My Personal Climate Confusion Disorder

From the Searing Southwest to the Mighty Miss, I’m Experiencing a Personal Climate Change

Like a human divining rod, I came to eastern Iowa from the arid West seeking water. In the West, my eyes were trained mostly on the ground, on the dust that rose up from it, on the sage brush and high plateaus which that dust covered, and on the blue sky the dust tinted yellow around the edges when the wind blew. I spent almost 20 years in that land of sun and earth called Wyoming. Now I’m surrounded by water, both liquid and vaporous. I’m experiencing my own personal …

ExxonMobil Might Not Rule the Planet

But It Sure Does Its Best

With almost $500 billion in revenue in 2011, ExxonMobil is the largest corporation in America–and one of its most secretive. What goes on behind its doors, and how does it …

Does Big Oil Have To Be Evil To Survive?

It’s a tough business, and someone has to do it. Don’t they?

 

It’s one thing to pledge to do no evil if your business is an Internet search engine born on the pristine Stanford campus, or selling organic tea to Angelenos. It’s …

I’m Afraid You Have Oil

And It’s a Diagnosis No Poor Country Should Want

What makes oil-producing countries different from other countries–and why would something as ostensibly beneficial as oil wealth be bad? It’s not a coincidence that a lot of oil lies beneath …

Will There Be Blood?

What the Arab States Might Look Like If No One Needed Their Oil

 

The more oil that countries in the Middle East have, the more effectively their governments have crushed democratic movements. In advance of “Will Oil Drown the Arab Spring?” , a …

We Might Not Lose Our Shirts This Time

Will the Sun Will Keep Shining On Solar Power In California?

Is California’s solar gold rush destined to fail? That’s what moderator Warren Olney, host of KCRW’s Which Way, L.A.? and To the Point, asked a panel of energy experts at …