Green Your Back-to-School Shopping
Cara Smusiak

It's the time of year again: Kids and parents around the country are getting ready for another school year, and that means serious shopping time. But before you head out for a marathon shopping day, think about the ways you can go green to make your child's school year an eco-friendly one

Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Epoch-Changing Decision from the EPA
Tom Ripley

The reality of climate change doesn't change the stark reality for auto manufacturers, who must toe the line whether the regulations will actually cure an ill or not. The order of the day is to limit car and truck carbon dioxide emissions. The EPA ruling isn't just a game changer, it's an epoch changer. These new regulations potentially change the nature of the vehicle you drive each day

Planet-friendly Parties
Elizabeth Barker

By making a few easy changes to your party-planning strategy, you can cut back on waste, reduce your use of natural resources and even slash your spending budget. Here, Green Chic author Christie Matheson serves up eight tips for eco-fabulous entertaining

China's Coal Addiction
Joel Brinkley

Before a large international audience in Shanghai for the World Expo, the director of China's National Energy Administration pledged to begin shutting down his country's coal-burning power plants and give 'greater priority to the development of clean and low-carbon energies.' If only that were true

Electric Cars May Not Make the World Greener
Tom Ripley

These days, car manufacturers are converting cars and trucks they make to hybrid and electric power. Government regulations, not consumer demand, have driven car manufacturers that direction. But is the direction we are headed the right direction? Will it result in the greatest good for the greatest number of people? A new white paper suggests that it isn't

Nuclear Energy Is Cheap and Reliable
Senator Lamar Alexander

Nuclear fuel is available in the United States and is virtually unlimited. We don't have to drill for it. We don't have to mine it nearly as much as we do for coal. And thanks to technology, we can safely recycle 'nuclear waste' and turn most of it into more fuel

New Nuclear Reactors Would Be Too Risky
Representative Dennis Kucinich

If nuclear energy is a bad investment for Wall Street, then is it a good investment for taxpayers? Even high-fliers on Wall Street fear investing in nuclear projects. Nuclear power's proponents say that the industry has solved the problems that caused it to collapse in the 1970s, and that we are at the dawn of a nuclear renaissance. But the industry still suffers from those same problems

Gloom Awaits U.S. Climate Diplomacy
Michael A. Levy

Cap-and-trade legislation aimed at curbing greenhouse gas emissions appears to be dead in this Congress. The biggest implication is that the United States has once again failed to confront its climate problems. But there is another: the United States is in for a rocky time in international climate diplomacy

Be a Green Teen
Girl World Daily

Being a BFF to the environment isn't always about rallying for big global changes. You can tweak simple things in your day-to-day drill to help save the environment. Get with the green routine!

6 Ways You're Wasting Water Right Now
Luke Mullins

Efficient water use helps maintain reservoir and groundwater supplies at levels that support a healthy public and a thriving environment. Meanwhile, smarter water use reduces the amount of energy needed to treat and transport the supply. What's more, conserving water saves money. Here's six ways that consumers might be unintentionally wasting water today and what they can do to prevent it

Better H2O at Home
Kathryn Weber

If you're interested in doing your part to conserve this resource, there are ways you can reduce the amount of water your household uses -- while making your water taste better and keeping your home cleaner, too

Democrats Use Oil Spill to Spur Environmental Bills
Jessica Rettig

As Hurricane Alex ripped through the Gulf of Mexico, pushing waves of oil onto coastal state shores and postponing cleanup efforts, Congress shored up a few energy-related bills in Washington. While the spill has been a dark cloud for environmentalists, it may provide the political impetus that proponents of long-term conservation and climate change legislation have been looking for

Obama Slow on Global Warming Legislation
Kent Garber

Last summer, the House passed the Waxman-Markey bill, which would cap greenhouse gases. But the Senate stalled, and the Obama administration has been far less aggressive in pursuing a bill than many hoped. But as Eric Pooley documents in his new book, The Climate War, Washington has struggled to act. Pooley discusses his findings

The War on Weeds
Robert C. Koehler

Today's big news stories -- the wars, the eco-disasters -- all seem to have the same gaping hole in them. This hole is lack of awareness, and its thrum, once you begin to hear it, soon becomes deafening: We can't go on like this.

