World Bank has been OKing illegal logging in the Congo, says Greenpeace study You've probably developed an immunity to scandal and outrage, but we'll keep plying you with it anyway: a two-year study by Greenpeace International has found that in the past three years, Congolese village chiefs have handed over vast expanses of the world's second-largest rainforest to European and U.S. logging companies in what some might call, um, uneven exchanges. African teak can bring in almost $8,000 per tree; in exchange for huge tracts of forest, tribes were offered simple buildings costing perhaps $20,000 -- which sometimes didn't materialize …

"April is the cruelest month," T. S. Eliot wrote. Ha! What did he know? For environmental-job seekers in a host of fields, this April could almost be certified "cruelty free." In no particular order, here's a quick overview of green career areas experiencing growth right now: Wind Power and Solar Energy A 2007 report from Clean Edge predicts that wind-power revenues are expected to rise from $17.9 billion in 2006 to $60.8 billion in 2016. Solar-photovoltaic companies anticipate a similar steep increase from $15.6 billion last year to $69.3 billion nine years from now. Estimates from other analysts and associations …

A friend sends an article from a legal publication that makes an important point about economists and other naysayers who insist that addressing global climate disruption will be too expensive. (Oddly, the same people always gassing on about boundless human potential when it comes to imagining new substitutes for depleting resources always forget to incorporate that creativity in their projections of the cost of fixing environmental problems.) A key excerpt (my emphasis): The most comprehensive review ever carried out on the economics of climate change, the just-released Stem Review on the Economics of Climate Change (available at sternreview.org.uk) suggests that …

Meet Jim Rogers, a great American paradox. He's the top gun at Duke Energy, a huge (and hugely polluting) power company; he's also one of the nation's most dogged advocates for federal regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions. Jim Rogers. Duke Energy operates smack in the heart of coal country in the Midwest and Southeast and derives 70 percent of its power from the dirtiest of all fossil fuels. Rogers knows full well that his company has a lot at stake when it comes to cleaning up carbon emissions -- which is why, he says, he wants to be on the vanguard …

Stacy Mitchell did a bang-up job earlier this week of explaining why Wal-Mart and other big-box stores could never actually be green. But if you need a more wide-ranging reminder of Wal-Mart's deep and abiding loathsomeness, check out Jeffrey Goldberg's article in the latest New Yorker: "Selling Wal-Mart: Can the company co-opt liberals?" If you've been awake the past few years, you're already familiar with many of the criticisms, but they're neatly packaged up here with a big brown bow on top. Carl Pope of the Sierra Club, quoted toward the end of the article, sums up some of the …

CNN: Global warming "could create opportunities for pharmaceutical, chemical, biotech and healthcare companies, but present serious challenges for paper, agriculture, furniture, energy and the overall economy." Too bad for you suckers who invested in Overall Economy Inc.!

It's hard to imagine what politicians and corporate chiefs are intending to do by crafting a corn-based ethanol boom, beyond rigging public policy (and raiding the public purse) to generate huge private profits. But whatever their intentions, they're methodically creating environmental and social disasters -- while brazenly brandishing the "green" flag. Before I go on, let me make two points for the millionth time: Without extended, ongoing, and financially generous government intervention, no market for corn ethanol would exist. If ethanol delivers any net energy gain at all over petroleum gasoline, it's razor thin. Here are some of the consequences …

News breaking from Canada: It turns out that once the government stops subsidizing fossil fuel developments ... fossil fuel developments are increasingly unprofitable! Brief summary of the link: It looks like all forms of fossil-fuel development in Canada -- especially the tar sands -- are going to suffer as governments are forced by public pressure to reduce the subsidies and tax breaks they've been doling out. This looks to be equal parts environmental activism and populist "screw the oil barons" attitude, but whatever it is I say huzzah!

With its recent flurry of green initiatives, Wal-Mart has won the embrace of several prominent environmental groups. "If they do even half what they say they want to do, it will make a huge difference for the planet," said Ashok Gupta of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Environmental Defense, meanwhile, has deemed Wal-Mart's actions momentous enough to warrant opening an office near the retailer's headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. "If [we] can nudge Wal-Mart in the right direction on the environment, we can have a huge impact," said the organization's executive vice president, David Yarnold. Wal-Mart's eco-commitments are not without substance. …

San Francisco approves first-in-nation ban on plastic bags San Francisco is the first U.S. city to pass a ban on non-recyclable plastic bags at major supermarkets and drugstores. Once it's signed into law, the stores will have six months to a year to sack the sacks, switching to compostable, recyclable ones made from corn or potato starch -- or reverting to recyclable paper. "We can take steps to make our economy a little more soulful," said lawmaker and ban author Ross Mirkarimi. "Hopefully, other cities and other states will follow suit." Similar bans are in place in South Africa, Taiwan, …