From the industry’s point of view, the problem is not that coal companies blast the top off mountains, turning the area into a moonscape and polluting the air and releasing toxic chemical into what’s left of the local streams and aquifers. It’s that the people who live near the mines are too cozy with their cousins. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Have we failed to slow global warming pollution in part because climate and environmental activists have been too polite and well behaved? Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Without electrons, there is no Google. And without clean electrons, there will be no Google customers, since we’ll all be too busy fleeing from rising seas, droughts, and disease. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
In the United States, we do a pretty good job of protecting iconic landscapes and postcard views, but the ocean gets no respect. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Climate scientists have long pointed to the Southwest as one of the places in the U.S. that is most vulnerable to global warming impacts, especially drought. And if there’s one thing that even climate denialists don’t dispute, dry things burn. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
If we drill the hell out of everything, including protected public lands and fragile regions like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, America can emerge as an ‘energy superpower.’ Jeff Goodell Read Quote
In reality, Republicans have long been at war with clean energy. They have ridiculed investments in solar and wind power, bashed energy-efficiency standards, attacked state moves to promote renewable energy and championed laws that would enshrine taxpayer subsidies for fossil fuels while stripping them from wind and solar. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Americans don’t pay much attention to environmental issues, because they aren’t sexy. I mean, cleaning up coal plants and reining in outlaw frackers is hugely important work, but it doesn’t get anybody’s pulse racing. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Mark Ruffalo, aka the Incredible Hulk, is the natural gas industry’s worst nightmare: a serious, committed activist who is determined to use his star power as a superhero in the hottest movie of the moment to draw attention the environmental and public health risks of fracking. Jeff Goodell Read Quote
Obama wants to be thought of as the president who freed us from foreign oil. But if he doesn’t show some political courage, he may well be remembered as the president who cooked the planet. Jeff Goodell Read Quote