Posted by David Goldstein in Solving Global Warming
Bill Gates argues in a new blog that to meet long-term climate goals, we need to focus on the 2050 timeframe and emphasize innovation rather than efficiency. He poses the question: “Should society spend a lot of time trying to...
Posted by David Goldstein in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy
I had begun to write the following: “Remember how ten years ago, at the turn of the Millennium, the media were full of retrospectives of the last ten years, or hundred years, and of starry-eyed predictions for the next ten?...
Posted by David Goldstein in Solving Global Warming
This week Kodak announced that it was ceasing production of its flagship film product: Kodachrome. Photographers treasured this film as providing the sharpest and most vivid images, as well as the longest storage lifetime. The film was, of course, done...
Posted by David Goldstein in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Solving Global Warming
I have blogged previously about how the failure to focus on energy efficiency is one of the root causes of the global economic crisis, and how economic stimulus packages must address these fundamental problems to succeed. We here in the...
Posted by David Goldstein in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Washington Post columnist E. J. Dionne wrote today that This week's Group of 20 meeting in London will arise from the death of one system of ideas even as another struggles to be born. He discusses the concepts of government...
Posted by David Goldstein in Curbing Pollution , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
All of the debate this week in Congress regarding the stimulus bill seems to be over its size and whether it focuses on government spending or private investment. Completely absent is discussion about the root causes of the crisis and...
Posted by David Goldstein in Curbing Pollution , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
I wrote yesterday to explain how energy efficiency is tied to our recovery from the economic recession and to applaud President Obama’s assertive steps to improve the efficiency of cars and buildings. Today, I’ll expand on my theory that the...
Posted by David Goldstein in Curbing Pollution , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
President Obama today took assertive steps to improve the energy efficiency of cars and buildings, and linked this to the need for green jobs to stimulate the nation’s economy. The connection between energy efficiency and economic recovery needs to be...
Posted by David Goldstein in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
The $700 billion bailout of the debt markets now being debated in Congress is stark evidence of the fact that markets can fail, not just in little ways around the edges of the economy, but in a massive way that...
Posted by David Goldstein in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Yesterday I wrote about the need for new underwriting standards at Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to steer a careful course between two rocks: The risk to the taxpayers of continuing the practices that got them into this mess in...
Posted by David Goldstein in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Oil prices are dropping to below $115 a barrel, so I guess the imperative to reduce our consumption soon will go away as well. That is what happened after the previous price spikes for oil in 1973, 1979, 1991, and...
Posted by David Goldstein in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
In his July 28 opinion piece for Salon, Joe Romm argues that energy efficiency may allow the nation to avoid the construction of any more polluting power plants. He holds, as I do in NRDC’s energy work, that America (and...
Posted by David Goldstein in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
In his Washington Post column of this morning, Charles Krauthammer does a very deft job of implying, without actually saying, that environmentalists are really Communists in sheep’s clothing. This is a common theme of self-described conservative writers. His article asserts...
