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Army Corps urged to honor Obama’s priority of restoring New Orleans area wetlands

Louisiana’s threatened wetlands provide a critical barrier to hurricanes and flooding.With the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaching, a coalition of 17 advocacy groups called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to promptly honor President Obama’s pledge “to restore nature’s barriers — the wetlands, marshes and barrier islands that can take the first blows and […]

EPA: Chemicals found in Wyo. drinking water might be from fracking

This story was written by ProPublica reporter Abrahm Lustgarten. Federal environment officials investigating drinking water contamination near the ranching town of Pavillion, Wyo., have found that at least three water wells contain a chemical used in the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. Scientists also found traces of other contaminants, including oil, gas or […]

Study details health risks from TVA’s spilled coal ash

Exposure to dust and river sediment in the area of the massive coal ash spill from the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston power plant could present a health risk to local communities. That’s the finding of a study published this month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. It’s the first peer-reviewed, double-blind research paper to […]

EPA fails to inform public about weed-killer in drinking water

This story was written by Danielle Ivory. One of the nation’s most widely used herbicides has been found to exceed federal safety limits in drinking water in four states, but water customers have not been told and the Environmental Protection Agency has not published the results. Records that tracked the amount of the weed-killer atrazine […]

Friday music blogging: Lightning Dust

Last year I FMB’d Black Mountain, a druggy, bell-bottomed Canadian indie band that does fantastic stoner rock. Two members of that band, Amber Webber and Joshua Wells, formed a side project a few years ago called Lightning Dust. They have a new album out, Infinite Light, and it’s well worth your time. Where Black Mountain […]

A civilizational tipping point

In recent years there has been a growing concern over thresholds, or tipping points, in nature. For example, scientists worry about when the shrinking population of an endangered species will fall to a point from which it cannot recover. Marine biologists are concerned about the point where overfishing will trigger the collapse of a fishery. […]

Child Bearing and Carbon Footprints

Kate Galbraith put up a post in the NYT Green Inc. blog about the carbon footprint of child bearing. According to a study done at Oregon State University: “…a hypothetical American woman who switches to a more fuel-efficient car, drives less, recycles, installs more efficient light bulbs, and replaces her refrigerator and windows with energy-saving […]

Teenage Mutant Frog

While on a hike in the Adirondacks last week, my wife and youngest daughter took this picture of what should be a green frog. I have never seen this blue pigmentation before. I think it’s unlikely to be a mutation that will impart any kind of advantage unless it finds itself living on a blue […]

Friday music blogging: David Bazan

David Bazan is an indie artist from Seattle (wo0t!). He fronted the beloved Pedro the Lion until he went solo back in 2006 with a stellar EP called Fewer Moving Parts. His first full-length solo album, Curse Your Branches, is finally coming out on Sept. 1. You can , and anyway, I’m too jazzed to […]

Is the debate over?

In the current issue of Science twenty-one leading ocean scientists declared a truce–it’s as if Wile E. Coyote and Roadrunner agreed to stop the chase for a day. The paper was authored by many of the biggest names on all sides of the debate on ending overfishing–Boris Worm, Ray Hilborn, Andy Rosenberg and Chris Costello. […]