Month: March 2022

Walking across the Mojave Desert

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I talk with Tim Takaro, a professor and researcher who spent months sitting in a tree to block construction of an oil pipeline across British Columbia, Canada.

Then at the 20-minute mark, Iowa Senator Brad Zaun (R-Urbandale) joins me to discuss CO2 pipelines, eminent domain, climate change, education, the US Supreme Court nomination circus, and (for the heck of it) Chris Rock vs. Will Smith.

Finally, at the 46-minute mark, Kathy and I address the frightening specter of a grain shortage and increased global hunger, given the continued war in Ukraine. Continue Reading →

Reimagining St. Patrick’s Day

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Instead of glorifying drunkenness, let’s celebrate Ireland’s vast wealth of writers, poets, musicians, and warriors.

Let’s celebrate a people who won independence after 800 years of oppression under the heel of British imperialism.

Let’s celebrate a people who survived despite England’s attempt at genocide (known in sanitized history books as “The Great Famine,” because everything Great Britain did back then had to somehow be associated with greatness). Continue Reading →

Stopping Putin through climate action

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In a March 7 RNS column, McKibben writes, “If you want to stand with the brave people of Ukraine, you need to find a way to stand against oil and gas.

As I and others have been saying for years, a quick shift from oil and gas to renewables (and most importantly, conservation!) can and must happen quickly. The US response to Hitler proves that, when we want to, we can rapidly and radically shift our economy.

As McKibben points out, “In 1941, in Ypsilanti, the world’s largest industrial plant went up in six month’s time, and soon it was churning out a B-24 bomber every hour. A bomber is a complicated machine with more than a million parts; a wind turbine is, by contrast, relatively simple. … Do we think that it’s beyond us to quickly produce the solar panels and the batteries required to end our dependence on fossil fuel?” Continue Reading →

If Iowa Democrats lose in November, blame this

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Why do I think Democrats are headed for another train wreck? Let me take you back to 2006, when I ran for governor. Rural Iowans of all political stripes were fed up with Republicans’ unwillingness to fix the Confined Animal Feeding Operation (CAFO) problem. That issue was a key factor in Democrats winning the governor’s office that year and taking control of the Iowa House and Senate.

With a new party in charge, Iowans expected results. Voters gave Democrats four years to fix the CAFO problem. Democrats failed — miserably, in fact, arguably making the problem worse.

Today, the political landscape in Iowa is much the same. Republicans refuse to help rural Iowans threatened by 2,000 miles (yes, 2,000!) of CO2 pipelines. Once again, they’ve handed Democrats a winning issue.

And what does the leadership of the Iowa Democratic Party do? So far, it has refused to take a stand against this property-rights-trampling, public-health-menacing, faux-climate-solution greenwashing scheme. Continue Reading →