Big Oil, 'Small People'
(c) Donna Grethen

Restraining the Profit Itch
Robert C. Koehler

The gap between the diffuse human yearning for a decent world and the organized agenda of the corporatocracy, has never, in my lifetime, been wider. What the BP Oil Spill has yet to reach are the headquarters of corporate power and the consciences ensconced therein. The arrogance of the great capitalists remains undamaged

Advocates Hope Oil Spill Will Push Climate Bill Forward
Kent Garber

A year ago, the House passed an energy and climate bill with a first-ever cap on greenhouse gas emissions. It got through with an exceedingly narrow margin -- seven votes. The Senate has been dithering over it ever since

Beyond Petroleum
Robert C. Koehler

It was more like a momentary rip in the global power continuum, a spill of outrage on the stage of a major oil conference in London when two Greenpeace activists interrupted a speech by British Petroleum chief of staff Steve Westwell

Ancient Oceans Now Endangered Oceans
Robert C. Koehler

Now, along with endangered species, the Gulf spill has given us a new category: endangered oceans. The challenges presented by the BP Oil Spill disaster lay before us in their incomprehensible enormity. How will hurricane season complicate the cleanup? Will the flow of crude continue till Christmas? How many cleanup workers have gotten sick, and why?

BP Oil Spill: The Nightmare Becomes Reality
Carl Hiaasen

A friend walked out on Pensacola Beach, Fla., and took a photograph of the oil -- miles of oil -- on the morning that the gunk first washed ashore. He e-mailed the picture to me with a note that said it all: 'Sickening.' Pensacola is his home, and the unthinkable has happened. Louisiana's misery is now officially Florida's misery, too

Senate Challenge to EPA Climate Change Authority
Kent Garber

For several months now, the Environmental Protection Agency has been making steady progress writing rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. But Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski wants to hit the brakes. She's scheduled a vote in the Senate on a resolution that would essentially strip the EPA of its authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other gases linked to climate change

Oil: The Real Green Fuel
Jonah Goldberg

If we stop drilling offshore, we could lose up to $1 trillion in economic benefits, according to economist Peter Passell. And, absent the utopian dream of oil-free living, every barrel we don't produce at home, we buy overseas. It may also increase the chances of disaster because tanker accidents are more common than rig accidents

BP Oil Spill: First, Do No Harm
Robert C. Koehler

As Planet Earth continues to hemorrhage crude oil from its wound we grope, beyond our anger and guilt, simply to imagine what damage we have done in the pursuit of human empowerment. This is bigger than BP, blameworthy though the company may be. It's a crisis of civilization, which means all of us

BP Gulf Oil Spill Could Spur Energy Bill
Kent Garber

It wasn't until the massive Gulf oil spill that President Obama began pushing publicly once again for an energy and climate bill. The public, it seems, is with him: Several recent polls have shown that, in the aftermath of the spill, a strong majority of Americans support action to tackle carbon pollution and to spur more renewable energy

Sinking 'Climate Change'
Cal Thomas

Three modern myths have been sold to the American people: the promise of a transparent administration (President Obama); the promise of a more ethical Congress (Speaker Pelosi); and the myth of 'global warming,' or climate change

The Price of Global Climate Change Regulations
Tom Ripley

We can assume that most government regulations are instituted for benevolent reasons: to right a wrong, fix a problem or just generally improve conditions. But the sad fact is that many regulations have unintended, often-negative consequences. Could this apply to the set of regulations created around the world to address global climate change?

Americans Becoming Global Warming Skeptics
Mary Kate Cary

Most of us agree that government can have a positive role in cutting energy consumption, ensuring clean air and water, and reducing many kinds of pollution. But stopping global climate change on Earth? The jury's still out on that one. For skeptics, the energy issue is not about global warming. It's about national security and the economic opportunity that alternative energy presents

Wave Power Could Reduce Dependency on Oil
Thomas K. Grose

Within the rapidly expanding renewable energy sector, wave energy farms are still a novelty. But not for long. As the push to develop clean alternatives to fossil fuels accelerates, most money, research, and development remain focused on wind and solar technologies. But marine power, might also eventually provide consumers with large amounts of affordable, renewable electricity

Do You Love Mama Earth?
Girl World Daily

Take our quiz to find out if you’re the ultimate environmentalist or if you think green is nothing other than a color!

