As you may have noticed, since you’re reading this, provocative titles drive readership. Why? Because words matter, and people pay attention to words when those words don’t melt into the same ol’ same ol’ drone of technocratic chatter.

In our work, we constantly struggle to use language as a tool to communicate, rather than simply as an artifact to convey that work of some sort has happened. Often this means that we must struggle to define a grammar and vocabulary for our clients that is effective but not foreign. And, occasionally, we find that only once you’ve spent a significant amount of time and energy around a concept embodied in a particular word do you realize you no longer believe in the power of that word to express what is really going on. “Sustainability” is one such word.

The five issues I’ve highlighted below – wetland management, electricity markets, internal migration, water management, and rural revitalization -  all present significant challenges to policy makers at mid-century, and to those of today looking forward. Each comes about thorough a common constellation of trends that we’re already tracking.  And, while these five certainly don’t represent [...]

Yesterday, Representatives Waxman and Markey released the first comprehensive climate change bill [pdf] of the new administration.  Already, of course, based on quick reads of the 600 or so pages, there is praise and condemnation from all quarters.  With the introduction of the bill, we’ve moved from talking – albeit much more seriously than in [...]

In the last two weeks, although almost assuredly having nothing whatsoever to do with the inauguration of an outspoken sustainability-leaning American president, there has been a raft of new and dire warnings about the state of the climate.  These pronouncements have made liberal use of terms like drastic, catastrophic, catastrophe, radical, severe consequences, imperative, must, [...]

In the US, as elsewhere in the world, the climate change debate has been defined by two extremes. On one end are the apocalyptic oracles; on the other, the denying pollyannas. As in most modern debates, the war for attention and persuasion has been waged across the media. In this effort, far and away, the [...]

According to the United Nations, people were responsible for more than 27 billion metric tons of CO2 emissions in 2004. Figure 1 shows a breakdown of global emissions by country for the top 10 emitters in 2004 (and while the data has not been fully assembled, emissions in the developing world have risen substantially since [...]

In a prior post I gave a high-level sense of the economic impact of carbon pricing. But that’s just the starting point. Let’s take a look at a critical question: What will this really mean for companies and consumers? In particular, which industries (and, as a follow on, which products and services) will be most [...]

Tackling climate change is a global effort, but at its heart sits 195 individual national energy policies (assuming universal participation).  These policies operate against a set of variables and principles that include – in no particular order – the presence of natural resources and the ease and cost of their extraction, type and scope of [...]

In a speech yesterday (Tuesday, January 13) at the National Press Club, ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Jim Mulva made an interesting observation on the issue of reducing the environmental footprint of energy production. He said: We agree with the concept of reducing the environmental footprint of energy production and consumption. But we must be realistic [...]

In the midst of this economic upheaval, like in those that preceded it, there is a palpable tension amongst developed nations between innovation and risk aversion.  In a globalized economy, with energy security looming as one of the central concerns of the next many decades, risk aversion is particularly dangerous on at least two fronts: [...]