Corn is already the most subsidized crop in America, raking in a total of $51 billion in federal handouts between 1995 and 2005 – twice as much as wheat subsidies and four times as much as soybeans. Ethanol itself is propped up by hefty subsidies, including a fifty-one-cent-per-gallon tax allowance for refiners. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
You think the weather is weird now? Just wait. A new MIT study, just published in a peer-reviewed journal, projects that the Earth could see warming of more than 9 degrees F by 2100 – more than twice earlier projections. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Coal boosters like to tout coal as cheap and plentiful – well, not anymore. At least not in China. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Australia has suffered a decade of drought, epic floods, a Category 5 cyclone, and a plague of locusts. But just because Aussies have the biggest carbon footprint in the world, it doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Drill everything, mine everything, roll back regulations, tweak the science, expedite permits. Sound familiar? The Republicans offer up more 19th-Century solutions to our 21st-Century energy problems. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
What is likely to vanish – or be transformed beyond recognition – are many of the things we think of when we think of Australia: the barrier reef, the koalas, the sense of the country as a land of almost limitless natural resources. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Subsidies are hugely important; they represent America’s de facto energy policy. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
The floods and fires and storms and droughts that Australia has suffered in the last few years have left no doubt in many Australians’ minds about just how much is a stake in a super-heated world. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
The idea that human beings have taken a few steps closer toward asserting control over the Earth’s climate is likely to strike you as a really bad idea. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Once we start deliberately messing with the climate systems, we could inadvertently shift rainfall patterns (climate models have shown that rainfall in the Amazon might be particularly vulnerable), causing collapse of ecosystems, drought, famine, and more. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
