Mark Hertsgaard (markhertsgaard.com), a fellow of New America Foundation and a co-founder of the group Climate Parents, is The Nation's environment correspondent. He has covered climate change for twenty years and is the author of six books, including, most recently, HOT: Living Through the Next Fifty Years on Earth.
As leaders of the world's richest nations gather in St. Petersburg to craft a global energy security strategy, they're poised to endorse a major expansion of nuclear power. Bad idea.
In the Bush era, the green movement has become a paper tiger. It must
regroup, reframe and reach out across the lines of race and class that
have kept environmental issues at the political fringe.
"Vote Blue, Go Green" is the new slogan of Britain's Conservative
Party, a measure of just how great a concern climate change is becoming
to politicians of all stripes.
Pete McCloskey, the first Republican member of Congress to call for Nixon's impeachment and withdrawal from Vietnam, has resurfaced at 78 to challenge Richard Pombo and the Iraq War.
The Green Party fell from power in recent German elections, but Greens continue to be the party to watch, a progressive influence on the world's third-largest economy.
Scientists universally recognize the devastating
effects of global warming, including its possible role in creating
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It's time for skeptics to listen up before another devastating storm hits.
Absent George W. Bush's undergoing a conversion like St. Paul's on the road to Damascus, there probably won't be much good environmental news out of Washington in Bush's second term.
