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Citing mystical vision, Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline

By April 1, 2013
Barack Obama speaking

Cutting short a permit review process expected to conclude this summer at earliest, President Obama today announced that he has decided to block the Keystone XL pipeline planned to carry more than 700,000 barrels a day of Canadian tar-sands crude into the country. "After a careful process of deliberation, and a prophetic vision after Easter service on Sunday, I have determined that permitting construction [of the pipeline] would not serve the national interest of the United States," Mr. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Energy, Politics Tagged With: , , , , ,

Always the last to know

By February 27, 2013
Climate Change

Quiz time, readers: what do the US Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the Transportation Department, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Interior, the Energy Department, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce, the Government Accountability Office, and the CIA have in common? It’s a long list of government departments and agencies, and they’re all getting something right. Now brace yourselves. They’re all … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , , , , ,

James Hansen to Obama: What would MLK do on climate?

By January 18, 2013
James Hansen thinks Obama needs to lead on climate as MLK led on civil rights.

Let us return for a moment to election night 2008. As I sat in our farm house in Pennsylvania, watching Barack Obama's victory speech, I turned my head aside so my wife would not see the tears in my eyes. I suspect that millions cried. It was a great day for America. We had great hopes for our new President. It is appropriate, it is right, in a period honoring Martin Luther King, to recall the hopes and dreams of that evening, and the hopes and dreams that we…will… never - give up. We … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , ,

Climate change: Obama needs to turn talk into action

By December 5, 2012
OSAKABIKE19

Something's been troubling me ever since I listened to President Obama's first post-reëlection press conference. Perhaps as a result of Hurricane Sandy, the now two-term president was finally asked a question about global warming, a topic conveniently avoided by both sides throughout the seemingly interminable campaign. The question came from New York Times White House correspondent Mark Lander: "What specifically do you plan to do in a second term to tackle the issue of climate … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Obama must make climate top priority

By November 8, 2012
Obama climate change poster

Normally we don't print news releases from environmental groups or anybody else verbatim. But this one from Friends of the Earth -- not your average DC Beltway green group -- is the best take we've seen so far on how the newly re-elected president of the world's biggest polluter can stop obstructing and start leading action on the world's biggest challenge. -- Ed. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Obama has been re-elected to his second term as president. Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Climate, Politics Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Women, energy, and voting

By November 6, 2012
votepage1

It was a pretty disappointing presidential campaign by the two major parties given that neither talked about my key issues — peak oil and global warming — with any passion or consistency. Both major parties seem content to avoid what are essentially the two toughest challenges today and going into the future. The issue behind all issues Yes, there's been plenty of red meat from both sides on social issues such as abortion, contraception, gay marriage. And it's important for women to stand … [Read more...]

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Vote Romney-Ryan to hasten collapse

By November 2, 2012
Romneymobile in the final stretch

This election year, the total collapse of industrial civilization has gained a popularity not seen since the heyday of The Planet of the Apes franchise. All over the blogosphere, people who worry about climate change, peak oil, financial meltdown, debt slavery, species extinction, overpopulation and rampant commercialism along with the spread of military drones, techno-warfare and the surveillance state have given up on the electoral process. They say that voting for either one of two big … [Read more...]

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Peak oil and climate change: hold your nose and vote

By October 23, 2012
Obama at debate

At last night's third and final presidential debate, we heard about horses and bayonets, nukes and drones, Israel and Iran and whether we should just give up on Pakistan. But, for the first time since 1988, we didn't hear anything last night or in either of the two previous debates this year about climate change. As to energy, it came up much less in last night's foreign policy debate than in the previous week's debate on domestic issues, but anything said on energy was just as … [Read more...]

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Green Party’s Jill Stein: A missing voice in presidential debates

By October 22, 2012
Jill Stein at Occupy Wall Street anniversary rally

Transition Voice has re-posted the article below from YES! Magazine. -- Ed. Like many of us here at YES!, medical doctor Jill Stein has been frustrated by the narrowness of this year's campaign for president of the United States. Crucial issues such as climate change, poverty, and the cost of war are completely left out of the conversation. No one tackles this problem as directly as Stein, who is running for president on the Green Party ticket. On Tuesday, she and her running mate, Cheri … [Read more...]

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You built that: 3 top strategies for resilience

By October 17, 2012
letterpress

President Obama aroused the GOP's ire for reminding business owners of the obvious point that their success relies in part on roads and bridges built at public expense. But the rest of us would do well not to place too much faith in big government in the uncertain times coming with peak oil, climate change and economic collapse. Whether you think we're facing another financial meltdown this fall that could lead to global chaos or just another fifty years of on-and-off recessions and partial … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Transition Tagged With: , , , , ,