Paying the High Price of Food Waste
Sharon Palmer, R.D.

More than 40 percent of the food produced for consumption in the U.S. will never be eaten. In fact, food waste in America has increased by about 50 percent since 1974, reaching more than 1,400 calories per person per day. That's almost half of the daily calorie requirement for the average person. Why are we food wasters? The answer to that question is complicated and requires introspection

Energy - Climate Bill Stalled in the Senate
Kent Garber

For all the hype that had been building around the energy, climate change bill in Washington, there's still very little known about its contents, and its political future seems to have grown even murkier in recent days as the giant oil spill down in the Gulf of Mexico has again raised questions about the environmental costs of offshore drilling.

Solar Power Source of Optimism for Clean Energy Advocates
Alex Kingsbury

Solar power has long been the holy grail of energy production. It is clean, and sunshine is free and in inexhaustible supply. But it remains a tiny part of worldwide energy production. There are several serious technological hurdles that prevent solar power from cracking into the power-generation market in a major way.

BP Oil Spill Calamity: Having to Play Defense
Jules Witcover

For a politician who got elected promising change, Barack Obama increasingly finds himself having to deal with what's already happened. The chief culprit no longer George W. Bush, or even Wall Street. Now it's British Petroleum. While still trying to undo the damage of Iraq and the recklessness of banking tycoons, Obama is now confronted with the worst environmental calamity

Drill, Baby, Drill? Make BP Pay
Clarence Page

How about that for luck? President Barack Obama makes a big concession to the 'Drill, baby, drill' crowd by opening up more offshore lands to drilling and it blows up in his face. Or, at least, one offshore rig did.

Gulf Spill Can Kill Our Tourist Season
Carl Hiaasen

It turns out that oil is gushing from that blown-out rig off the Louisiana coast at a flow of at least 5,000 barrels a day, five times more than BP first estimated.

Green Cars and Toyota
Luigi Fraschini

Toyota is more ready than ever to concede that its efforts in the hybrid, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell arenas are driven as much by U.S. government regulatory policy as by the possible implosion of the world's ecosystem

Extreme Environmentalism
Nicole Frie

Have you always wanted to become more environmentally active but weren't sure where to begin? Earth Day turned 40 years old on April 22, 2010 -- the perfect incentive to make a new start! Here are a few how-to's on not just decreasing your carbon footprint but walking the walk with BIG steps toward helping the environment.

Global Warming, Ethanol, DDT and Environmentalism's Dark Side
Carrie Lukas

Environmentalists claim their interests are in preserving our precious planet. Yet environmentalists' policies have been a much more mixed bag in terms of their actual consequences. Indisputably, many environmental initiatives have worked. But other environmental efforts have backfired

Watch What Obama Says Not What He Does on Cap and Trade Off-Shore Drilling
Bradley A. Blakeman

President Obama's strategy in governing is a very simple one: He wants the public to pay attention to what he says but pay no mind to what he does. Let's match what the president has said on major issues to what he has done or what he would like to do

Colleges Go Green for Earth Day
Zach Miners

Earth Day, held each April 22 to inspire awareness of and action for the Earth's environment, is on the horizon, and colleges are well aware. Colleges and universities across the country are celebrating the day through panel discussions, presentations, and academic lessons. But some schools are also getting creative

Obama's Climate Czar Working Toward National Energy Policy
Brian Kelly

Carol Browner spearheads energy and climate policy at the White House, two issues that will surely dominate policymaking at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in the next few months. In a recent interview Carol Browner spoke about the regulation of carbon, climate change, and the challenges of putting in place a national energy strategy.

