Environment

Whitehouse’s Actions Commensurate with Danger

By Justin Katz | January 30, 2008 |

RI Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D, Ocean Drive) has personal experience with the dangers of global warming: Scientists say the world needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 to avoid the worst consequences of global warming. Repeating the mantra of frustrated environmental advocates across the world, Whitehouse told a supportive audience that…

Panic! Panic! Pay No Attention to the Scientist Behind the Curtain!

By Justin Katz | January 1, 2008 |

Paul Driessen’s op-ed in the first Providence Journal of the year is certainly worth a read. Regarding the U.N. Bali meeting on global warming: Meanwhile, respected climate scientists were barred from panel discussions, censored, silenced and threatened with physical removal by polizei if they tried to hold a press conference to present peer-reviewed evidence that…

The Pitchman Cares More About the Sale than the Benefit

By Justin Katz | December 16, 2007 |

Speaking of the solutions that politicians dubiously “favor,” I note that Rhode Island’s blue-blooded, old-money Senator Sheldon Whitehouse would support climate-related legislation even if the “average American household” suffers in both the short and long terms: Landmark legislation to combat global warming will also be a long-term boon to the U.S. economy, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse…

Have You Hugged Your Local Tree Today?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | November 1, 2007 |

I know America is often regarded as an overstressed society, but I hadn’t realized just how far the stress problem had spread until I read this story in today’s Warwick Beacon by John Howell…If you feel this has been an especially drab fall, you’re not alone. Warmer and drier than normal conditions have dealt a…

The High Priority of Rising Sea Levels…100 Years from now?

By Marc Comtois | October 17, 2007 |

Today’s ProJo contained this story about the latest warnings from the enviro-Henny Pennys: This fall, the state agency that regulates coastal development in Rhode Island plans to become one of the first local regulatory agencies in the country to officially recognize the likelihood of sea-level rise and write policies and regulations to prepare for higher…

A Dark Cloud Down the Hill

By Justin Katz | October 16, 2007 |

Such stories are terrible to hear: Gail Corvello figured that if she and her neighbors held out for about five years, they would be able to get out from under the nightmare of the soil contamination in the Bay Street neighborhood that has had a stranglehold on their lives since 2002. She was wrong. On…

Oslo Calling

By Monique Chartier | October 13, 2007 |

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced yesterday that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 would be shared by Al Gore and the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change But the intrinsic assumption of that statement is that the theory of anthropogenic global…

Roland Benjamin: “A very sound case can be made that the proponents of recycling as an environmental cause are being manipulated by quasi-public and private interests looking to monopolize the entire process in the state.”

By Carroll Andrew Morse | August 9, 2007 |

Roland Benjamin, South Kingstown resident and member of the town GOP Committee, has thought in great detail about his town council’s move towards restricting citizens who want to pay someone to pick up their trash to a choice of one company. All of Rhode Island should take note, because as Mr. Benjamin explains, the issues…

Daily Show “Reports” on Cape Wind Opposition

By Marc Comtois | August 9, 2007 |

Yeah, Jon Stewart has honed his knives at the expense of many a conservative…but here he takes a stab at some liberal hypocrites. Via Watthead.

The Carbon Offset “Smokescreen”

By Marc Comtois | April 26, 2007 |

According to a report in the Financial Times: Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits… The FT investigation found: ■ Widespread instances of people and organisations buying worthless credits that do not yield any reductions in carbon emissions. ■ Industrial…