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Companies like Mattel are still pushing Sumatran tigers to the brink

Mattel’s paper purchasing polices are weaker than Ken’s plastic handshake. Poor Barbie. She’s survived fifty years of bad outfits, sudden beheadings at the hands of younger brothers and the wrath of feminists everywhere. Underneath that fixed smile is a steely determination that has pushed this character to the front of American popular culture and kept […]

Electric Car Purchase Update

Just got an email from Nissan:   Hi Russ, congratulations! Your vehicle is scheduled to arrive at your Nissan Dealer in the month of September 2011.   As your Nissan LEAFTM is being built and shipped, we will continue to update your vehicle’s status. So make sure to sign in to “my account” to stay […]

Marching to Protect a Landmark in American Labor History – Blair Mountain

Watching this week’s massive march on Blair Mountain has been inspiring. More than 300 people (and that number’s been growing each day) are walking the roughly 60 miles from Marmet, West Virginia, to Blair Mountain in Logan, West Virginia, to call for the end of mountaintop removal coal mining and the protection of this historic […]

Do we have a moral obligation to stop screwing up the planet?

Barack Obama, Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, and Ursula K. Le Guin walk into a bar book … No, it’s not a joke; it’s an ambitious project that aims to make a rock-solid moral case for environmental action. It started with the print book Moral Ground: Ethical Action for a Planet in Peril […]

10 most climate-ready cities in the U.S. [SLIDESHOW]

What is your city doing about climate change? Boyd Cohen of CO2 Impact ranked the big U.S. cities that are leading the way, based on political commitment, green buildings, university leadership, transit, greenhouse-gas emissions, cleantech investment, and energy. Here’s the top 10.

Stopping pollution that causes asthma attacks

“Air pollution is especially dangerous to children because their lungs are still growing.” I heard those words earlier this week while listening to the Senate Environment and Public Works’ subcommittee hearing entitled “Air Quality and Children’s Health.” They were from Dr. Dona Upson of the American Lung Association in New Mexico, and though I’ve heard […]

Colorado town considers "How much renewable energy is feasible" — 80 percent by 2025?

A great story of a city looking to — literally — take ownership of its energy future: The Colorado Renewable Energy Standard, as amended last year by the state Legislature, requires Xcel Energy to get 30 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020. …  Boulder leaders — who let the city’s 20-year franchise […]

Representative Tipton: My 150 isn't even my biggest truck

Recently U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton came to Aspen to speak to his Republican supporters here. He said that he drove an F150, and that that wasn’t even his biggest truck. And then he lamented the fact that it cost $78 to fill his tank halfway. And so we should drill for more oil in the […]

Industry-funded climate crank becomes a media darling

A new study examining TV news coverage of federal proposals to regulate global warming pollution has turned up evidence of journalistic malpractice when it comes to accurately informing viewers about one of the most critical issues of our time. It also shows how the mainstream media turned a relatively obscure climatologist into a star — […]

When the Nile runs dry

A new scramble for Africa is under way. As global food prices rise and exporters reduce shipments of commodities, countries that rely on imported grain are panicking. Affluent countries like Saudi Arabia, South Korea, China and India have descended on fertile plains across the African continent, acquiring huge tracts of land to produce wheat, rice […]