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Feds will designate critical habitat for polar bears

The U.S. government will designate critical habitat for polar bears off Alaska’s coast as part of a partial settlement of a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The Interior Department declared polar bears a threatened species in May, but neglected to make any stipulations for habitat […]

Fascinating L.A. Times article on racial and coal politics in Virginia

“We’re all black in the mines.” — Jerry Stallard, a coal union organizer in Virginia, arguing to his fellow miners that Obama’s support for unions and for coal is more important than the color of his skin

Must-read NYT Magazine: ‘Capitalism to the Rescue’

The New York Times Magazine has a long article on how uber-VC Kleiner Perkins is helping to jumpstart the clean-tech revolution. It is a must-read because what Kleiner and other VCs are doing — pushing a broad spectrum of carbon-mitigating technologies out of the lab and into the market — is some of the most […]

Snippets from the news

• Why CDC responded with “lack of urgency” to formaldehyde warnings. • 500,000 gallons of oil spilled from Hurricane Ike. • Democratic Republic of Congo cancels two-thirds of logging contracts. • Expert says 99 percent of Alaska’s glaciers are in decline. • Michigan governor signs renewables legislation. • Algae fuels the green revolution. • Ted […]

Economics of GHG reduction, part bazillion

Two troubling things I heard last week: The on-going question about what our next president will sacrifice in the name of the economy. If the financial crisis has taught us nothing else, it is that federal coffers are not infinite, and something will inevitably give. At a panel on GHG policy in Washington, congressional staffers […]

Nearly a quarter of wild mammal species are in danger of extinction

Some 21 percent of the world’s 5,487 known wild mammal species are in danger of extinction, according to the updated Red List maintained by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. (Steller sea lions and tigers and giant pandas, oh no!) “Our results paint a bleak picture of the global status of mammals worldwide,” […]

Snippets from the news

• Six E.U. states ready to block climate plan. • World Bank green-energy funding up 87 percent. • Offshore wind farm approved in New Jersey.

EPA talked out of declaring public-health emergency in asbestos-ridden town

A public-health emergency has never been declared in Libby, Mont., where asbestos exposure from vermiculite mining has killed 200 people and sickened more than 1,000 more. But documents and emails obtained recently by Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) show that in 2002, the U.S. EPA was primed to declare such an emergency — before being talked […]

Oregon looks to protect its ocean ecology

Amidst the slavering cries to drill pretty much everywhere, it’s encouraging to hear the news from Oregon. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife has just finished accepting proposals for new marine reserves — protected places where Oregon’s maritime ecology can thrive. A coalition of conservation leaders has developed an ambitious and smart proposal. Now […]

Nine states sue EPA over water rule, saying it allows pollution

Nine U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba have sued the U.S. EPA over a regulatory change that exempts transfers of water from one water body to another from Clean Water Act protections. If allowed to stand, the plaintiffs charge, the June administrative ruling would permit ships to dump ballast water in the Great […]