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Jon Coifman's Blog

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He Never Promised Us a Rose Garden

April 16, 2008

Posted by Jon Coifman in The Media and the Environment

Tags:
bushadministration, globalwarminglaw, liebermanwarner

President Bush delivered a much-hyped speech on the administration's supposedly new global warming policy agenda today in the White House Rose Garden. Here are my initial reactions: The plan, if you can call it that, lags far behind the political...continued

“Green Collar” Jobs -- A Political Misnomer

February 14, 2008

Posted by Jon Coifman

Presidential candidates have been out and about this week talking about their respective plans to create thousands of new “green collar” jobs.  It’s the right idea, but the wrong way to talk about it. Building the clean, sustainable, energy efficiency...continued

GM's Lutz is in a Ditch. Again.

February 13, 2008

Posted by Jon Coifman in Green Enterprise , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment

 In a closed door session recently, General Motors product development chief and granddaddy of Detroit automotive management Bob Lutz announced to a group of reporters in Dallas that global warming is “a crock of sh*t”.Yes, this is the very same...continued

Bali Climate Talks: Inside the Diplomatic Showdown

December 17, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Solving Global Warming

Tags:
bali, climatechange, climatenegotiations, UNFCCC

Global warming treaty talks wrapped up this weekend in Bali delivered a stirring international rebuke to the intransigent "diplomacy" of the Bush administration, and produced a remarkable last-minute breakthrough in the stalemate over US versus developing country action. My colleague...continued

Game On: China Wind Comes to Montana

December 6, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Curbing Pollution , Green Enterprise , Greening China , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
GE, globaleconomy, renewables, windfarms, windpower, windturbines

Mark your calendars, folks. This is the week that China starts exporting wind turbines to the United States. According to the Wall Street Journal’s energy blog, Mingyang Wind Power Technology Co., Ltd., has inked it’s first American deal for...continued

By the Numbers: McKinsey Tallys Up Climate Solutions

November 29, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in The Media and the Environment

Today McKinsey & Company, one of the world's leading management consulting firms released a sweeping new assessment of the more than 250 measures that together would get us into the ballpark of the global warming emission cuts now on...continued

Bali-Hoo

November 29, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Solving Global Warming

Tags:
bali, climatechange, climatenegotiations, globalwarming, UNFCCC

Starting next week, planeloads of negotiators from around the globe will be meeting in Bali, Indonesia to begin mapping out a successor to the Kyoto global warming treaty inked 10 years ago and which expires in 2012. The procedings are...continued

Chicago Newsman Shills for Climate Skeptic Group

November 20, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in The Media and the Environment

Out in Chicago, beyond the radar of coastal elite media watchers, a serious journalism ethics scandal is unfolding.Some have framed it as free speech and open debate, but that is manifestly not the issue. The real question is whether a...continued

Hummers vs. Hummus

August 29, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Green Enterprise , Living Sustainably , Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment

Tags:
co2, food, framing, globalwarming pollution, HSUS, PETA

Don't be alarmed on your way to work if the Hummer in the next lane is being driven by a chicken. Two animal rights groups have launched high-visibility campaigns arguing that eating meat causes more global warming pollution than your...continued

Dirty Laundry

August 25, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Greening China

Tags:
china, clothing, cotton, globalization, markettransformation, TheGap, wal-mart

Claudia Deutch has an interesting interview with George Feldenkreis, Chairman of the Perry Ellis clothing label in the Saturday edition of the New York Times (which I am increasingly convinced is a more interesting paper than the vaunted Sunday bundle)....continued

Everybody Talks About the Weather; China is Doing Something About It

August 14, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Greening China

Tags:
2008olympics, airpollution, airquality, beijing, china, cleanair, particulates

Coverage of the heatlh and environmental challenges that await athletes and spectators at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China is starting to heat up.  Chinese officials have been promising significant cuts the country’s famously terrible air pollution, but results so...continued

It's In The Bag

August 14, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Living Sustainably

Tags:
consumers, greenliving, markettransformation, plasticbags, recycling, shopping

I did an hour-long segment on plastic grocery bags today on the Diane Rehm Show, a nationally syndicated NPR program produced by WAMU in Washington, D.C. The other guests were Sam Shropshire, Alderman from the Seventh Ward in Annapolis, Maryland...continued

Minneapolis

August 2, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in The Media and the Environment

Tags:
cities, landuse, minneapolis, urbanpolicy

Minneapolis is where I grew up. Depending on which way mom, dad or the bus was going, I went over, under or around the I-35W bridge on my way to school everyday for about 10 years. I also (mis)spent a...continued

Shenzen: Scale + Speed = Epic Environmental Challenge

August 1, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Greening China

Tags:
globaleconomy, globalization, shenzen

James Fallows has been doing great journalism on the intersection of business, economics, culture and trade for more than 20 years. Way back when, it was Japan. Now he's living in China. This month's Atlantic carries his long piece on...continued

GM Flag Waving: Read the Fine Print First

July 31, 2007

Posted by Jon Coifman in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming

Tags:
autoindustry, detroit, economy, fueleconomy, globalwarming pollution, GM, jobs

General Motors posted new earnings numbers this morning to mostly rosy headlines. Drudge Report is running the story under the banner "USA! USA! GM posts $891-million profit…" But all is not well for the big automaker, which lost its status...continued