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Hundreds of Brazilian eco-activists at risk of assassination, report says

Working to save Brazil’s rainforests, as well as its land, air, and water is a dangerous pursuit, putting at least 260 environmental and human-rights activists at risk of assassination, according to a new report by the Catholic Land Commission. The report’s release coincides with the 20th anniversary of the assassination of activist Chico Mendes, who […]

Swedish crematorium plans to partially heat nearby town

A crematorium in the Swedish town of Halmstad, which has been criticized for its heavy pollution, has announced plans to use the waste heat from its body-burning operations to heat its own facilities and eventually also heat other buildings in town. Cemetery director Lennart Andersson said of the plan, “Of course it’s possible that there […]

Vote for the top eco-villain of 2008

Check out our nominees, and then vote in the poll below. And tell us who we missed in comments. (Also see our list of heroes.) Stephen Johnson Once upon a time, we thought Bush’s EPA chief was a harmless technocrat. Instead he turned out to be the most flaccid apparatchik in an administration groaning with […]

Vote for the top eco-hero of 2008

Check out our nominees, and then vote in the poll below. And tell us who we missed in comments. (Also see our list of villains.) Barack Obama OK, it’s obvious — but that don’t mean it ain’t so. The community organizer made it to the White House on a platform of re-powering America. He’s already […]

A new video from Green Gorilla, on MTR

The new episode from Green Gorilla, on mountaintop removal mining:

Breaking! Global warming disproven

Seattle is facing a snowpocalypse. This is my front yard right now: You can’t really tell but those bushes are half-buried. I await Jim Hansen’s apology.

Desperate enough to contemplate geo-engineering

[I think that as a climate-saving strategy geo-engineering is somewhere between a dead end and a hoax — why would you choose chemotherapy that might make you sicker if your doctors told you diet and exercise would definitely work (see "Geo-engineering remains a bad idea" and "Geo-engineering is not the answer")? The likely new science […]

RGGI auction: CO2 trading at $3 per ton

The RGGI held its second auction for carbon allowances on Wednesday. As noted on the RGGI website: States will sell emission allowances through auctions and invest proceeds in consumer benefits: energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other clean energy technologies. RGGI will spur innovation in the clean energy economy and create green jobs in each state. […]

A tool for the green-collar recovery

In “Retrofits for All,” I described an ingenious plan for extending retrofits to whole neighborhoods of energy-wasting buildings. Today, I want to take another look at one piece of that puzzle: financing. Energy conservation loans sound eminently reasonable: The loans pay for energy upgrades and, as long as the energy savings are bigger than the […]

Friday music blogging: Stephen Colbert

In an age of commodified holidays, only irony can protect that small core of genuine feeling from the depredations of a culture that seeks at every turn to exploit it. Holiday spirit is only possible through irony. With that, I give you “Another Christmas Song” from Stephen Colbert’s excellent Christmas Special: