We’ve moved!

Rejoin the conversation at ecocietyblog.com

US China Joint Statement on energy cooperation

Check out the full text of the U.S. China Joint Statement at CBS The joint statement issued tonight from beijing has a remarkable number of agreements in it.  But I only want to discuss the implications of the climate and energy agreements.  (Well, first, I want to note that the Yuan isn’t budging yet, but [...]

Copenhagen posturing

The last round of negotiations prior to the Copenhagen Summit in Barcelona fizzled to a message of decreased expectations.  This has set the table for rapid political posturing from the US.  On Tuesday the Wall Street Journal quoted several key Senators, including climate bill sponsor Sen. Kerry, with various statements postponing the possibility of US [...]

Security and Water in Israel

A recent report from Amnesty International finds that Israel has developed discriminatory practices that have created sever water scarcity for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. Much has been made of the potential for resource scarcity to cause violent security issues.  In this case it seems that insecurity has resulted in resource scarcity.  According [...]

Obama Sets Energy Innovation as International Competition

I had the very good fortune to attend President Obama’s clean energy speech at MIT yesterday.  I was extremely excited to be in the room, yet left disappointed in the lack of new commitments and jingoistic tone set by President Obama. The theme of the speech was innovation, geared toward the research oriented host, MIT.  [...]

“There is no difference between India and China”

The New Delhi Accord, reached today, between India and China aligns the two traditional rivals in a unified stance on climate change negotiations.  This move in the lead up to Copenhagen will have meaningful impacts on the type of agreement that can possibly be accomplished there.  The accord insists that neither China nor India will [...]

Rising Poverty, relative to what?

New reports from the NAS poverty measure show that 1 in 6 Americans are living in poverty.  The news here is that the NAS figure increases the number of impoverished Americans by nearly 8 million over estimates that are based on the census bureaus index.  The NAS measure accounts for increased health, transportation, childcare, and [...]

NAS report on “Hidden Costs”

The National Academy of Sciences released an extensive report today that estimates some of the externalities of energy production and consumption.  The report is limited to public health expenses incurred, leaving out costs related to ecosystem damages or climate change.  The unpaid costs for health related to energy were $120 billion.   The breakdown of sources [...]