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One more communique dribbles in from the gamma quadrant

You don’t see super-wingnutty stuff like this very often in the mainstream media any more. This was my favorite bit: But didn’t the Nobel Peace Prize go last year to Al Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for their eco-warnings? Yes. And the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded by a committee of […]

Snippets from the news

• Potent greenhouse gas more prevalent than thought. • Environmental activists were “suspected of involvement in terrorism.” • Toys containing banned substances are still on the market. • Asian beetle threatens three New England industries. • India shops for coal in Appalachia. • Must-see green American landmarks. • Many mass transit systems plagued by too […]

Small change

“It’s not insignificant, but it’s the cost of a paint shop in an auto factory.” — David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan, on John McCain’s $300 million prize for a new electric car battery

Friedman’s Chapter 18

For ages I’ve been meaning to mention Thomas Friedman’s Chapter 18 Project, an online addendum to his new book Hot, Flat, and Crowded (which I reviewed). It’s a not-very-frequently-updated blog, but it’s also a call for ideas, which Friedman will allegedly rate or assess or something, for possible inclusion in a paperback edition. Share your […]

Snippets from the news

• China’s greenhouse-gas emissions could double or more in next 20 years. • Former Spanish prime minister calls climate change a “new religion.” • Japan launches voluntary carbon market. • Seoul goes big for bicycles. • Could thorium solve nuclear waste-disposal woes? • Safeway will ban baby bottles containing bisphenol A. • Environmentalists sue EPA […]

Federal spending, quick!

Paul Krugman was my favorite New York Times columnist even before he won the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics this week. His column on Friday lined right up with my current obsession: federal stimulus spending, quick, lots of it. He writes: “Right now, increased government spending is just what the doctor ordered, and concerns about […]

Massive U.N. study attempts to do for biodiversity what IPCC did for climate

When Wall Street saw around $1-$1.5 trillion dollars go up in smoke from the financial sector, the world rightfully freaked the hell out. Meanwhile, the world is burning up between $2 trillion and $5 trillion of capital a year through global forest loss. That’s the cumulative value of the lost services forests provide, including carbon […]

Bush admin will rush review of comments on endangered-species plan

The Bush administration will carefully consider the 200,000 non-form-letter comments it received on its recent plan to muck with the Endangered Species Act. And by “carefully consider,” we mean 15 reviewers will chug through ’em in just four eight-hour days. That means each reviewer, each minute, must peruse seven comments, some of which are tens […]

Snippets from the news

• Boston waste haulers may lose licenses if they don’t offer recycling. • Dentists back sealants, despite bisphenol A concerns. • Conservationists factor climate change into land buys. • Sarah Palin and Joe Biden have strong differences on environment. • Electronics recycling industry plagued by lax rules and weak enforcement.

EPA overstates pollution enforcement, says GAO

It’s no secret that the Bush administration has slashed fines for polluters: The U.S. EPA issued $137.7 million in penalties in 2007, down from $240.6 million in 1998. But even that level of enforcement is overstated, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office. The EPA publicly reports the penalties it slaps on egregious […]