Before John David Shelton raised anchor to raise greater awareness of climate change, he agreed to sit down and answer some questions on camera -- from tales of tattoos and piercings to the most embarrassing thing he's done in the name of the environment. Spoiler alert: it's not that embarrassing. Help John David reach his goal of raising $20,000 for climate change awareness. Click here to make a donation and put some wind in his sails. Want to send John David a few words of encouragement or ask him some questions of your own? Leave them in the comments below. …

The future's looking sooty.Photo: Tami Heilemann, DOIInterior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday an enormous expansion in coal mining that threatens to increase U.S. climate pollution by an amount equivalent to more than half of what the United States currently emits in a year. A statement from Wild Earth Guardians, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife put the announcement in perspective: When burned, the coal threatens to release more than 3.9 billion tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, equal to the annual emissions from 300 coal-fired power plants, further cementing the United States as a leading contributor to climate disruption ... Salazar’s …

Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. It's a sad state of affairs when members on both sides of the aisle in Congress seem to think it is a good idea to attack the Clean Air Act -- the landmark law that Richard Nixon signed and George H. W. Bush strengthened. Yet the hits on the Clean Air Act just keep on coming in this Congress in spite of the act's incredible record of cutting deaths and illness caused by air pollution -- a record that has earned the strong support of the American people and the admiration of others …

Wind turbine in Yokohama, JapanPhoto: shibuya246If Japan's wind turbines were to get a new theme song, it would be Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", and it would ring out from the hills upon which they stand triumphantly, unscathed by the the country's earthquake/tsunami double whammy, lifting their skinny, still-turning blades like antennas to heaven. While Japan's water-dependent nuclear power plants suck and wheeze and spew radioactive steam, "there has been no wind facility damage reported by any [Japan Wind Energy Association] members, from either the earthquake or the tsunami," says association head Yoshinori Ueda. Even the country's totally badass Kamisu offshore wind …

Japan's been through a lot in just one week.Photo: Matthew BradleyLast Friday, Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 quake -- its most powerful earthquake on record, and the strongest anywhere in the world in the past 140 years -- with its epicenter off the coast, creating a 30-foot-high tsunami that swallowed up whole towns and killed more than 5,000 people. The tsunami waves knocked out the cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in northern Japan, creating a nuclear disaster that has worsened over the days since the natural disaster struck. Two of the six reactors in the complex appear to have suffered partial meltdowns, releasing large amounts …

A new Gallup poll shows that 52 percent of Americans understand that global warming is due more to human activities than natural variation, and only 43 percent believe the opposite. That's marginally better than last year -- 50 to 46, barely holding on to a "believe in science" majority" -- but way down from 2007, when 61 percent knew that basic fact. There have also been slight improvements in how many people think global warming is "exaggerated" -- 43 percent of those polled, down from 48 -- but in 2007 it was 35 percent. It's good that people's knowledge is …

China is suspending its development of nuclear power plants amid rising public anxiety. As the country's economy develops rapidly, nuclear power had been seen as key to answering the need for rapid growth in production of electricity. Some 28 reactors - or 40 per cent of the world's total under construction - are being built in China. The country's current capacity is 10.8 gigawatts, though analysts expected a target of up to 80GW in the coutnry's new five-year plan due at the end of this month. Meanwhile, a Peabody energy executive says coal will benefit from the move away from …

Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. Opposing Republican efforts to forbid climate regulations, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Tuesday that the science of human-made climate change is "unequivocally true." Rockefeller, a strong defender of his state's coal industry, spoke out on the Senate floor against an amendment submitted to a small business bill by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that would strip the Environmental Protection Agency of the ability to regulate greenhouse pollution. McConnell introduced the amendment, drafted by global warming denier Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), as Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) passed companion legislation out of the House energy committee with unanimous Republican …

Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Today, the EPA announced the most important actions to clean up air pollution from dirty coal-burning power plants since the Clean Air Act was last updated in 1990. EPA's proposed mercury and air toxics standards for power plants that burn coal and oil are projected to save as many as 17,000 American lives [PDF] every year by 2015. These standards also will prevent up to 120,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and there will be 11,000 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children every year. The standards also will avoid more than 12,000 …

Can Senate Democrats snatch a defeat from the jaws of victory? Yes, that was a rhetorical question. Politico has them bumbling around again, "scrambling" to react to an attack on EPA climate rules that has been telegraphed for months. I don't know how much of this is genuine fecklessness and how much is Politico's enduring love of portraying Dems as feckless, but either way, it's hard to discern much feck. The Upton-Inhofe bill, which would reverse EPA's scientific finding of endangerment for greenhouse gases -- and thereby permanently block EPA from addressing climate pollution -- sailed through the House Energy …