Tag Archives: climate policy

Nuclear Risks, Real & Perceived: Breakthrough Institute’s Jesse Jenkins

The meltdown at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima is enlivening discussions on alternative energy around dinner tables and across debate platforms everywhere. People who call themselves environmentalists tend to agree on the need to curtail human reliance on fossil fuels, including the pervasive use of coal in generating electricity. That same level of consensus cannot be found, however, on the topic of nuclear power. Nuclear energy and environmentalism have traditionally been thought of as incongruous, yet our guest today on Sea Change Radio offers a logic to solve the paradox. Jesse Jenkins, the Director of Energy and Climate Policy at the Breakthrough Institute, a think tank that advocates for innovative solutions to energy and climate challenges, believes that nuclear power ought to be a significant part of a more sustainable energy plan. Listen as Sea Change Radio host Alex Wise asks him about the risks, real and perceived, and how the catastrophe in Japan affects his views on nuclear power. For more, here’s a piece that Jenkins recently co-wrote for The Atlantic titled Nuclear as Usual: Why Fukushima Will Change Less Than You Think.

COP15 Dispatch: Business Plays BINGO at the Climate Conference

cop15_logo_imgThis dispatch by Sea Change Radio Executive Producer Bill Baue and Climate Correspondent Cimbria Badenhausen first appeared on CSRwire:

The US Chamber of Commerce’s controversial position on climate legislation highlights the key role such business intermediaries (or BINGOs in UN-speak – Business and Industry NGOs) play in devising climate policy.  Other BINGOs, such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Commission on Environment and Energy, focus on how business and industry can help solve the climate crisis.Read the show transcript

ViewPoint: Van Jones–First Victim of Far Right Fight Against Climate Policy?

FrancescaRheannonVanJones

Co-Host Francesca Rheannon brings us the Sea Change ViewPoint that digs deeper into the controversy behind Van Jones‘ resignation as Special Advisor on Green Jobs for the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Read the show transcript

Climate 2030 & Route to Reform

rachaelcleetusLast week on Sea Change Radio, we featured the pros and cons of the climate bill now set to wend its way through the halls of Congress. Today, we take a look at two proposals from the grassroots that have some important bearing on climate policy. We talk with Rachel Cleetus of the Union of Concerned Scientists about the group’s National Blueprint for a Clean Energy Economy, Climate 2030 and with David Goldberg about Transportation for America‘s  Route to Reform.

Read the show transcript

Climate Bill: Pass or Fail?

joerommcarrollmuffett

The Waxman-Markey Climate Bill is making its way through Congress, and stirring up controversy within the environmental movement between those who support it as a necessary first step, and those who think it’s fatally flawed.  Sea Change Radio talks with both sides.  Joe Romm, editor of the ClimateProgress.org blog and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, favors passing the Bill.  Carroll Muffett of Greenpeace says the bill fails to address key issues in solving the climate crisis.

Read the show transcript

After Capitalism: PROUT as a Sustainable, Democratic Economic Model

dadamaheshvarananda

[amazon-product align=”right”]1877762067[/amazon-product]Today, Dada Maheshvarananda meditates on the alternative economic model of Progressive Utilization Theory, or PROUT. Joe Romm of Climate Progress analyzes the climate resolve of the Obama Administration. Lisa Woll of the Social Investment Forum proposes an Office for Innovation in Corporate Social Responsibility to the Obama Administration.  And auto and environment expert Jim Motavalli comments on the significance of President Obama’s executive order directing the EPA to reconsider its refusal to grant California a waiver allowing it to regulate greenhouse gases from autos.

Read the show transcript

Blog: Change we can’t believe in?

FrancescaRheannonBarack Obama has said time and again that change comes from the bottom up at least as much as from policy directives from on high. He’s right–and he seems to be giving signs that pressure from below is going to be needed to keep him true to his own campaign promises.Read the show transcript

The Transition — to Sustainability

Hunter Lovins
Hunter Lovins
Charlie Cray
Charlie Cray

Today we talk with Hunter Lovins, founder of Natural Capitalism Solutions, about the Presidential Climate Action Project.  The Sea Change ViewPoint comes from Charlie Cray of the Center for Corporate Policy.

For many people, the election of Barack Obama as the US President stoked hope for big change.  The transition to the Obama Administration brings promise of shifts to government regulations and policies to promote sustainability.  Long before the election, though, a group of influential sustainability leaders gathered to brainstorm recommendations to the incoming President on tackling climate change.  The Presidential Climate Action Project was born,Read the show transcript

The Future of Climate Policy

John Holdren
John Holdren

Over the weekend, President-Elect Barack Obama appointed John Holdren as his Science Adviser, a move applauded by many environmentalists. Holdren is director of the Woods Hole Research Center and teaches at Harvard.  Corporate Watchdog Radio has featured him twice. We aired part of his opening address at the 2008 UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk. And in September 2006, he talked with us about the pros and cons of nukes as a low-carbon solution to the climate crisis.  This week, we reprise these shows to give a sense of Holdren’s opinions.

John Holdren

John Holdren’s Presentation at the 2008 UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk: “Global Climatic Disruption: Risks and Opportunities”

CWR March 26, 2008: “Field Report from the UN Investor Summit on Climate Risk”

CWR September 6, 2006: “Will Nuclear Power Save Us from Global Warming?”

CWR News Analysis: Nick Robins of HSBC Analyzes the Poznan Climate Talks and the EU Climate Legislation —

Nick Robins
Nick Robins

As head of the Climate Change Centre for Excellence at the major UK bank HSBC, Nick Robins attended the recent climate talks in Poznan, Poland. This was the last step for the Kyoto Protocol before talks in Copenhagen in late 2009 negotiate post-Kyoto climate agreements. And, as world leaders met in Poznan, European Union Commissioners hammered out new climate legislation. Robins, co-author with Cary Krosinsky of the new book Sustainable Investing, weighs in on these as well from the HSBC offices in the UK.

CWR ViewPoint: Real or Fake — Christmas Tree, That Is!

Ellipsos Study: Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Artificial vs Natural Christmas Tree