Sitting in traffic sucks. Climate change is worse
The more time I spend writing about climate change — and air pollution, and freeways, and heat, and nuclear power, and lithium-ion batteries — the…
Get ready, California. Geothermal energy has finally arrived
In the fight against climate change, they’re humanity’s mighty Avengers: Solar panels. Wind turbines. Electric cars. And now, superheated rocks. Geothermal power plants — which…
Time for the Dodgers to stop taking Big Oil money
I’m pleased to report that Mark Walter, who owns the Los Angeles Dodgers, is financing two big clean energy projects. I’m less pleased to report…
In Southern California, the water drama never dies
Drought or no drought, El Niño or La Niña — the Golden State’s water warriors always find a way to make life interesting. The latest…
DWP’s new leader wants to shake things up. It won’t be easy
An honest-to-goodness map of the American West would show L.A.’s tentacles everywhere. You’d see canals — the Los Angeles Aqueduct, running along the base of…
Hillary Clinton wants more climate stories on Netflix
Turns out I’m not the only one itching for more movies and TV shows dealing with global warming. Hillary Clinton feels the same way. The…
This ‘Fortnite’ island is the latest climate change battleground
Let’s start with a climate allegory. I’ll call it the Parable of the Three Environmentalists. The first runs a sustainability nonprofit led by Hollywood power…
Why razing Joshua trees for solar farms isn’t always crazy
We choose to do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. President John F. Kennedy was talking about going to…
Why did California Gov. Gavin Newsom crush community solar?
After months of outcry, the California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to approve a solar energy program that critics are sure will fail spectacularly, making…
How ‘Sesame Street’ can prepare kids for climate disasters
Twenty-three years ago, “Sesame Street” aired a remarkable series of episodes during which the iconic puppets and their human friends must recover from a hurricane.…
Six months until November, climate change looms large
We’ve got six years to cut global carbon pollution nearly in half — and less than six months until a presidential election that could have…
Meet the comedians telling hilarious jokes about climate change
Lots of people enjoy laughing at billionaires — but it wasn’t just any billionaires who were the targets of Esteban Gast’s comedic jabs last week…
California farmers are low on water. Why not help them go solar?
It sounds like a climate solution everyone should be able to support: Let’s make it easier and cheaper for farmers with dwindling water supplies to…
Newsom’s appointees should stop delaying this great climate solution
We’ll have to wait a few more weeks to find out if Gov. Gavin Newsom is willing to push back against utility industry resistance to…
Here’s what Exxon’s CEO gets wrong about the climate crisis
Oil and gas conglomerate Exxon Mobil could be a key player in global efforts to combat the climate crisis — if only governments would remove…
It’s time for a grand bargain to end California’s solar squabbling
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointees could vote next week on a widely criticized plan that climate activists, solar installers and labor unions say would pointlessly slow…
Climate change is a star in some of Hollywood’s most popular movies
I never saw the 2017 film “Justice League.” But if I had, I would have been treated to a scene in which Batman (Ben Affleck)…
Here are the 32 coal plants still powering the American West
Over the last two decades, 21 coal-fired power plants have shut down across the Western U.S. Twenty-one down, 32 to go. Those numbers are based…
Disneyland will never be completed. Neither will healing the Earth
It didn’t take much for Eric Swenson to start a chain reaction that in less than two years would prompt the world’s most influential entertainment…
Changing our lives is scary. The climate crisis is way scarier
“I want you to stop changing your lives, OK? We’ve been conditioned to think that change is good and exciting, but what if it’s not?…