Peter Thomson
In Face of Drought, UN Asks US to Suspend Biofuel Mandate
The worst drought in the US in more than 50 years has brought calls for the federal government to suspend its mandate that 40% of the country’s corn crop be used to make biofuel.
Pipeline Troubles
Anchor Aaron Schachter talks with The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson about a small oil spill that may have big consequences for a plan to pump oil from Alberta to the Pacific Ocean, and may even play into the fight over the Keystone oil pipeline in the US.
Satellites Reveal Sudden Greenland Ice Melt
NASA researchers are expressing concern about something they’ve never seen before: the melting of ice across nearly the entire surface of Greenland earlier this month.
Leatherback Turtles, Bulldozers and Human Nature
This week’s news about the disastrous deaths of thousands of young and still incubating leatherback turtles in Trinidad reads like something out of a dark comic novel, a gross parody of a cascade of bad decisions resulting in an epic disaster [...]
‘This is how science works’
I posted at some length last week on why I don’t respond to complaints from climate deniers, but what I’d say if I did. Well, yesterday a federal appeals court summed up my basic argument in two simple, direct sentences in upholding the EPA’s decision to regulate greenhouse gas pollution.
On Not Responding to Climate Deniers, and What I’d Say If I Did
Why doesn’t The World give more attention to climate “skeptics?”
Linked by Coal: South Carolina, Seattle, China and Greenland
Coal links news this week from South Carolina, Seattle, China and Greenland. The World’s environment editor Peter connects the dots for host Marco Werman.
AP: Simple “Math and History” Show No Link Between US Oil Production and Gas Prices
Associated Press reporters Jack Gillum and Seth Borenstein analyzed 36 years of monthly data on gasoline prices and US domestic oil production and found no statistical correlation between them [...]
Where Would Keystone XL’s Canadian Oil Go? And Does it Matter?
Proponents contend that this oil will increase US “energy security” and decrease US reliance on other sources of foreign oil. Opponents argue that the refined products will end up going overseas. In fact, both may be partly right. But that just begs a bigger question: What is energy security, and and how does or doesn’t this pipeline help us achieve it? [...]
Fukushima Report: Japan Dodged Major Nuclear Disaster
Nearly a year after the Fukushima disaster, a new report has found that the country was much closer to a bigger nuclear calamity than was known at the time.
Apple & Foxconn: Is the ‘Disinfectant’ of Sunshine Starting to Work?
It remains to be seen whether these moves will result in real improvements, but they’re at least an implicit pledge of change, and they almost invite an even brighter spotlight on the largely dark backstory behind Apple’s glistening products.
Soul-Searching Over Apple Exposé
The World’s environment editor Peter Thomson has been reading the news on Apple’s supply chain, and shares some thoughts on Apple, human rights, and us.
Apple, Human Rights, and Us
The concerns have been mounting for years, but suddenly, with last week’s blockbuster NY Times series on Apple’s supply chain, the question is on everyone’s lips: have the defining consumer products of our time been created at an intolerable human and environmental cost?
Global Forecast: Stormy Weather
The news about climate change comes rather like snowflakes in a blizzard—from all directions at once, and accumulating in such overwhelming amounts and impact that it can be hard to know where to start digging out [...]
The News Behind the Non-News of Fukushima’s Multiple Meltdowns
The news from the owners of the Fukushima nuclear power plant this week that the fuel in all three of its operating reactors melted down soon after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami has elicited pretty much a collective global yawn. But there’s an important story behind the non-story [...]
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