In the United States, we do a pretty good job of protecting iconic landscapes and postcard views, but the ocean gets no respect.

The idea that human beings have taken a few steps closer toward asserting control over the Earth's climate is likely to strike you as a really bad idea.

Drill everything, mine everything, roll back regulations, tweak the science, expedite permits. Sound familiar? The Republicans offer up more 19th-Century solutions to our 21st-Century energy problems.

The biggest tab the public picks up for fossil fuels has to do with what economists call 'external costs,' like the health effects of air and water pollution.

If there are more and more environmental refugees, they are going to end up on your doorstep too.

I'm a latecomer to the environmental issue, which for years seemed to me like an excuse for more government regulation. But I can see that in rich societies, voters are paying less attention to economic issues and more to issues of the spirit, including the environment.

The idea of 'climate' - in quotation marks - is never going to be the issue. It's always going to be a local, human issue. And so to the extent that you put 'climate' on the ballot, that's never going to move the needle.

The Millennials, a generation born digital, will have a much stronger impact on social behaviour than we currently assume. Global climate change and resource security will influence our lives in substantial ways.