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Snippets from the news

• “Clean coal” could be economically viable by 2030, says report. • E.U. lawmakers may back off plans to cut CO2 emissions from cars. • Tide power pushes forward. • EPA chief lied to Congress, says Sen. Boxer. • Zookeeper of famous polar bear Knut has died.

Many of world’s common birds are taking a population dive

Some of the world’s most common bird species have suffered big population declines in the last few decades due to habitat loss, invasive species, industrial agriculture, and logging, says a new report from BirdLife International. The report found that in the last 25 years, some 45 percent of Europe’s common bird species have been in […]

Interior Department joins Big Oil and Big Fish

If you thought their parties were kinky, get this: those wacky kids over at the Department of the Interior have figured how to please their special friends in the oil business and boost the factory fish-farming industry in one swoop. Writing on Ethicurean, Elanor Starmer reports that the Interior department’s Minerals Management Services is pushing […]

Friday music blogging: Tilly & the Wall

Photo: Anders Jensen-Urstad, Wikipedia Teen rebellion was commodified long ago, and much of the music now geared toward it is either whiny emo or sugar-coated pop punk. Occasionally, though, a band outside the Big Label Bland Suburban Angst world comes crashing in with a little raw abandon and exuberance that can actually plug you back […]

Snippets from the news

• Stephane Dion would give big money to green up Canadian farmers. • Permafrost may stay intact despite global warming. • Australia goes big with “clean coal.” • House passes bill that would triple funding for Great Lakes cleanup. • West Coast LNG terminal approved. • Sierra Club gives out awards. • Nature Conservancy buys […]

Allocating individual quotas could save many fisheries, study says

Retooling the way fisheries are managed could be the key to their long-term health, according to a new study published in the journal Science. Typical fisheries have mostly relied on a free-for-all style of management where scientists determine the overall allowable catch and then fishers go out and compete with each other to try to […]

Appeals court rules EPA must protect waterways from construction pollution

The U.S. EPA is required by the Clean Water Act to protect the nation’s waterways and drinking water from construction-industry pollution, and the agency must develop regulations to address construction-site runoff by December 2009, a federal appeals court ruled [PDF] Thursday. Sediment from construction sites, usually washed into rivers and other waterways via storm water, […]

Snippets from the news

• House passes No Child Left Inside environmental-education bill. • Sharing the catch is good for fish and fisherfolk. • Evangelicals less concerned about climate change. • Will T. Boone Pickens convince Wal-Mart to switch from diesel to natural gas? • What are Al Gore’s plans with Plenty magazine? • France will not impose picnic […]

It’s like social activism, only artier

Friday is PARK(ing) day, and you are cordially invited, via this DIY kit [PDF], to join the fun.

The financial meltdown and other considerations for clean energy development

Tom asked earlier what the "anarchic" disintegration of Lehman Brother’s carbon trading desk — taking place within the broader disintegration of the entire company — means in the bigger picture. And the answer, most likely, is pretty much nothing. This is true for a variety of reasons, not least among them that Lehman Brothers was […]