How Climate Change Makes Your Allergies Worse and Your Breathing Harder

Image Credit: Lodahln (CC-BY-SA 2.0, flickr) I woke up in the middle of the night again. Scratchy throat? Insatiably itchy eyes? Just a bit of cough? Oh yeah. Had to be ragweed. Time to start back on the allergy pills. Admittedly, my fall allergies aren’t nearly as bad as the wave of foggy headedness, poor … Continue reading How Climate Change Makes...

Sep 2020

Becoming a Better Climate-Minded Investor

Image Credit: Linus Bohman (CC-BY 2.0, Flickr) This is part two of a two-part series on climate-friendly investing. Part one can be found here. In a previous post, I talked about how the climate conscious investor might go about divesting their own portfolios from fossil fuel companies and other bad corporate actors who are currently … Continue reading...

Aug 2020

The Many, Many Dilemmas of the Climate Conscious Investor

Image Credit: James Ennis (CC-BY-2.0) This is part one of a two-part series on climate-friendly investing. Stay tuned for part two. In January of 2020, the world’s largest manager or other people’s retirement money made a long-awaited proclamation in big, bold lettering: Climate Risk Is Investment Risk. It was a reality that many climate-wise investors...

Jul 2020

Three Lessons That our Coronavirus Response Teaches Us About Climate Change Response

Image Credit: Chad Davis, CC (BY-SA 2.0) For the past month I’ve been doing something that would have been impossible for me to even imagine before the coronavirus set it: I cycle to errands during rush hour. Typically, the streets between me and my destinations would be choked with smoggy cars and grumpy drivers. Since … Continue reading Three Lessons...

Jun 2020

Individual or Systemic? How Should You Spend Your Time Acting on Climate?

Image Credit: Jeanne Menjoulet, CC (BY-ND 2.0) Is it better to invest your time and energy into individual or systemic actions when trying to address climate change? It’s a deceptively simple question; one that I don’t (really) know the answer to. At least, not for you specifically. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about … Continue reading Individual...

Dec 2019

Drive Down Emissions and Put Money in Your Pocket: All About Carbon Fee and Dividend

Image Credit: US Department of Agriculture You can’t read very much about climate change before learning that 97% of scientists are in consensus about the man-made nature of the crisis. But what about the economists? A less well-known fact is that just as many economists agree on an impactful way to decrease pollution and create … Continue reading Drive...

Mar 2019

Why Surging Renewable Energy May Revive DC Electricity

Image Credit: BFS Man (CC-BY, flickr) John D. Rockefeller had a growing problem on his hands. His strategic investments in petroleum refinement had given him a near monopoly over that industry; 90% of the market bore his name. Yet, he quickly found a limit to the growth of his business in the cost of transporting crude … Continue reading Why Surging...

Nov 2018

How we Compensate Communities for Hosting our Clean Energy Future Matters

The history of energy development in the United States has always been an exceptionally individualistic affair. For instance, the wildcatters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century applied a winner take all mentality to their oil production. According to the Rule of Capture, if you’re the first to exploit a resource, you own that … Continue...

Aug 2018

For Oysters, Climate Change Means More Flooding and A Harsh Environment

“And this,” my uncle told me, “is the best food to ever exist.” He spun the icy plate around, with its small dishes of cocktail sauce and horseradish, it’s wedges of lemon, and presented me half of a glistening shell containing a small lump of briny meat. “It’s local,” he informed me. An oyster. Raw. … Continue reading For Oysters, Climate Change Means...

Jun 2018

Finding the Root of Food Deserts

Food deserts have become a much discussed issue in the public policy sphere. After all, improving food access in areas bereft of nutritious options is as much of a political ‘gimmie’ as saying schools should be good and roads should be smooth. While the particulars of addressing food insecurity can quickly become politically contentious, it’s … Continue...

Jun 2018