Climate Change Debate and The Future of Energy
Reader Comments

Is the earth warming? Is the warming a result of mankind's use of carbon fuels? I'm not sure anyone knows. But the questions are moot. We in the United States are squandering gasoline and diesel fuel. Oil is not unlimited. We must use it frugally. In addition, importing such large amounts of oil from other countries is unwise

Obama's Offshore Oil Decision Has Political Dimension
Kent Garber

Obama's off-shore oil drilling decision has multiple motivations. On one level, he is acknowledging that the United States requires oil for transportation and will continue to for some time. But there is a political dimension, too. Obama wants to pass a major climate and energy bill soon, and a bipartisan group of senators is expected to unveil one later this month

Simple measure could be top weapon against global warming
William O'Keefe and Bill Shireman

Both major political parties have received major wake-up calls: the GOP last November and Democrats last month. Sound bite politics, it's clear, do not make for sound policy. And voters are catching on. Now, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle must stop stonewalling and start solving problems. One problem we can solve together is the climate change risk

Dirty Truth About Air: Pollution's Effect On Heart Health Obesity and Fertility
Sarah Baldauf

The political wrangling over environmental matters like greenhouse gases, emissions trading, and energy security often clouds another substantive part of the story: the deleterious health effects of breathing dirty air. Now, scientists and health professionals are looking to draw more attention to that part of the debate.

Climategate Shows There's No Global Warming Consensus
James Inhofe

Call it the global warming crackup, an unfolding process of contradictory claims about glaciers, weather, and scientists asserting a consensus when none exists. Global warming alarmists can't make up their minds because the entire basis for their energy rationing project has collapsed into a mess of errors, exaggerations, and deceit. Let me explain.

Climategate Reflects Changing Debate over Global Warming
Joshua Kucera

There is still a consensus that Earth is warming, and climate scientists have painstakingly argued that the E-mails don't do anything to challenge their conclusion that human activity is causing this climate change. But the controversy has opened the door to those who argue that human activity has played a lesser role in warming and thus does not merit a strong reaction.

Global Warming Fact Denial Won't Change Climate Back
Joseph Romm

Big Oil wants us to remain addicted to oil, a major source of carbon pollution. So it and other special interests have conducted an aggressive disinformation campaign for more than a decade to convince Americans that there's a major disagreement among scientists on the dangers posed by carbon pollution, just as the tobacco industry disputed the science to keep smokers addicted.

Energy-Efficient Updates Help Homeowners Save Cash
Maura Judkis

By making energy-efficient improvements to your house, you can lower your monthly bill and also do something for the environment. Any house is a good candidate for some tweaks, whether it's a total retrofit or an afternoon with a can of spray foam. Here's the guide to making your home more energy efficient

Going Green Is Good Business
Brian Kelly

Denver might not be the first place one would think to look for examples of progressive urban development. But the energy-centric city has become a leader in areas of transit, housing, and energy efficiency, thanks to a succession of effective leaders. Mayor John Hickenlooper talks about how Denver has become a place where energy conservation and development mix well.

Small Town Grapples with Legacy of Chemical Byproduct
Kent Garber

For the better part of 30 years, Nitro, West Virginia has been grappling with the legacy of dioxin. The plant is long gone, leaving a vacant lot, part gravel and part pavement, with weeds -- weeds, of all things -- growing here and there in the cracks

Side by Side in Need for Green Growth: China and America try cooperation
Joshua Kucera

When President Obama took office last year, two of his top priorities were stronger action to stem global warming and a more collaborative, cooperative approach to solving international problems. By making climate change a primary focus in America's relationship with China the president sought to accomplish two goals in a single stroke.

Jolt for Energy Innovation: Government Investing
Kent Garber

The United States, as pretty much anyone will tell you, is racing China to develop clean energy technologies -- the wind turbines and solar panels and advanced batteries and energy storage devices of the future -- and there are a lot of people who are worried that the country is lagging, even losing, when it comes to innovation.

National Power Grid That Thinks
Alex Kingsbury

As part of the economic stimulus package, the Obama administration pledged $3.4 billion toward smart grid technology -- the next generation of infrastructure, meant to stabilize the grid in the event of a failure, incorporate green technology, and vastly improve efficiency. But those billions are a drop in the bucket toward bringing the entire national grid into the 21st century.

Exxon: Slow Evolution of an Oil Giant
Kent Garber

The Rockefellers are preparing a resolution to present to shareholders at the Exxon's annual meeting. The proposal would require Exxon to disclose the risks it faces if demand for oil declines in coming years as the world turns to other sources of fuel. In other words, is Exxon worried about the future of oil and whether it's taking the risk of climate change seriously.

Stuttering Start for Electric Cars
Rick Newman

You might get the impression, over the next year or so, that driving as you know it will never be the same again. The electric vehicle, you see, is about to arrive. The much-heralded Chevrolet Volt, able to travel up to 40 miles on a battery charged through a household outlet, is set to go on sale late this year. So is the Nissan Leaf, with a range of up to 100 miles

Going the Extra Mile
Rick Newman

The electric vehicles coming soon are just one choice for green-minded drivers. Automakers offer a range of high-mileage cars that don't entail inconveniences. Some of the options

Front Line of the Climate War
Kent Garber

Bill Kovacs is the top energy lobbyist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents some of the biggest businesses in the country. And there he was, traveling around the country, stopping off at a Holiday Inn here, a Radisson there, in North Dakota, Montana, and a number of other states, holding forums or 'dialogues' with community leaders and local townspeople on climate change.

Everglades Needs Sugar Deal Done Right
Carl Hiaasen

Gov. Charlie Crist's grand plan to buy out U.S. Sugar is threatened by lagging tax revenues, costly lawsuits and the absence of a key player in the negotiations. Twice downscaled, the governor's vision of converting thousands of acres of cane fields to water-cleansing marshes is far from dead. However, the deal is receiving close scrutiny and mounting criticism, some of it justified.

10 Ways to Save by Going Green
Maura Judkis

The era of new American frugality ushered in by the recession has an added benefit. Many measures that families take to cut costs in tough times -- turning down the heat or shopping secondhand, for example -- are also good for the planet. Here's 10 things that not only minimize your carbon footprint but also save you money

Audi's Gorewellian Super Bowl Ad
Jonah Goldberg

Audi's 'Green Police' depicts an America where citizens are arrested for even minor environmental infractions. Until the pitch for Audi intrudes, you'd think it was a fun parody. Instead, the moral of the story is that we should welcome our new green overlords and, if we know what's good for us, surrender to the New Green Order.

Unique Ways to Go Green if You're Living in a Dorm
Zach Miners

College is often termed the best years of your life. Now, recent trends suggest that it is also becoming pretty green. A growing number of colleges and universities are seeking ways to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, many with energy-efficient facilities and construction projects. And there are many things individuals can do to reduce their impact on the environment.

Chamber of Commerce Considering EPA Lawsuit
Kenneth T. Walsh

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is considering a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency challenging EPA's plans to regulate greenhouse gases, according to chamber President and CEO Tom Donohue

Climate Change - A Falling Doctrine
Cal Thomas

The doctrine of global warming, now euphemistically called climate change, suffered a severe blow last week as much of Europe was buried in record amounts of snow and sub-freezing temperatures. Experts who believe in global warming, uh climate change, bravely tried to make a distinction between short-term weather and long-term climate change.

Why Failing to Complete Green Revolution Could Bring Next Famine
Carlisle Ford Runge

Rising food prices have intensified the risks of large-scale hunger. The reasons are complex, but one of them is that demand for food is increasing as populations and incomes grow even as the supply of food is increasingly being diverted to other uses, such as the production of biofuels. As a result famine is again stalking the world's poor

Oh, Yes, The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference
Paul Greenberg

The other day a friend asked if I'd written about the Copenhagen conference on climate change, carbon control, environmental technology, the ecological future of Spaceship Earth, cabbages and kings, and the 101 other Very Important Things covered by that huge, long-awaited and now suddenly fizzled international gabfest. No, I hadn't written about it, until now. Maybe because it ended not with a bang but with a whimper heard 'round the world

Copenhagen Accord Offers Some Progress on Climate Change
Kent Garber

The Copenhagen Climate Change Accord is not what many wanted. It's not binding. Its language is vague. And it basically offers a bunch of 'shoulds' rather than 'musts.' It has few deadlines and few consequences, and falls short of being an actual treaty. However, many suggest it is the first in a long line of dominoes that must be knocked over.

