David Roberts

How to provide relief to rural Americans, create jobs, and lower emissions … all at once!

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Most homeowners in the U.S. would come out ahead if they invested in energy efficiency improvements — new insulation, sealed windows, more efficient boilers, and the like. So why don’t they do it? Simple: the upfront costs are steep and the paybacks can take a long time. Many homeowners don’t have access to the capital to cover the costs, or they worry that they will move before the the costs are repaid, thus leaving subsequent owners to reap gains they didn’t pay for.

Living Hero interview with Vandana Shiva

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Around the world civilian rights to food and water are being eroded by the patenting of life forms and by privatization of water systems. Some farmers have been hit with law suits for patent infringement, while they were planting heritage seeds. The outspoken, multi-talented Vandana Shiva, joins us to talk about these and other issues of capitalist globalization. She is a celebrated ecofeminist, grassroots activist, research physicist, author, and international advocate for alternatives to global corporate hegemony.

Transport – Mar 10

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-Crunching the Numbers ($$$) on Bike Commuting
-Want to Foster Walking, Biking and Transit? You Need Good Parking Policy
-Streetfilms: Fixing the Great Mistake of Planning for Cars
-Korea unveils the ‘future of transport’ — the Online Electric Vehicle
-Streetfilms: Seattle’s Link Light Rail — The Start of Something Big
-New York Plans Transitway on 34th Street, but It’s Not BRT, for Better or Worse

Tiny Homestead Discoveries Inspire Big Wild Ideas

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To my amusement, a slate colored junco hopped into a little pool of snow melt and splashed and fluttered around joyously. Looked like joy anyway. I had to laugh right out loud. It was hardly warm enough to go out without a coat on, yet here was this tiny bird obviously enjoying an outdoor bath. Why couldn’t I go for a dip too? Life just ain’t fair.

Nothing left to lose

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Rolfe Winkler wrote some good stuff in the wake of the Make Markets Be Markets conference held in the Imperial capital last week. I’ll get to that in a moment. The purpose of the get together, which was hosted by the Roosevelt Institute, was to push for much needed financial reform. Many of the usual suspects were there, including Simon Johnson and Elizabeth Warren. Rob Johnson, Senior Fellow and Director of the Project on Global Finance at The Roosevelt Institute, wrote the introduction to the conference report (big pdf).

North-South Divide And Tackling Global Warning

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As signs of climate instability increase, radical and rapid action is becoming ever more urgent…Yet even within the environmental movement there is no unanimity on this thorny question: should the countries of the South have the right to increase their emissions as they industrialize and “develop”?

Why GM Has No Place in a World in Transition

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The piece builds on Lynas’s previous much publicised conversion to nuclear power, arguing that if we are to apply the scientific rigour that underpins climate science to all other areas of life, in the same way that nuclear power is supported by the science, so is GM. While I strongly disagree with him on both, I want here to challenge Lynas’s conversion to GM, and the belief that if we are serious about climate change, we have no option other than to embrace GM.

Monbiot vs. Leggett duking it out over solar panels and feed-in tariffs – Mar 9

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-Are we really going to let ourselves be duped into this solar panel rip-off?
-Solar panels are not fashion accessories
-There is no ‘green treachery’ in questioning this solar panel rip-off
I accept George Monbiot’s £100 solar PV bet