Stop with the push for ethanol production, already. Over a year ago, reports indicated that only a small percentage of corn yields could go into ethanol without impacting prices in food markets. Certainly I wasn't the only one who heard those reports?!

read more | Lalita Amos's blog | 3 comments

Have you seen the commercials? Have you visited his website? T. Boone Pickens the oil tycoon is going to save us all from the bad old oil companies..........wait a minute? What's wrong with this picture?

read more | Ray Miller's blog | login or register to post comments

Just 49% of Republicans say there is evidence of global warming.

And people ask me why I left the GOP....

Sheila Suess Kennedy's blog | login or register to post comments

Millions displaced. Over 40,000 lost in China and 134,000 dead or missing in Myanmar. Since these tragedies first struck, I've been trying hard to find something to say here. I wanted to rail about the Burmese government's xenophobic resistance to foreign assistance.

read more | Lalita Amos's blog | login or register to post comments

Motivated by soaring prices at the pump, record numbers of commuters are parking their cars in favor of mass transit.

read more | Lalita Amos's blog | 4 comments

So Hillary challenged Congress to say whether they are "with me or against me" (shades of George W. Bush!!)on her widely disparaged "gas tax holiday" idea--an idea she shares with John McCain, if not with any reputable economist.

Mark Udall, the presumptive Democratic Senate nominee from Colorado, promptly issued a press release. Was he with her? Um...not so much.

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At the end of a lengthy post at Open Left, exploring the impediments we face in trying to tackle global warming, Paul Rosenberg provides an important insight, to wit: One of the simplest ways of explaining the concept of hegemony is "ideology in drag as common sense."

Sheila Suess Kennedy's blog | login or register to post comments

While I'm busily putting together the text and audio from today's event to share with you, I thought I'd start with an open thread for those of you who were in attendance to post your thoughts and observations from the Barack Obama Town Hall Meeting.

More to follow!

Lalita Amos's blog | login or register to post comments

Global warming, climate change, carbon footprint, Al Gore, Greenhouse gases, solar flares, OH MY!

Isn't it all a bit confusing? What is really happening? Is the earth's climate really changing? Well, duh! Do we really truly know why? Absolutely not!

read more | Ray Miller's blog | login or register to post comments

Here in the US pundits posit that Gore is mislead, confused, seeking plaudits, or just plain wrong. The people in the rest of the world, however, see our reluctance to take a strong stand in efforts to curb global climate change caused by human pollution as unfathomable.

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Though we like to ignore the elephant in the room, global climate change effects us in Indiana. In addition to our tendency towards obesity (we tied Michigan for 9th most obese state), high smoking rates and low academic attainment, we're a polluter.

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In case you were wondering what the world would have looked like had Al Gore won in 2000, watch this SNL clip from 2006.

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Former Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize today for efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and lay the foundations for counteracting it. Both groups drew lauds or “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change.”

If you haven't seen An Inconvenient Truth, here's a piece (below) of what must be the most important PowerPoint presentation on planet earth (from TED.com).  Of the movie version of "the slideshow, film critic Roger Ebert said, "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."

Side note: If you're like me, you'll find yourself wondering why this Al Gore didn't show up for the run-up to the 2000 presidential election.

Lalita Amos's blog | login or register to post comments

I don’t usually read Indiana news first in the New York Times; things tend to percolate in our local media for days before they make national news, if indeed they ever do. But apparently Indiana is embroiled in an environmental controversy that has not received much coverage in the Star or in my local paper, The Republic (Columbus).

The claim is that Indiana is allowing a refinery to put more pollution into Lake Michigan than other states would allow. I’m generally pro-development, so I’m not rushing to judgment on this because I surely don’t know all the facts. But the article itself cannot be good for the Hoosier state, especially in light of the 387 to 26 vote in the U.S. House asking Indiana to reconsider. Not good if outsiders view Indiana as the third-world state where corporations can skirt environmental standards if they build just over the line on our property.

I’m hoping Governor Daniels and the BP folks are telling the truth about their plans being well within national standards. I’m hoping the environmentalists are being overzealous. But if the city of Chicago is concerned and the U.S. House is concerned, then I have to be at least a little concerned too. I want Indiana to be pro-jobs, but I don’t want us to be a safe haven for corporations seeking environmental relief.

Arthur Farnsley's blog | login or register to post comments

Bil Browning's blog | login or register to post comments | 1 attachment