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Scientists urge investment in deeper understanding of the deep

Things we know about the world’s oceans: They’re big. They’re watery. They’re in bad shape. And that’s about it. To that end, the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans is urging the 72-nation Group on Earth Observations, which meets this week, to invest $2 billion to $3 billion over the next decade in a […]

Australia elects prime minister who wants to ratify Kyoto Protocol, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Add-Ministering First Aid Good on Gordon Plying Chicken It’s Still Dammed If They Do, And Damned If They Don’t Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Oh, You Shouldn’t Have Fry, Fry Again Java Script

Mexico boosts funding for butterfly protection

Millions of butterflies clapped their tiny wings as Mexican President Felipe Calderon yesterday announced a plan to curb logging and protect habitat for migrating monarchs. Mexico has already boosted anti-logging efforts, resulting in a 48 percent drop in illegal tree-chopping in the last year. Calderon hopes the additional funding to be put toward the existing […]

China announces vague plans to mitigate environmental impacts of Three Gorges Dam

Attempting to curb fresh criticism of the country’s massive Three Gorges Dam spurred by a landslide that killed over 30 people, China announced a set of vague initiatives to improve the environmental problems caused by the world’s largest dam. While no one has directly tied the landslide that killed a construction worker and a bus […]

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, Gristians! As someone who spends a great deal of time on the internet, I’m all too aware that most of what passes for dialogue on the web consists of slogans and nostrums, hurled back and forth with maximum vitriol. Virtually everyone I know who maintains a website has the same lament: the intelligent […]

Thanksgiving Day game will be carbon neutral

Plan to watch a little football tomorrow? Like, um, all day long? Well, be sure to tune in to watch the Lions play the Packers in the first carbon-neutral football game evah.

Congo nature preserve set up to protect bonobos

A swath of Congo rainforest larger than the state of Massachusetts will be designated as a nature reserve in a collaborative effort between American and Congolese environmental groups and agencies. Advocates hope the reserve will be a significant step toward protecting the endangered bonobo, one of humans’ closest ape relations. Bonobos, which live only in […]

Midwestern governors sign greenhouse-gas reduction pact, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Breaking News: Climate Changing Is It Hump Day Already? We Love It When This Happens! The Consent of the Governors Don’t Cry Over Labeled Milk Stakes on a Plane Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Thanks for the Recipes Bough Wow […]

From Condoms to ‘Cakes

Unfit to be tied Jimmy hats are one thing, but jimmy hair ties? