Our Stories

The Latest by Tom Turner

Author & Historian

March 25, 2008

The Importance of the Number 350

By Tom Turner

Bill McKibben is on a crusade. He wants to pound the number 350 into the heads of everyone on the planet, including yours. Three fifty is the amount of carbon in parts per million that the atmosphere can handle safely without warming up and melting glaciers, raising the sea level, bringing on killer storms, destroying …

March 18, 2008

How About a Green Stimulus Campaign?

By Tom Turner

Writing this on St. Pat’s Day, the holiday that turns thoughts to subjects green. And isn’t green all the rage! My friend and colleague Terry Winckler just sent around an email that allows you to order your TV viewing habits by green content, should that be appealing. On a slightly related note, I just received …

March 13, 2008

Passing the Buck

By Tom Turner

I’m not one to write about internal affairs very often, but there was a West Coast celebration last Thursday evening (March 6) you might enjoy hearing about. The occasion was an event to honor Buck Parker, who served as the Executive Director here at Earthjustice for the past 10 years, as he passes the reins …

March 3, 2008

Know Thine Enemy

By Tom Turner

I have a simple rule of thumb to decide how to vote on the ever-more-complicated, ever-more numerous propositions that infest the ballot here in California come election time. It is this: Anything that is supported by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association is something that I will enthusiastically vote against. The late Mr. Jarvis and a …

February 28, 2008

Renzi Getting Just "Deserts"

By Tom Turner  /  Rocky Mountain Office

Sometimes, not often enough but sometimes, the bad guys get their just deserts. (And yes, that’s deserts not desserts in case you wondered. But I digress.) We’re speaking today of a congressman from southern Arizona named Rick Renzi. Mr. Renzi, a Republican and chairman of John McCain’s Arizona campaign, persuaded Congress to enact a nefarious …

February 26, 2008

Batten the Hatches, Nail Down the Furniture, Lock up the Valuables…

By Tom Turner

Sometimes, not often enough but sometimes, the bad guys get their just deserts. (And yes, that’s deserts not desserts in case you wondered. But I digress.) …the next 11 months promise to be even worse than the last 85! By my oh-so-sophisticated calculations we have now endured 85 months of the Bush assault on our …

February 19, 2008

Salmon, Bass, Owls, Spin

By Tom Turner

We've had a spate of stories here in northern California about the crash of the fall run of king salmon returning to spawn in the watershed of the Sacramento River.

February 12, 2008

A Bit of Good News

By Tom Turner

If the polar bears aren’t drowning it’s flooding somewhere and drying to dust somewhere else. Or, as a folk group from my youth sang, "They’re rioting in Africa. . .and Texas needs rain." Plus ça change. With all the horrible news, a bright spot is welcome, and this week’s comes from the World Wildlife Fund …

February 5, 2008

Senate's Going Green

By Tom Turner

The stimulus package has pretty much disappeared from the front pages with Super Tuesday upon us and the New York Giants pulling off the greatest upset since David smote Goliath. But, in case you missed it, the suggestion we echoed last week that this moment offers a rare chance to get some green projects going …

January 29, 2008

Here's MY State of the State

By Tom Turner

I’m writing this a few hours before the State of the Union is assessed (for the last time!) by President Bush, so can’t be sure of what he’ll say. But if I were writing it for him (fat chance), here’s what I’d say, cribbing heavily from Eileen Appelbaum, Dean Baker, and John Schmitt of the …