The New Republic

A hotter world will mean more people at risk of malaria, right? That's certainly the impression the U.N. gave in its 2007-2008 Human Development Report, which noted that increases in rainfall, temperature, and humidity will help malaria-carrying mosquitoes expand their geographic range. That report estimated that as many as 400 million people could be at risk—and this is a disease that already kills one million people per year. READ MORE >>

Do we really need more sweeping scientific reports about global warming? At this point we've been deluged with studies and assessments and summaries and reviews, and anyone who's still deep in denial about the problem probably isn't going to be convinced by yet another fat volume of graphs and citations. READ MORE >>

Just how crucial are those oil reserves in the Gulf of Mexico? Earlier today, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar was arguing that they're indispensable. While testifying before the Senate energy committee about the BP spill, he spent plenty of time copping to various regulatory missteps at his agency and promised that "heads will roll." But he also made a case for continued offshore drilling: "The reality is that we'll be depending on oil and gas in the transition to a new energy future. READ MORE >>

Here's some alarming perspective on big disastrous spills. Over the past 50 years, Shell and other companies have spilled an estimated 1.5 million tons of oil into the Niger Delta ecosystem. That's the equivalent of one Exxon Valdez accident per year, every single year, for five decades. READ MORE >>

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Yesterday, NPR's Richard Harris had an important Gulf scoop—the oil spill may be much, much larger than both BP and the U.S. government have been saying. Here's Brad Johnson's follow-up: READ MORE >>

Looming in the background of the congressional debate on climate change is the fact that the EPA still has the authority to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions on its own, under the existing Clean Air Act. I outlined how that might work here. Short answer: It's complicated, and not perfect from an environmental perspective, though feasible. READ MORE >>

We all know about the revolving door. And we know how comfy relations can become between brothers under the skin. It has been going on for decades. It’s one of the reasons for the BP catastrophe, perhaps the main reason. READ MORE >>

One of the more surprising aspects of the mammoth Senate climate proposal (that's a big honking pdf, by the way) released today was the bit on transportation. Kerry and Lieberman took a very different tack on this subject than the House did—and it's a stunning improvement. For starters, the cap-and-trade program would generate about $7 billion in revenues from selling carbon permits to oil companies and refineries. That money would then get split evenly in three ways: READ MORE >>

Brad Johnson of ThinkProgress has a nice chart showing all the ways in which Kerry and Lieberman's Senate climate bill differs from the bill the House passed last June. All told, the two bills are surprisingly similar, but I'd say the most significant differences are these: READ MORE >>