President Obama Should Include the Tongass In Alaska’s First Line of Global Warming Defense

I began my career as forest ecologist in the 1990s, cataloging the remarkable web-of-life in the old-growth rainforests of Prince of Wales Island. Since then, I have worked with rainforest ecologists around the world to document exceptional places like the Tongass and how they can contribute to a global climate change solution. Last April, hundreds of scientists, including myself, sent President Obama a letter asking him to include the Tongass as Alaska’s first line of climate defense.
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#ForewordFriday: State of the World Edition

If you're the kind of person who eagerly awaits the annual State of the Union speech, we have just what you need to tide you over until next January. State of the World 2014: Governing for Sustainability marks the 40th anniversary of Worldwatch Institute, one of the leading environmental think tanks. This year's book analyzes government structures on every scale, how they are—or aren't—addressing sustainability issues, and how they can be improved.
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#ForewordFriday: Chico Vive Edition

Island Press is pleased to be co-sponsoring the 2104 Chico Vive conference at American University in DC this weekend. The conference brings together grassroots activists, NGOs, students, engaged scholars, applied scientists, policymakers, journalists, and others to discuss the development of the global grassroots environmental movement in the 25 years since environmental martyr Chico Mendes' death.
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Unlocking the IPCC Assessment Process

Today, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its fifth big report, bringing with it a flurry of news coverage and strong reactions from both industry and environmental advocates. Does the assessment overstate or understate the dangers of global warming? Can the skepticism about whether humans are driving climate change finally be put to rest? As journalists, scientists, and citizens parse the findings, it’s worth pausing to consider just what the IPCC is and how it reaches its conclusions.
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Occupy the Tongass Rainforest?

Taking America by storm with actions reminiscent of the 60s, “Occupy Wall Street” has gone viral in an attempt to raise awareness about corporate interests being placed above public needs. But the movement has yet to sound alarm bells on the Tongass rainforest, where a native corporation is seeking to develop and log over 100-square miles of public lands through a legislative lands transfer proposed in Congress.
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Obvious answers for obvious questions at Copenhagen.

The obvious questions provoke the obvious answers. From my reading of the literature over the last month, and from everything I have learned at Copenhagen, there can be no doubt that the scientific consensus on climate change is consistent and overwhelming. So it leaves us with a quandary. All of these researchers, across a half dozen academic disciplines, are either right or they are terribly wrong.
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Is two degrees too much?

Today on Post Carbon, Juliet Eilperin writes: Back in the mid-1990s, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected this would give the world a decent shot at avoiding dangerous climate impacts.
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Are Your Kids Destroying the Earth?

Many families who dutifully recycle, take mass transit, and have a house full of compact fluorescent light bulbs, would say they're doing their part to save the earth. However, a new study from the London School of Economics suggests that in developed countries, making the decision to have children dramatically increases your negative impact on the environment.

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