Explore Quotes by Jeff Goodell

Is it in our national interest to overheat the planet? That's the question Obama faces in deciding whether to approve Keystone XL, a 2,000-mile-long pipeline that will bring 500,000 barrels of tar-sand oil from Canada to oil refineries on the Gulf of Mexico.

In reality, studies show that investments to spur renewable energy and boost energy efficiency generate far more jobs than oil and coal.

If you think Wall Street firms have it good, you haven't looked closely at Big Oil.

Compared to coal, which generates almost half the electricity in the United States, natural gas is indeed a cleaner, less polluting fuel. But compared to, say, solar, it's filthy. And of course there is nothing renewable about natural gas.

One of the big questions in the climate change debate: Are humans any smarter than frogs in a pot? If you put a frog in a pot and slowly turn up the heat, it won't jump out. Instead, it will enjoy the nice warm bath until it is cooked to death. We humans seem to be doing pretty much the same thing.

Extracting oil from the tar sands is a nasty, polluting, energy-intensive business.

Climate change is a global issue - from the point of view of the Earth's climate, a molecule of CO2 emitted in Bejing is the same as a molecule emitted in Sydney.

In the U.S. alone, weather disasters caused $50 billion in economic damages in 2010.

Bill Gates is a relative newcomer to the fight against global warming, but he's already shifting the debate over climate change.

Geoengineering - the deliberate, large-scale manipulation of the earth's climate to offset global warming - is a nightmare fix for climate change.

Have we failed to slow global warming pollution in part because climate and environmental activists have been too polite and well behaved?

Climate scientists have long pointed to the Southwest as one of the places in the U.S. that is most vulnerable to global warming impacts, especially drought. And if there's one thing that even climate denialists don't dispute, dry things burn.

It's not all Obama's fault: His plans to rebuild America's energy infrastructure have been hampered by the recession, and his efforts on global warming have been stymied by Tea Party wackos and weak-kneed Democrats in Congress.

When it comes to global warming, coal is the gorilla in the room.