Like many anguished Southern Californians, I spent the better part of this weekend obsessively checking local news websites and poring over the Orange County Register's extremely helpful fire map. Though I had been keeping a side eye on the wildfires that blazed through Santa Barbara a few days ago,...

With the election now (mercifully) over and an Obama administration set to take office in a little over two months, it's time to start seriously thinking about the men and women the president-elect will choose to guide his important decisions. The faltering economy, and the man who will be leading...

A word of caution to the reader: The following story is not for the faint of heart. An international report released last week by the World Life Fund for Nature (WWF) warns that the world is rapidly heading towards an "ecological credit crunch" of monumental proportions -- one that will...

The Bushies' grasp of reality has always been tenuous at best and contrived at worst. In 2002, a senior adviser to the president memorably chastised Ron Suskind for living in the "reality-based community," boasting that: "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." As...

Among environmentalists and green-minded thinkers, the angst is palpable. With a deep, protracted global recession all but certain, will politicians, leery of imposing additional costs on already beleaguered businesses, lose the will to tackle climate change? The early signs aren't promising. During a European Union summit meeting last week, several...

With the economy in tatters and stock indices dropping faster than the president's (already) dismal approval ratings, it was hardly surprising to see the candidates ratchet down their rhetoric on the Iraq war, climate change and other issues in favor of more tough talk on lavish CEO pay and the...

It's times like this I wish everybody had access to the excellent reporting being done by Science, Nature and other scientific journals. While it's often the case that these journals will place more of an emphasis on the nitty gritty of science and research funding -- not exactly thrilling topics...

Like many others who have voiced their opinions on this page, I have several misgivings about the $700 billion bailout plan that is being shoved down our throats by Congress and the Bush administration -- not the least of which is whether or not it will even prove effective at...

Imagine for a minute an election in which green issues like carbon taxes and renewable energy take center stage -- an election in which 60 percent of voters recently made clear that climate change will be a top issue, or even the issue, guiding their ballot. Sound far-fetched?

While it may seem a bit dated (and overdone) now, Bill Clinton's winning 1992 campaign slogan, "It's the economy, stupid," has never felt more relevant. With the number of unemployed on the rise and house prices still in free-fall in many parts of the country, the American consumer is feeling...

It's hard to pinpoint the precise moment when (what was left of) McCain's environmental bona fides hit the skids, but, if I had to pick, I would say it was right around the time his running mate, Sarah Palin, officially accepted the vice-presidential nomination. (Or was it when McCain boasted...

In a bit of a departure from this column's usual focus on energy and the environment, I would like to take some time to review the two candidates' science agendas. With climate change and energy (finally) receiving their fair share of attention in the traditional media, I thought my energy...

Following a week of breathless speculation and wall-to-wall coverage bordering on the stalkerish, we finally have the name of the man who will be helping Barack Obama make his case to the electorate as we head into the final months before the election. Joe Biden, while by no means the...

Let's face it: Our pristine oceans, as we've come to know them, aren't coming back. Besieged on all sides by overfishing, climate change, pollution and habitat destruction, the world's oceans are slowly but inevitably undergoing a long and painful transition -- one that could turn their once lush coral reefs...

You didn't just think the Bush administration was going to leave quietly, did you? In a major scoop, the AP has uncovered the draft of a set of new regulations engineered by the Interior Department (and not subject to Congressional approval) that would allow federal agencies to decide for...

When does too much information simply become, well, too much? In a much discussed article, NYT science reporter Andy Revkin last week addressed what he called the "whiplash effect": the phenomenon of having climate change news veer from one extreme to the other, resulting in readers experiencing journalistic whiplash....

You wouldn't know it from watching the major cable networks, but climate change remains a key issue in this presidential campaign -- and one that can't simply be boiled down to a question about gas prices or emission reductions. Indeed, though it may not garner as much coverage as the...

While it may be hard to stomach, there is no denying that John McCain has been leading the debate on energy policy. A number of recent polls has established a clear trend in favor of oil drilling and exploration and investment in nuclear power over conservation and regulation --...

Perhaps no single moment best encapsulated Bush's (dismal) record on the environment than his final meeting at the G8 summit. Fists pumping defiantly into the air -- much to the surprise (and, one can assume, consternation) of his fellow world leaders -- Bush gleefully proclaimed: "Goodbye from the world's biggest...

Once held up as the future of alternative energy, and our key to independence from fossil fuels, it is remarkable to see just how much (and fast) the tide has turned against biofuels. Rightly blamed for everything from rising food and commodity prices to water degradation and soil erosion, biofuels...