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Snippets from the news

• Green Party activist Peter Camejo dies. • New Zealand parliament passes carbon trading bill. • France considers tax on disposable dishes. • Google makes patent application for floating, wave-powered computer centers. • One blogger’s attempt to go veg just once a week. • Greenland doesn’t want its whale hunting under IWC jurisdiction. • What […]

Companies move toward nontoxic chemicals and products

Here’s a crazy fact: A baby’s body contains nearly 300 chemical compounds by the time it takes its first breath. It’s the consequence of a chemical industry that has long paid little mind to where its products end up or what they do to people and the planet; of the estimated 83,000 chemicals on the […]

Umbra on cruise control

Dear Umbra, To cruise or not to cruise? That is the question. Is it more fuel efficient to use cruise control when driving, or does it use more gas to use the cruise? Carrie Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Dearest Carrie, Whether ’tis nobler to travel at constant speed — that is indeed a question. And Edmunds.com, […]

Judge tosses federal plan to allow more snowmobiles into Yellowstone

A National Park Service plan to allow 540 snowmobiles a day into Yellowstone National Park has been tossed out by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ruled Monday that allowing that many ‘mobiles would increase air and noise pollution and be disturbing to wildlife — conclusions drawn, he noted, by NPS’s own data. […]

Snippets from the news

• Europe backs further away from biofuels. • American Chemistry Council spends $180,625 in one month fighting Seattle plastic-bag ban. • Flight will use new technologies to save time and fuel. • MTV attacks greenwashers. • Brower Youth Awards given to young environmental leaders.

Eco-vandal pleads guilty to 1999 arson at Michigan State University

Alleged Earth Liberation Front member Marie Mason pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated arson and conspiring to commit arson for her role in a New Year’s Eve 1999 fire that destroyed part of Michigan State University’s Agriculture Hall. Mason and her co-defendant (who has already pleaded guilty) were accused of pouring gasoline on and around records […]

Snippets from the news

• Sarah Palin sought millions in earmarks to study seal DNA. • Peak oil could help solve climate change, says study. • World Bank yanks corruption-tainted pipeline funding from Chad. • New book considers the ethical complexities of saving the environment. • Israeli contractors may have to plant a tree when they cut one down.

Snippets from the news

• Deaths at oil and gas fields rise at an alarming rate. • Almanac prognosticators consider how to deal with climate change. • Santa Barbara city council says no to offshore drilling. • Berkeley tree-sitters descend. • Old-growth forests do their part to fight global warming. • Alberta oil spill kills hundreds of birds. • […]

Nearly 40 percent of North American freshwater fish species in jeopardy

Over 700 freshwater fish species in North America, nearly 40 percent of the total, are considered vulnerable to extinction or worse, according to a new study led by the U.S. Geological Survey. The study, published in the journal Fisheries, is the most comprehensive assessment of North American freshwater fish species since 1989, but the results […]

Snippets from the news

• $100 billion federal investment could create 2 million green jobs. • Nearly 40 percent of freshwater fish species in North America are imperiled. • Delaware leads race for offshore wind. • New York may limit natural-gas drilling. • Kentucky environmental-justice activist wins Heinz Award for the Environment.