Jobs should be blowing in the wind (and frying in the sun ...)

by A Siegel

Trends that go against 'common wisdom' are often hard for people to absorb and realize.  A journalist's job, however, should be to question (even challenge) common wisdom rather than simply parroting talking points that are, in fact, misleading if not outright false.  When it comes to energy and environmental reporting, sadly, such questioning often seems to fall by the wayside.

Part of the journalistic myth: fossil fuel (fossil foolish) policies are good on the jobs front.  Too many journalists seem to watch petroleum industry advertising rather than read serious reports that highlight how clean-energy investments outperform dirty energy in job creation per dollar of investment and per megawatt hour of electricity production. And, thus, those well-funded talking points get slipped into the mainstream consciousness and accepted as fact -- rather than assertions that might not stand up to scrutiny.

continued at Daily Kos....

French Perspective: The World's Planet Page

by A Siegel

This summer represented the longest vacation in a long, three weeks spent in the homes of relatives and friends in France driven, in part, by a serious illness in the family. This time, often with (extremely) limited web access, provided some breathing space, too much weight gain with excellent food, and provided some windows on France and French society that reflect back on what is (or isn't) happening in the United States.

To be clear, no society is perfect ... which makes it ever more important to be open to lessons and learning from others ... especially if one really is interested in the continuing struggle to form a more perfect union.

Several weeks in France provided a window -- however obscured or partial -- on how France is changing in the face of mounting energy and climate challenges (domestically and locally) on the governmental, societal, and individual level.  This is the first, of which will likely be several, posts providing some thoughts derived from glancing through that window.

continued at Daily Kos....

To Subscribe or Not: That is the question

by A Siegel

Like composting, newspaper reading was something absorbed while is in the womb.  For much of my childhood, the Siegel clan had a morning and afternoon paper along with several local weeklies and national magazines. (Yes, college marketing matters: pa Siegel is still subscribing to Newsweek, come hell and high water, more than 50 years after that first cheap college subscription.)

Thus, the idea of life without a dead-tree edition with the morning coffee is a step yet to be taken despite the richness of the blogosphere and the CO2/environmental/watts of energy implications of tons lbs of paper delivered to the door.  While we are approaching the time where some form of flexible web reader might make the dead-tree edition truly superfluous, for the moment my Siegel clan gets its hands dirty with the paper in the morning. And, for the moment, this is The Washington Post ... but should it be is a question that we discuss.

Follow after the fold for discussion of how a bad NY Times column promoting climate denial and dissing the blogosphere tips the scales for The Post ... for this week, at least.

continued at Daily Kos...

BP exposed. 1/500th of the oil.... skimmed. Promises.

by Gorette

Start with the poll. It's a quiz. Indulge me. Do the poll thing now! Before you read this. Please?

How much of the oil gushing from Deepwater Horizon well is being skimmed or burned off? Do you, as I did,* believe you know?

If you believe BP press releases are confusing on purpose you would be right. Journalists have been getting it wrong. Hard to believe, huh?

In the 77 days since oil from the ruptured Deepwater Horizon began to gush into the Gulf of Mexico, BP has skimmed or burned about 60 percent of the amount it promised regulators it could remove in a single day.

Please. Read that again.

continued at Daily Kos....