Obama

What Will a 21st Century Transportation System Look Like?

Last week, President Obama had this to say about the future of transportation at his final State of the Union Address: “Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future — especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels. That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources, so that they better reflect the costs they impose on taxpayers and our planet.

Hold the Keystone bubbly: Our fossil fuel addiction remains

Did you hear that Keystone XL—the long-planned pipeline from the Canadian tar sands to refineries on the Gulf Coast—got canceled? That President Obama nixed it because it would contribute to climate change? Did you, as a reader of sites like this, exhale?

KEYSTONE XL VICTORY: TO WIN A FIGHT, YOU HAVE TO PICK ONE

President Barack Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline marks one of the biggest victories for the U.S. environmental movement in years. Speaking this morning from the White House, Obama–flanked by Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry–made one of his most forceful statements to date about the importance of moving the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels.
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Executive Orders for 2014: Lucy Moore

Back in November of 2013, President Obama issued an executive order on climate preparedness. Because executive orders circumvent Congress within certain limits, they allow the president to implement action to address climate change and other issues. A few weeks ago I asked some of our authors to create their own executive orders to improve our handling of the environment.
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Nature's Economy and Climate Change

On June 25, 2013, President Obama gave what may be his most important speech thus far. In it, he acknowledged the impacts of climate change on our society. These impacts include heightened atmospheric carbon pollution due to fossil fuel consumption, melting Arctic and Antarctic ice, temperature and sea level rise, and increased severe climatic events. Our president expounded on the high economic costs of climate change and our need to work as a nation and global power to be part of the solution.
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Where Were the Forests in the President’s Speech?

On June 25, President Obama delivered his most significant speech on climate change. “As a president, as a father, and as an American,” he stated, “I am here to say, we need to act. . . . I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing.”
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In the Case of Tar Sands Oil - Oils Well, Will Certainly Not End Well

Canada’s growing interest in exporting some of the dirtiest crude oil in the world is a threat to not only North America’s wildlife but also a rational energy policy and a stable atmosphere. NASA and climate scientist James Hansen called this project a climate game-changer because burning Alberta “tar sands” oil could raise CO2 levels in the atmosphere by 200 parts per million (ppm), pushing us dangerously away from the 350 ppm safety net that he and other scientists have recommend (we are currently at 390 ppm of CO2 and rising at about 1-2 ppm per year).
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Assuring Obama’s Commitment to Science

This post was contributed to Eco-Compass by Emily Davis, development editor at Island Press. On Friday, John Holdren, advisor for Science and Technology to President Obama and former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), sought to assure AAAS members that the President is committed to their cause.
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The Battle Over the New Climate Bill

Today, hundreds of citizens are on the forefront of the climate movement; 20 years ago, in the summer of 1989, the fight against global warming had only two well-known spokespeople: Senator Al Gore and NASA Scientist Jim Hansen.  (Bill McKibben, now at the helm of the indispensable 350.org, joined this august roster with the publication of The End of Nature).  Recently, I was lucky enough to hear each of them share their strong opinions about American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES), the House’s energy and climate bill that

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