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Friday music blogging: Fleet Foxes

The headline from The Stranger‘s feature story on Fleet Foxes tells the story: Fleet Foxes Are Not Hippies Don’t Let the Floppy Hats, Jesus Beards, and Five-Part Vocal Harmonies About Rivers, Trees, and Sunshine Throw You Ha. The first time I heard the band, they came up on shuffle and I thought it was the […]

Snippets from the news

• Super-acidic ocean water found near coasts. • Sunscreen threatens coral. • U.S. and Canada make deal on salmon. • Germany bans pesticides after honeybee deaths. • Disney recalls sleeping bags, magic wands over lead paint. • America’s ten most imperiled wildlife refuges. • San Francisco green-building plan said to be costly. • E.U. to […]

Snippets from the news

• Italy will embrace nuclear power, reversing a 20-year ban. • Pressure grows on Exxon from shareholders. • Amazon deforestation on the rise. • Hewlett-Packard kicks off environmental initiative. • Restaurant biz aims to go green. • Finger pointed at Bush admin officials for endangered-species meddling. • Plymouth, Mass., may ban plastic bags. • NOAA […]

House passes clean-energy tax credits, bill out of Senate committee would give Calif. waiver

Exciting things going on at the Capitol: The House has passed a bill with tax credits for renewable energy; the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee passed legislation asking President Bush to grant California the waiver it needs to regulate vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions. Get all the details in Gristmill. new in Gristmill: <a href="new in […]

Why the Everglades is burning, and how we sucked it dry

It’s hard to believe, now that it’s been overrun by 7 million residents and 7 jillion strip malls, but southern Florida was once America’s last frontier. As late as 1880, the census recorded just 257 residents in a county covering most of the region — because most of the region was a watery wilderness called […]

Snippets from the news

• Kansas lawmakers won’t try to override coal-plant veto. • Hydrogen-powered phone on the horizon. • U.S. military pushing for alternative fuels. • The Queen invests in the world’s largest wind turbine. • USDA eliminates pesticide-tracking program. • Ocean-seeding startup seeks funds. • Giant cardboard kangaroo helps climate study.

Snippets from the news

• Competing forest studies spar over CO2. • Chemical-safety bill introduced in House. • Big investors call on Congress to tackle climate change. • Fisheries Service considers Makah whaling request. • Al Gore receives yet another prize.

Evidence that White House influenced EPA to deny California waiver

The White House influenced U.S. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson to deny California the waiver it needed to regulate vehicle greenhouse-gas emissions, according to evidence presented by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. An EPA staffer swore under oath that Johnson at first “was very interested in a full grant of the waiver,” then […]

Snippets from the news

• White House influenced EPA to deny California waiver. • Huge renewable-energy co. will invest $8 billion in U.S. wind power. • Iceland resumes whaling. • Newest hurricane study: they’ll be less frequent, more intense in a warming world. • Tokyoites least eco-minded of big-city dwellers. • Kansas gov. vetoes coal bill yet again.

One in eight bird species may go extinct

One in eight bird species is threatened with extinction, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. In the latest update of the IUCN’s Red List of threatened species, 190 birds are designated “critically endangered”; eight of those were added this year. Sixteen other bird species were also moved to a higher level […]