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Snippets from the news

• GAO says EPA overstates its enforcement record. • Climate change linked to tiger attacks and increases in waterborne diseases. • Landfills making cash off carbon credits through what they were already doing. • Panel recommends canal to divert water around Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. • Oregon Cascades hold a lotta water. • Escaped lionfish devastating […]

Umbra on deflecting eco-insults

Dear Umbra, Whenever I pick up a piece of trash a friend has thrown on the ground, or ask them where their recycling bins are, they call me a dirty tree-hugging hippie. This doesn’t bother me, since I know I shower daily and am happy to admit to hugging trees every so often, but they […]

National Geographic’s inane video clips of overactive researchers

Take a look at this recent National Geographic photo of a researcher licking one of her beloved research subjects. We’ll just have to hope neither she nor her lab research equipment is carrying the Chytrid Fungus that’s wiping out the world’s amphibians. After watching that video on MSN I was curious if other National Geographic […]

Friday music blogging: Sonny J

For a brief time when I was in grad school I had a weekly show on the campus radio station called Big Dumb Beats. It was at a time in the mid-90s when “electronica” was the next big thing and there was a flood of it aimed shamelessly at mainstream appeal — dance music designed […]

Snippets from the news

• U.S. advances proposal to ease restrictions on mountaintop-removal mining. • Argentina requires companies to buy environmental insurance. • Dutch farmers say E.U. pesticide rules will take down tulip industry. • Eiffel Tower scales back its twinkle. • Energy-producing shoes could power your gadgets.

Belugas listed as endangered over Sarah Palin’s objections

Despite opposition from Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, beluga whales in the Cook Inlet have been declared endangered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency estimates that only 375 belugas currently frolic in the inlet, down from some 1,300 in the 1980s. Restricting subsistence hunting by Native Alaskans has not helped the problem, says […]

‘What is this ‘clean coal,’ anyway?’

The Christian Science Monitor dissects “clean coal.”

Snippets from the news

• European Union sticks to climate timeline amid inter-bloc grumbling; Britain wants to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050, and 15 E.U. countries are on track to meet Kyoto targets. • Council on Foreign Relations releases crisis guide to climate change. • FDA wants to identify medical devices that might contain bisphenol A. • Nevada […]

Despite industry lobbying, EPA toughens lead pollution limits

Federal regulators announced Thursday a sharp reduction in legal levels of lead emissions, rejecting pleas by industrial battery recyclers who told White House officials earlier this month that they could be put out of business by tough new limits. “Our nation’s air is cleaner today than just a generation ago, and last night I built […]

Snippets from the news

• U.S. will stop exporting mercury. • Groups release sustainable sushi guides. • Podcars are coming to New York. • Tesla Motors replaces CEO. • Popularity of tap water forces Pepsi to cut jobs. • EPA unveils 2009 fuel economy guide.