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California to phase out lead weights on tires by end of 2009

Lead weights used to balance vehicle wheels will be phased out in California by the end of 2009, in accordance with a court settlement approved Wednesday. The settlement resolves a lawsuit filed by the Center for Environmental Health in May against Chrysler and the three biggest U.S. makers of lead wheel weights. The group says […]

Snippets from the news

• Oreos under attack for rainforest destruction. • Pacific nations plead for help. • Climate change poses threat to Himalayas. • Plan to bottle Vermont water is controversial. • Musk oxen and caribou help Arctic.

Snippets from the news

• Lease sale held in Gulf of Mexico. • First half of 2008 coolest of last five years. • Nations meet to talk climate in Ghana. • Shareholder resolutions related to climate change doubled over last five years. • Five Midwest states violated air-pollution standards. • Southwest getting less rain.

Umbra on Method cleansers

Dear Umbra, I’ve noticed lately that Method cleaning products are now being sold in a number of different retail outlets, whereas before they were only sold in Target. This shouldn’t seem too weird in our every-store-sells-the-same-thing world, but seeing these products on the shelves in Whole Foods got me wondering more about them. You see, […]

EPA knuckleheads hide info on pesticide implicated in colony collapse disorder

So there’s this insecticide called clothianidin that seems likely to be implicated in colony collapse disorder. By the EPA’s own reckoning [PDF], clothianidin “has the potential for toxic chronic exposure to honeybees, as well as other nontarget pollinators, through the translocation of clothianidin residues in nectar and pollen.” Over in Germany, the introduction of clothianidin […]

Make it stop

A note to conference organizers everywhere: it’s been documented by science that extended periods of exposure to light jazz leads to terminal dyspepsia and even brain tumors. So perhaps you should find something else to play in the lulls between speakers.

Jones brings them to their feet

Van Jones just got a standing ovation — totally spontaneous and, to me at least, totally unexpected. It’s the first sign of genuine enthusiasm I’ve seen at this conference. Speaks again to Van’s incredible charisma and the power of his message.

Snippets from the news

• Beijing air is peachy keen. • California utility snaps up wind power. • Ship pollution kills thousands each year. • Volkswagen delivers “clean diesel.” • Coal makes Arctic unhappy.

Court tosses federal rule that limited air-pollution monitoring

States can enact tougher-than-federal monitoring requirements for air pollution from factories and power plants, after a federal appeals court tossed out a U.S. EPA rule keeping them from doing so. Primary plaintiff Sierra Club celebrated the victory; defendants were the U.S. EPA and the American Petroleum Institute, which should seem like an odd pair, but […]

The First Law of Conferences

As a conference Q&A session goes on, the chances of a crotchety, long-winded, eccentric old guy standing up and asking a quasi-question that runs on for over five minutes and confuses everyone approaches one.