The Bipartisan Climate Solution: A Tax Swap

By Emil H. Frankel, Keith Kozloff / On July 21st, 2016
You wouldn’t know it from today’s polarized politics, but protecting the environment used to be a bipartisan effort.  There were, of course, the path-breaking conservation achievements of Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican. And, in the 1970s through the 1990s major federal environmental legislation – the National Environmental Policy Act, the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Council on Environmental Quality, the Clean Air Act  and Clean Water Act  – occurred under Republican administrations in cooperation with Democratic Congressional leadership. 

Evolve or Perish: Lessons from Peabody Energy

By Pavan Sukhdev / On July 20th, 2016
On its way to bankruptcy, Peabody, along with four other major U.S. coal producers spent nearly $100 million over the last ten years on political lobbying to help protect federal tax-funded fossil fuel subsidies.

Turkey's Ill-Considered Rush to Coal Undercuts Emissions Progress

By Bruce Rich / On May 9th, 2016
Nearly all future growth in greenhouse gases will come from the world’s emerging economies, and preventing dangerous global warming depends on their reducing emissions growth. Thus it is troubling that Turkey, the world’s 17th largest economy, plans to as much as quadruple coal-fired electric capacity, building as many as 80 new plants by 2030. It could become the world’s third-largest operator of coal plants, after China and India.

Climate change is making us sick

By Praveen Buddiga, Katrina Peters / On May 3rd, 2016
Climate change is hurting our health — right here and right now. As practicing physicians, we see the impacts on our patients.

Guest Opinion: We need a moon-shot for the environment more than ever

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On April 25th, 2016
This week, more than 193 nations will celebrate Earth Day. The annual event is a marker for the environmental movement begun on April 22, 1970, when Wisconsin Sen. Gaylord Nelson organized a peaceful teach-in. At the time, rivers were on fire, oil spills fouled Santa Barbara’s coastline, spaceships were headed to the moon, and the nation was at war.

To Click or Not to Click?

By Lucy Moore / On April 22nd, 2016
A couple of weeks ago I scrolled through my 50 some emails of the day and was struck by one from Crowdrise. The subject line read “Have you saved an animal from extinction?” It was a 24 hour emergency campaign to save the Greater Bamboo Lemur in Madagascar. I glanced, saw there was video, and hit delete. The world is too big, I told myself, and I know too much already about the suffering of humans, animals and the planet itself. But the question has hung in my mind and led me to think about activism.  How do we choose what to spend our time and energy on? How can we be most effective?

Building Climate Resilience at the Water's Edge

By Rebecca Wodder / On March 30th, 2016
We live in challenging times. The shocks and stresses of global warming affect every community in one form or another. Rising seas and storm surges swamp coastal communities. Floods and droughts of biblical proportions are visited on city dwellers and farmers alike. Forest fires and landslides follow in the wake of dying trees and barren hillsides. Unfamiliar viruses travel northward with pests whose ranges expand with warmer temperatures

Primary Forests Take Center Stage in Paris Climate Agreement

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On January 19th, 2016
Following a fortnight of negotiations, an unprecedented agreement has been signed by all the world’s 196 nations which identifies forests and ecosystems as fundamental to the world’s climate change response. For the first time, the UN’s Paris Agreement has formally recognized in international law that conserving ecosystem-based carbon stocks including forests is central to achieving climate mitigation goals and that both biodiversity and human rights must be protected when taking climate action.
Photo Credit: Rockaway Youth on Banner by Flickr.com user Light Brigading

Cutting Back: IP Authors Reflect On Their Carbon Footprints

By Katharine Sucher / On December 17th, 2015
With the end of COP 21 and the signing of the historic Paris Agreement, it’s not just countries that are thinking about how to reduce emissions—individuals are reflecting on how their habits and actions impact climate change as well. Island Press authors shared what they’re doing to reduce their carbon footprints and, in some cases, what more they could be doing. Check out their answers and share your own carbon cutbacks—or vices—in the comments. 

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