China on the Defensive After Obama's Climate Speech
Kent Garber

The United States is publicly and privately pressuring China to share more information about its carbon emissions. And that is putting China on the defensive.

Climate Deal an Important First Step
Kent Garber

Leaders appear to have agreed to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius in coming decades and to set guidelines by which countries, including China, would monitor and report those emissions.

China Mulling Clinton's Climate Change Offer
Kent Garber

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived for the final two days of the Climate Change Conference, the goal being to reach some sort of agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and she skillfully came with both an offer and a threat.

Copenhagen Could Change the Global Warming Debate
Kent Garber

John Kerry has emerged as one of the biggest champions for action on climate change in the Senate, and joined with Senators Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman to unveil a bipartisan plan for curbing emissions. Kent Garber spoke with Kerry about his expectations and the state of climate legislation in the U.S.

Global Warming - Global Wealth Can Heal the Planet
Jonah Goldberg

With the Copenhagen climate summit behind us, it seems fair to say that rarely has a gathering of so many doing so little gotten so much attention. But Copenhagen does have its uses. For starters, it reminds us that environmentalism continues to be a cover for uglier agendas

Top 5 Issues at the Copenhagen Climate Conference
Kent Garber

Many of the world's economic powerhouses and biggest polluters, including the United States and China, have said they're serious about hashing out an agreement. Of course, 'success' can mean different things to different people: Some want a political agreement; others want a legally binding treaty. Here are five things that could determine the outcome

China Takes Tiny Steps on Climate Change
Kent Garber

China says that it's getting serious about tackling global warming. After President Obama pledged two weeks ago to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, China came out with its own plan, promising to slow the growth of its fast-rising carbon pollution

Global Warming E-Mails Scandal Doesn't Disprove Climate Change Facts
Bonnie Erbe

I must take issue with last week's posting by my conservative colleague Peter Roff on the E-mail scandal that's rocking the scientific community

Global Warming as a Political Tool
Jonah Goldberg

Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, formally announced that her agency now considers carbon dioxide to be a dangerous pollutant, subject to government regulation. Greens have wanted to find a way for the government to regulate CO2, a natural byproduct of fire and breathing, for decades. Now they can.

Groupthink and the Global Warming Industry
Jonah Goldberg

By now you might have heard something about the e-mail scandal rocking the climate change industry, though you can be forgiven if you haven't, since it hasn't gotten nearly the coverage it should.

Climate Change and The Flathead Society
Cal Thomas

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has taken the route of many who would rather call names than have a serious debate about 'climate change.' He characterizes those who question 'settled science' members of the 'flat-earth' society. When people resort to name-calling it is a sign they have lost an argument

Hacked E-mails Give Inhofe Fuel for Climate Change Debate
Kent Garber

A slew of hacked E-mail snippets are rolling around the Internet. Posted earlier this month, the E-mails were swiped from a server at the Climate Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and contain exchanges between several top climate scientists discussing, among other things, how to make their data appear more impressive for publication. Not surprisingly ...

Why Some People Go Green and Others Do not
Matthew Bandyk

Why do some people love the Toyota Prius, but others couldn't care less about driving a hybrid vehicle? Why do some of your friends spend hours trying to reduce their carbon footprint, while others wonder what's the point of even recycling?

Conservation Group Sees a Win for Obama on Climate Change
Paul Bedardn

Despite pessimistic signs on Capitol Hill and internationally regarding action by the United States on climate change initiatives, the head of the World Wildlife Fund today predicted that the December climate summit in Copenhagen will draw up a framework for action that will prompt Congress to move on the critical issue

Climate Change Bill's Murky Battleground: Assumptions and Statistics
Kent Garber

On one side of the table were the Democrats. On the other side, where the Republicans normally would have been, there were only empty leather chairs. This was the strange scene in a hearing room on Capitol Hill, where Senate Democrats were trying to take the next step on their climate change bill by passing it through the Environment Committee.

