Category Archives: Environment

The Potential Climate Consequences of China’s Belt and Roads Initiative

The anticipated heavy use of coal in building out China’s Belt and Road effort is a climate change train wreck.

Plastic Watch: Congress Considers Bill to Impose Extended Producer Responsibility, AKA ‘You Break It, You Buy It’

The Break Free from Plastic Pollution Act would impose extended producer responsibility.

On February 6 Antarctica Was Warmer Than Orlando, But Mainstream Democrats Fiddle as the Planet Burns

Democrats ex Sanders are punting on climate change.

A Plague of Locusts, Failed States, and Climate Change

How locusts swarm, create food insecurity, and how climate change means more swarms, absent state intervention.

Believe It or Not, the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Was Even Worse Than Previously Thought

he legacy of Deepwater Horizon lives on, and not in a good way.

Trump Drops Antitrust Probe of Four Automakers Which Adopted Tougher Cal Tailpipe Emissions Standards

Trump drops antitrust investigation of emissions agreeemt between four automakers and state of California.

EU Plans to Measure True Climate Impacts of LNG Imports From US Fracked Gas

With climate impacts comparable to coal, the European Commission is planning to study methane reductions emission, with implications for fracked gas US producers.

Yet More Finance Profiteering: Green Bonds

Count on Wall Street to find a profit angle in actual or pending disaster. Green bonds are becoming a hot idea.

This Philadelphia Refinery Is the Country’s Worst Benzene Polluter. Trump Wants To Keep It Open

Trump-aided behind-the-scenes shenanigans may keep a horrifically toxic refinery in business.

Climate Change Needs To Be on the Balance Sheet

Serious people are finally calling for serious climate change accounting.

Obama Helped Make Cars More Efficient, but Now They Spew Black Carbon

How regulations to tame cars’ emissions created a new problem.

‘Uninsurable and Unhedgeable’: Central Banks Warn of Financial Crisis from Climate Change

The world’s most powerful financial institutions are sounding the alarm that “a new global financial crisis triggered by climate change would render central banks and financial supervisors powerless.”

Climate Change Helped Spawn East Africa’s Locust Crisis

East Africa had an unusually wet year in 2019 — warming waters in the Indian Ocean produced a high number of tropical cyclones, which doused the coast and created “exceptional” conditions for locust breeding.

How CEOs, Experts and Philosophers See the World’s Biggest Risks Differently

Trying to understand CEOs’ blinkered view of risks.