The Best Sin Tax Is a Carbon Tax
Sin taxes, which states levy on things like cigarettes and booze and gambling, are popular with just about everyone. So why the fuck haven’t we established the single smartest sin tax of all?
The Climate Change Plan With Everything Except What We Really Need
The big Paris Climate Discussion Meeting thing has wrapped up, with much optimism about the 195-nation agreement to deal with climate change. However: we did not get the one thing we really need.
Bernie Sanders Is the First Candidate to Support a Carbon Tax
Yesterday, while Donald Trump was calling for a ban on Muslims entering America, Bernie Sanders was calling for a carbon tax.
Obama Will Reject the Keystone Pipeline
Barack Obama is going to reject the Keystone Pipeline. An official announcement is coming shortly.
Urban Carbon Efficiency Could Save Trillions
The global discussion about cutting carbon emissions often centers on how much it would cost in the short term. But in the long term, trillions of dollars could be saved.
Florida Officials Banned from Saying "Climate Change," Employees Claim
According to a report published by the Miami Herald on Sunday, officials at Florida's environmental protection agency have been banned from using the terms "climate change" and "global warming" since Republican Governor Rick Scott took office in 2011.
Climbers Leaving Everest Shit-Covered Biohazard, Sherpas Warn
According to the Associated Press, the chief of Nepal's mountaineering association says that human sewage has become a critical problem on Mount Everest, urging his country's government to make visitors properly dispose of their shit and piss.
Let's Build a Lot of Crapola Around the Grand Canyon, Say Idiots
When blessed with one of the most moving natural vistas on the face of the earth, the entrepreneurial heroes of America can be relied upon to do the right thing: build a bunch of crap around it to ruin the view. For $$$!
The Politics of a Carbon Tax
This weekend, Hank Paulson, the Republican former Treasury Secretary and Goldman Sachs CEO, wrote an op-ed calling for a carbon tax. Has the political landscape shifted enough to make a carbon tax a real possibility?
U.S. Drops Bombs on Great Barrier Reef
Whoopsies. A Navy exercise went terribly wrong last week when American fighter jets dropped four unarmed bombs onto Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
Carbon Dioxide Levels Reach Three Million-Year High
A jaunty road sign on the path to apocalypse was passed today, as the level of carbon dioxide in our planet's air reached a level last seen long before mankind existed. Take a deep breath. Enjoy that air. Soon, you'll be breathing water.
We Have 'The Worst of All Possible Worlds' To Look Forward To
Amid all of the hustle and bustle of daily news headlines, useless celebrity minutiae, and the mundane workaday distractions of our own lives, it can be useful at times to take a step back, get some perspective, and remember the "big picture:" we're all doomed.
State Department Finds Keystone XL Won't Hurt Environment or Help Economy
The State Department released its report yesterday on the environmental impact of constructing the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. It found that the massive pipeline is "unlikely to have a substantial impact on the rate of development in the oil sands," meaning that Canada will most likely proceed with developing…
Americans Aren't Using Enough Electricity
If there's one thing that made this country great for the last two hundred years, it's the utility companies that built huge, fossil-fuel-burning power plants to pump out all the electricity this hungry, greedy nation could use. And how do we repay these fine industrialists now? By slowing down our electricity use. Is…
Global Warming Is Solved: Just Make Snow Out of Sewage
Yes, sure, global warming is leading us inexorably down the path to all-out global war due to massive human displacement and destruction of resources. But let's focus on the real problem: what about ski resorts? What if people were forced to go skiing later in the season? Absolutely unacceptable. Fortunately, America…
These Melting Ice Caps Could Be Great for Business
Leading scientific expert Peter Wadhams warned this week that it may be only four years until the Arctic—a place once known for its ice—experiences a total melting of its sea ice in the summer months. Wadhams called this a "global disaster" with "terrible" implications. Well Prof. Wadhams, perhaps you should change…
Oh Brother Patagonia Just Give Us a Break With This Sanctimonious Crap
Patagonia is a company that sells jackets with the subtle, socially responsible message "I am a significantly better human being than you." People who wear Patagonia jackets are successful enough to take ski vacations and purchase $250 items of clothing that resemble trash bags, but also conscientious enough to donate…
We Just Can't Get Excited About the Environment Any More
For a brief period in the 90s—before 9/11, before the global economic collapse, before endless wars in the Middle East—it was fashionable to "care" about the environment. (You could still get laid wearing a World Wildlife Fund t-shirt, in other words.) Now? I mean, yeah, the environment... eh.
