Archive: May 2012

Weird, adorable animal spotted for the first time in over a decade

The tiger quoll is an adorable, carnivorous marsupial, sort of like an extra-cute Tasmanian devil with spots. Like most of the other weird marsupials, they’re only found in Australia, and they’ve been increasingly hard to find in the wild. In the Otway Ranges in southwestern Victoria, there hadn’t been a confirmed quoll sighting in more […]

Don’t call me an environmentalist

The environmental movement’s approval ratings are going down the tubes, even as more Americans profess to live greener lifestyles. Here’s what’s up.

Awesome cityscapes made from discarded textbooks

What do you do with unwanted textbooks? Chinese artist Liu Wei makes spectacular carved-book cityscapes.

86-year-old man turns island into tortoise sanctuary

Back in 1962, Brendon Grimshaw bought Moyenne Island, in the Seychelles, for £8,000 (which at the time would have been about $22,000). He started living there in 1972, and since that time he’s been the island’s only permanent resident — aside from the 120 giant tortoises for whom Grimshaw’s island is a sanctuary. The video […]

Upsetting photos of oil-slicked turtles from Deepwater Horizon

Back in 2010, Greenpeace filed a Freedom of Information request covering endangered species affected by the Deepwater Horizon spill. They just received a response from NOAA, and it included more than 100 photos. They're disturbing.

Critical List: TransCanada reapplies for Keystone XL permit; Japan’s last nuclear reactor

TransCanada put in a new permit application for the Keystone XL pipeline. Japan switched off its last nuclear reactor. Fights over endangered species are about to get wild, as the Fish and Wildlife Service has to rule on protections for species that live in oil country.

Locavore brew: Tapping into beer’s agricultural roots

What happens when small batch brewers discover the farm-to-table movement and run with it?

Will this Farm Bill do enough for young farmers?

By the time the next Farm Bill expires in five years, 125,000 American farmers will have retired. This fact may well be the biggest threat to national food security, but you wouldn’t know it if you’ve been following this year’s Farm Bill hearings.

Ask Umbra: How do I avoid cheap plastic spray bottles?

A reader says she’s littering the planet with her discarded spritzers. Umbra gets all misty eyed.