy efficiency, and use more
A new report notes that House Republicans voted a record 191 times against the environment in 2011. The report, logically, called this “the worst environmental record of any Congress in history.” “Out of the 770 legislative roll call votes taken in the House this year, ‘more than one out of every five’ were votes against the
#1: Ringling Circus Gets Largest Fine of Its Kind for Animal Cruelty — Thank USDA & PETA! From PETA: “Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, must now pay the largest settlement of its kind in U.S. history―$270,000―for alleged violations of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) dating back to 2007.” More
Because many in Congress are lying sacks of oil money bags, perhaps. But, the EPA supports the public, and the public trusts and supports the EPA (not oil-funded millionaire Congressmen). More, a full repost, from Think Progress Green: Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year by industrial polluters to demonize the Environmental Protection
Well, the almost completely dysfunctional, Tea-Party-clogged U.S. Congress is sitting at its lowest approval rating in history. As mentioned in the title, and in the chart below, it’s less popular than the IRS (by far), lawyers (by far), Nixon during Watergate (by far), and the U.S. switching to communism! It’s also less popular than banks,
This is why the U.S. doesn’t have a national climate change policy. This is why China is eating our lunch on clean energy investment. This is why U.S. oil companies and many other companies don’t pay billions of dollars in taxes — in fact, some pay –58% in taxes. I could include all the points here
This Tea-Party-led Congress (well, all of the Republican party) has attacked our water, air, and climate protections more than any in history. It is out of this world how little care they have for the necessities of life. One of the most recent attacks, from one of the leading culprits, Senator Rand Paul, continues
I received a petition this week from Oceana, one of my favorite organizations in the world. It’s a petition to cut the $4 billion dollars in tax breaks oil companies get each year. It was announced today that BP’s profits doubled in the 3rd quarter of this year. It’s common knowledge that oil company executives
It seems like a story out of fantasy land. Members of the GOP in the House of Representatives do not want add to spending by funding critical disaster relief after Hurricane Irene, so they are trying to cut funding to advance the development of clean vehicles (which, of course, are critical to cutting global warming and limiting the billion-dollar disasters we see in the future).
This is not a post about specific politicians or asking you to look into the lives, backgrounds, or policies of your own politicians. This is a post about politicians in general (in the U.S. at least, but many other countries as well). I think it was triggered by this video of astrophysicist Dr. Neil Degrasse and the comments a few people left on that post.
When I think of a potential career as a politician and what I think would drive that, I think the motivating force and career focus should be helping the world, and your particular jurisdiction, in specific.