Military Leads on Efficiency, Alternative Energy
Michael Signer

To some critics, the cause of alternative and sustainable energy will always be associated with the image of dewy-eyed do-gooders earnestly plying a hopeless cause. However, it might surprise opponents -- and even supporters -- that the most innovative and effective actors in the carbon-reduction arena is the Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard who are aggressively pursuing plans for sustainable energy, reducing carbon, and achieving energy independence.

A Few Simple Changes Will Green Your Thanksgiving Feast
Cara Smusiak

Between travel, disposable plates, paper napkins, pre-packaged and heavily processed foods, leftovers wrapped in tinfoil and plastic wrap, and food that ends up in the trash because we just cooked too much, there's a hefty environmental footprint associated with Thanksgiving.

Norman Borlaug: The Man Who Changed Everything
Norman Borlaug (March 25, 1914 - September 12, 2009)

Norman Borlaug, a plainspoken Iowa farm boy who worked his way through the University of Minnesota during the Depression. His death at 95 came at the end of a life as rich as the bountiful fields he left across the world. To quote the citation that came with his Nobel Prize in 1970, "More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world."

Interview with India's Environment Minister
Jayshree Bajoria

India and China have long maintained their economic growth will suffer if they accept binding emission targets under an international agreement on climate change. Instead, they have called for mitigation commitments by the developed world and financial support from rich countries to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

Religious Groups Push for Climate Change Legislation
Dan Gilgoff

American religious traditions have emerged as a large part of the environmental movement. The stepped-up environmental efforts of religious groups in Washington have paralleled a grass-roots effort among religious Americans to green their congregations.

A Fishy Tale - California Uproar over Water
Victor Davis Hanson

Nearly a quarter-million acres worth of federal irrigation deliveries have been cut from big farms of the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. The water in large part is being diverted to the salty San Francisco Bay and the delta to improve marine ecology. The result is that many crops have gone unplanted. Farm income is down. Thousands of farm laborers are unemployed. Growers and workers are now livid at environmentalists, federal bureaucrats and judges for worrying more about fish than about people and food growing

Even Skeptics Should Heed These Climate-Change Warnings
Robyn Blumner

To Global Warming Holdouts and Oil Drilling Enthusiasts: OK, maybe you don't care or believe that within a couple of generations global warming's effects on sea levels will swamp the world's coastlines, displacing hundreds of millions of people. However, you might want to get behind the push for alternative energy and a reduced carbon 'bootprint,' because our military says it's essential for American security

Global Warming and the Sun
Jonah Goldberg

On the last day of August, scientists spotted a teeny-weeny sunspot, breaking a 51-day streak of blemish-free days for the sun. If it had gone just a bit longer, it would have broken a 96-year record of 53 days without any of the magnetic disruptions that cause solar flares. That record was nearly broken last year as well. Wait, it gets even more exciting.

Overfishing, Pollution Could Change Our Seafood Diets
John Podesta

Marine biologists are alarmed by the imbalances that are appearing in marine ecosystems. The ocean is changing fast -- too fast, it seems, for us to reliably predict the combined effects of overfishing, pollution and climate change. What is clear is that the changes, by and large, are not good news for our bellies.

Cap-and-Trade Will Reduce Global Warming and Create Jobs
John Podesta

New investments in the clean energy technologies of the future would slash global warming pollution and reduce the use of foreign oil while also creating jobs and increasing our economic competitiveness vis-à-vis China and other nations.

Cap-and-Trade Would Make the American Dream a Nightmare
William O'Keefe

In 1984, the late historian Barbara Tuchman wrote The March of Folly, in which she chronicled the phenomenon of governments pursuing policies directly at odds with their self-interest. Tuchman used the term "wooden-headedness" to describe the tendency of leaders to assess situations using preconceived notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. History may be repeating itself in Washington as they fight to pass a climate bill that most lawmakers have not read and even fewer understand. In spite of growing evidence ...

