State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Politics4

  • EPA Administrator Pruitt’s Misguided Conclusions About Climate Change

    EPA Administrator Pruitt’s Misguided Conclusions About Climate Change

    Last week, Scott Pruitt provided us with additional insight into his views about climate change.

  • We Need to Reinvent Regulation, Not Destroy It

    We Need to Reinvent Regulation, Not Destroy It

    We should be thinking about regulation as a way of ensuring our economic activity can proceed with the least possible amount of unanticipated negative impacts. We need to police ourselves and make sure that the rules of correct behavior are clear, fair, well understood and creatively applied.

  • Public-Private Partnerships Must Survive this Attack on the Public Sector

    Public-Private Partnerships Must Survive this Attack on the Public Sector

    It’s popular to believe that the private sector is a paragon of efficiency and that government is simply waste, fraud and abuse, but it is simply not true. It is essential that we focus on building the public-private collaborations that have long made this nation great.

  • New York City’s Subways Need Congestion Pricing Now

    New York City’s Subways Need Congestion Pricing Now

    Charging drivers more could provide much-needed funding for public transit, while reducing traffic and making Manhattan a better place to live and work.

  • Resisting White House Chaos by Building Community

    Resisting White House Chaos by Building Community

    Despite the chaos that has enveloped the White House, we can take comfort in the day-to-day functioning of our American communities.

  • Staying Hopeful in A Troubling Time

    Staying Hopeful in A Troubling Time

    The recent birth of my first grandchild reinforces my desire to believe that the world that she will inherit will be at least as good as my world, if not better. I am trusting her future to the sustainability leaders and professionals that have emerged during the first part of the 21st century.

  • Why Renewable Energy Will Replace Fossil Fuels

    Why Renewable Energy Will Replace Fossil Fuels

    Renewable energy will displace fossil fuels when (not if) it becomes as reliable, cheaper, and more convenient. The polls indicate that the latent market for renewables in already in place, with young Americans strongly supporting a transition away from fossil fuels.

  • Understanding Today’s Climate Politics

    Understanding Today’s Climate Politics

    The climate problem will be made less bad by technological, cultural, social and economic change that will force political change. Waiting for policy to be the change agent is an exercise in futility.

  • Trump’s Attack on Renewable Energy

    Trump’s Attack on Renewable Energy

    The companies that develop cheaper and more reliable renewable energy and energy storage technologies will drive fossil fuel companies from the marketplace. Since Trump’s team won’t help, let’s convince them to end their attack on renewable energy and stay out of the way of the change that is on the way.

  • EPA Administrator Pruitt’s Misguided Conclusions About Climate Change

    EPA Administrator Pruitt’s Misguided Conclusions About Climate Change

    Last week, Scott Pruitt provided us with additional insight into his views about climate change.

  • We Need to Reinvent Regulation, Not Destroy It

    We Need to Reinvent Regulation, Not Destroy It

    We should be thinking about regulation as a way of ensuring our economic activity can proceed with the least possible amount of unanticipated negative impacts. We need to police ourselves and make sure that the rules of correct behavior are clear, fair, well understood and creatively applied.

  • Public-Private Partnerships Must Survive this Attack on the Public Sector

    Public-Private Partnerships Must Survive this Attack on the Public Sector

    It’s popular to believe that the private sector is a paragon of efficiency and that government is simply waste, fraud and abuse, but it is simply not true. It is essential that we focus on building the public-private collaborations that have long made this nation great.

  • New York City’s Subways Need Congestion Pricing Now

    New York City’s Subways Need Congestion Pricing Now

    Charging drivers more could provide much-needed funding for public transit, while reducing traffic and making Manhattan a better place to live and work.

  • Resisting White House Chaos by Building Community

    Resisting White House Chaos by Building Community

    Despite the chaos that has enveloped the White House, we can take comfort in the day-to-day functioning of our American communities.

  • Staying Hopeful in A Troubling Time

    Staying Hopeful in A Troubling Time

    The recent birth of my first grandchild reinforces my desire to believe that the world that she will inherit will be at least as good as my world, if not better. I am trusting her future to the sustainability leaders and professionals that have emerged during the first part of the 21st century.

  • Why Renewable Energy Will Replace Fossil Fuels

    Why Renewable Energy Will Replace Fossil Fuels

    Renewable energy will displace fossil fuels when (not if) it becomes as reliable, cheaper, and more convenient. The polls indicate that the latent market for renewables in already in place, with young Americans strongly supporting a transition away from fossil fuels.

  • Understanding Today’s Climate Politics

    Understanding Today’s Climate Politics

    The climate problem will be made less bad by technological, cultural, social and economic change that will force political change. Waiting for policy to be the change agent is an exercise in futility.

  • Trump’s Attack on Renewable Energy

    Trump’s Attack on Renewable Energy

    The companies that develop cheaper and more reliable renewable energy and energy storage technologies will drive fossil fuel companies from the marketplace. Since Trump’s team won’t help, let’s convince them to end their attack on renewable energy and stay out of the way of the change that is on the way.