Not Just For Obama

When Lumumba Stanislaus Di-Aping, the chairman of the G-77 group of developing countries at Copenhagen, came to the press center at 1 AM on Saturday morning, he was not there to pontificate or yell. Looking weary, Lumumba spoke with a calmness that belied his disappointment and...

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What the Hell Happened at Copenhagen

By the time the world learned of President Obama's announcement about an "unprecedented breakthrough" to close these climate talks, called the "Copenhagen Accord," Obama was already on Air Force One. And not a moment too...

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Temperatures are rising in the Bella Center, expectations are weak, and anger is stewing, as the clock winds down toward some kind of climate agreement. The conference-shaking finance pledge today seemed to put pressure back on China to commit to transparency, helped further...

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Getting Ready for the Big Day
A day after African nations suspended talks to protest the death of Kyoto, the threats that global warming poses to the poorest countries is back in the spotlight on humanitarian day.

But in the plenary room...

The slight prospects for a deal at Copenhagen are already being pinned largely on the US and China. But with Obama's hands tied behind his back partly by the US Congress, with China already demonstrating leadership on renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts, and with both the developing and developed...

It's easy to get mixed up when talking to Paul D. Miller. You want to call him DJ Spooky, or Spooky, and you almost want to say That Subliminal Kid -- a nickname he stole from a character in a Burroughs novel.

This nominal confusion isn't the result of...

As the two titans of greenhouse gas emissions announced their first climate pledges last week, the US and China didn't look like were trying hard to impress anyone or one-up each other. Their modest, if politically pragmatic commitments represented the end of a years-long back-room bilateral game of...

When the space shuttle launched on Monday, it wasn't carrying a new satellite or even burrito ingredients. It was packed with a bunch of spare parts for the International Space Station, like refurbished gyroscopes, pumps, tanks for ammonia and nitrogen and a huge reel for the station's robotic arm....

MTA Chief Likes Congestion Pricing

There's a state budget crisis that could bring big service cuts or more fare hikes, but Jay Walder has bigger concerns on his mind. The new chairman of New York City's MTA, formerly of the London Underground, wants to introduce smart cards, arrival-time clocks...

As savvy moves by officials in China are pushing its state-run English-language news outlets to start sounding a bit more like their Western counterparts, did a New York Times article over the weekend about improvements to air quality in Beijing bear echoes of state-run media?

The good news,...

Emissions aren't the only thing being cut by the recession. On the same day that the Times axes 100 newsroom staff, Columbia University's prestigious journalism school announces that it will be suspending its 14-year-old enviornmental journalism masters program amidst a media-wide financial crisis. This sounds like...

China is famous for mining one of the yuckiest, costliest and deadliest natural resources. But it's also home to 93 percent of the global production of so-called rare earth elements -- including two metals essential for a wide array of green technologies, from hybrid cars to wind turbines....

"Responsibility" and "cleanliness" might not be synonymous with the world's biggest music and culture festival, which turns a Tennessee farm into a four-day party for 70,000 hippies, hipsters, baby-boomers and even the occasional baby.

Sure -- and forgive the stereotype -- peace, love, caring are baked right in. But...

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Coal companies would not exist if not for the "corruption" of politicians, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. told me in an interview at Bonnaroo, singling out "family friends of ours forever," like West Virginia Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Robert Byrd.

"They're allowing and endorsing criminal behavior and destroying...

He may have lost to Kris Allen on American Idol, but Steve Martin and his banjo album "The Crow" landed on the pop charts this week, his first time back there since 1981's EP "The Steve Martin Brothers." Yet if we were guessing that his new Billboard status might...

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After four days of attempts by Republicans to further water it down and debate among environmentalists about its current merits, the landmark greenhouse gas emissions bill is on its way out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee tonight -- but not without a few...

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Pierce Brosnan continued his environmental assault on Washington yesterday with a visit to the White House and a mixer for members of Congress to talk up a bill on whale preservation.

"In spite of the existence of a moratorium on commercial whaling, the setting of whaling...

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Just as the Obama administration is launching an interagency task force to boost the biofuel industry amidst an industry-wide slump, it is also preparing to rigorously measure the carbon footprint of biofuels, making them look even more controversial and environmentally risky.

The effort announced...

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On This Week with George Stephanopoulos Sunday, conservative columnist George Will commented on President Obama's emphasis on green cars, now that the White House is arguably a co-owner of Chrysler and is running GM, and said that the Prius is only successful because it doesn't...

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Might Swine Flu be the Twitter of viruses?

Bear with me for a moment.

- It has spread -- or word of it has spread -- like wildfire.
- It is surrounded by a huge cloud of hype.
- It's unclear why...