Planet Bull's-Eye
Jonah Goldberg

It makes you wonder. For all the rush and panic, the truth is, climate change -- if real -- is a very slow-moving catastrophe. Moreover, it happens to align with an ideological and political agenda the left has been pushing for generations. What a convenient truth for environmentalists

When It Pays to Go Green
Kimberly Palmer

Going green sometimes comes with a price: Organic vegetables can cost twice as much as their mainstream counterparts. So when is going green really worth it? We asked some top environmental experts to weigh in -- and their answers might surprise you. They say that while spending extra is often justified, you can almost always find a cheaper alternative.

55 MPH Speed Limit Makes Economic, Political, and Environmental Sense
Tim Castleman

To a large degree, our cars are us, and restricting how we drive is tantamount to threatening our independence. In the bigger picture, however, this is just a reactionary response. The critical thinkers among us know that freedom demands responsibility, knowledge, and considerate action. We have good reason to reduce the speed at which we drive, for personal gain as well as the good of the nation.

55 MPH Speed Limit Is Unenforceable and Counterproductive
James Baxter

Motorist compliance with the 55 mph limit has always been problematic. Ticketing binges, threatened financial sanctions, relentless PR, and increased fines and penalties failed to stem noncompliance. Despite increasing noncompliance and increased highway speeds, fatality rates continue to decline, contradicting the folklore that higher speed limits and higher speeds result in more serious accidents.

Climate Change Bill Faces Hurdles in the Senate
Kent Garber

To pass climate change legislation in the House last month, Speaker Nancy Pelosi needed 218 votes. She got 219: 211 Democrats plus 8 Republicans. By almost the narrowest of margins, the House voted to put a cap on the country's greenhouse gas emissions. Now the debate goes to the Senate, where passage will probably be just as tough. California Sen. Barbara Boxer, who chairs the Senate Environment Committee, is leading the effort

America's First Global Warming Cap and Trade Program
Martin O'Malley, Governor of the state of Maryland

As the debate over energy independence, climate change, and "green jobs" heats up this summer, Congress and the American public should take note one of the most significant accomplishments related to climate change to date and some of the lessons we've learned. In September 2008, 10 northeastern states, including Maryland, launched the United States's first greenhouse gas "cap and trade system" -- and it is working.

Yucca Mountain: Harry Reid Declares Nevada Nuclear Containment Facility Dead
Robert Bryce

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has declared that Yucca Mountain, the site in Nevada where the federal government has been planning to store high-level radioactive waste, is "never going to open." Reid may be right. President Obama's 2010 budget nearly zeroes out federal funding for the waste site.

By Michael Osbun

Plan to Combat Global Warming: Pie in the Sky
Jonah Goldberg

Whenever you hear a politician start a sentence with, "If we can put a man on the moon ... ," grab your wallet.

The latest example of anthropogenic-lunar empowerment is global warming. Al Gore and Barack Obama routinely cite the Apollo program as proof that we can make good on the president's messianic campaign pledge to stem the rising ocean tides and hasten the healing of the planet.

How the Global Warming Bill Will Affect Your Wallet
Matthew Bandyk

How much will the Waxman-Markey bill cost the average American? In the coming weeks, Congress will likely consider a massive global-warming bill to create a new cap-and-trade program to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. President Obama praised the bill, dubbed Waxman-Markey for its co-sponsors, as a vital step to create millions of new jobs all across America

Norman Borlaug: Population Growth Requires Second Green Revolution
Norman Borlaug Nobel Laureate Interview

Norman Borlaug is known as the father of the Green Revolution. His work with high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties is credited with saving as many as a billion people from starvation worldwide. Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply. At age 95, a recent interview ...

Composting: From Garden to Kitchen to Garden

The key to a good garden is good compost, and every gardener worth his salt should be making his own. Compost is a wonderful thing, plants are happy when grown in this sweet black soil amendment. Making your own is easy. Anything that once was living will eventually become compost. The trick is how fast you can harvest it.

Greening My House
Arianna Huffington

Ever since I saw the Green light, thanks to my friend Laurie David, and traded in my gas-guzzling SUV, I've tried my best to up my eco-awareness.