Opinion: Expert opinions matter in the battery debate

“We pay too little attention to experts on these issues, and too much to whatever horror story shows up on Facebook.”

Noted author and activist Bill McKibben will speak on Wednesday, Nov. 12 about his new book and the power of local environmental activism.

“We now live on a planet where the cheapest way to produce energy is to point a sheet of glass at the sun, and that’s a huge change.”

I confess to being discouraged by the turn of events in our nation this autumn, but it’s made me even more grateful for things close to home.

Andy Kirkaldy’s story makes clear something that usually gets lost in these accounts: this array would replace an operation that uses huge amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus which then wash into Lake Champlain.

Asa Caleb Crane was born a few weeks ago. He came into the world with a full head of hair, and on first impression an undeniable charisma, a full array of important moral virtues, and a calm but determined approach to the new world in which he found himse … (read more)

BILL MCKIBBEN VERMONT — The grassroots climate justice organization 350Vermont is seeking to pressure utilities to sell energy using renewable sources while producing fewer or no greenhouse gasses. The organization will do this by ratcheting up pressure o … (read more)

In Vermont, the scent of wood smoke on a late fall afternoon is an iconic smell. It’s not like that here today, in the first week of June — it’s more like sitting on the side of the campfire where the wind is blowing, but without any of the benefits of th … (read more)

I always enjoy town meeting, but last Monday night at Ripton was truly special.

Gas stoves make people sick, why are we still using them?

I am writing this dispatch from a southbound train, which left Middlebury at midday and is making its way — not too fast, not too slow — toward Penn Station in New York City. 

16th in a series Most of the time I’m writing about vested interest as the key obstacle to making the energy transition. And it is — without the endless campaign of delay, denial and disinformation from Big Oil and its friends, we’d have started making bi … (read more)

It pains me a bit to say, massive tree-planting campaigns are under assault as a climate tool, and that the assault seems to have some real merit.

I had to go into Porter Hospital this morning for what we call, I believe, a routine procedure — if I say that I had spent the previous day chugging Miralax to prepare, an inquiring reader might be able to figure out the details.

This is a story of a state that’s failing to understand we’re actually in a climate emergency, and continuing with business that looks a lot like usual.