Archive: Apr 2012
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Critical List: Emperor penguin population double previous estimates; a new fracking working group
A team using very high resolution satellite pictures counted twice as many emperor penguins in Antarctica than any previous study had. President Obama formed a new working group in Washington to coordinate federal oversight of fracking. Those earthquakes in Oklahoma and Arkansas could be caused not just by fracking wastewater disposal but by fracking itself.
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Ask Umbra: What’s the deal with lead in lipstick?
A reader asks why there's poison in her makeup. Umbra lays it on thick.
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The new revolutionaries: Landscape architects reinvent urban parks
These designers are like Lady Gaga. They’re like Bob Dylan plugging in. They’re like the electric guitar after years and years of classical music. So why have you never heard of them?
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Four important food and farm stories you may have missed
Antibiotics, eggs, nitrogen, and Monsanto's new seeds: A food politics news roundup.
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What does your ideal street look like? A smart growth expert weighs in
Planner and smart-growth advocate Mike Lydon talks bike-friendly cities and bike-unfriendly cops, livable streets, and his ideal streetscape.
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On Titanic anniversary, James Cameron says climate change is our menacing iceberg
The starving millions will be the ones most affected by the next iceberg that we hit, which is going to be climate change, says Cameron, director of the movie Titanic.
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U.S. and Maldives endure the long, hot March of climate change
In an election season sure to be marked by more extreme weather, the Maldives' Mohamed Nasheed, an outspoken climate activist, fights to get back his presidency as Obama tries to hold onto his.
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The rain-barrel connection: Building a better flusher
A writer dreams of someday flushing his toilet with rainwater. Sounds simple enough, but it’s not. His tale of “the regulations, the dreamers, and me.”
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Farm-in-a-truck teaches kids about sustainability
Compass Green is a mobile greenhouse built into a truck, which runs on vegetable oil (natch). Handsome hipsters Nick Runkle and Justin Cutter retooled the truck, which was already fitted with Plexiglas display panels, to turn it into a biofuel-powered educational farm on wheels.