Author Archive

Keystone XL could be even worse than you thought

Grist: If the Keystone XL pipeline is built, it could lead to up to four times as much CO2 pollution as the State Department has estimated, according to a new study. And the study wasn’t written by activists. It was conducted by scientists at the Stockholm Environment Institute and published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Why are these new figures so much higher than previous ones? The Associated Press explains: “The U.S. [State Department's] estimates didn’t take into account that the added oil...

Canadian PM to Obama: Let’s make a deal on Keystone!

Grist: The country`s leaders and its oil industry really, really want the Keystone XL pipeline built so they can ship tar-sands oil from Alberta to refineries along the Gulf Coast. But the Obama administration keeps postponing its decision on the pipeline. In his big climate speech in June, President Obama said he would approve Keystone only "if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution." And in an interview with The New York Times in July, Obama said, "there is no...

Eve Ensler connects the dots between violence against women and violence against the planet

Grist: Eve Ensler made it OK to say the word vagina out loud. Could she now inspire more of us to say climate change too? Ensler, the artist and activist behind The Vagina Monologues, is currently making a big push to promote One Billion Rising, a global event planned for this coming Valentine`s Day, aka V-Day. She`s calling for people everywhere to "dance, rise up, and demand an end to violence against women." The campaign was inspired by a U.N. estimate that one in every three women will experience...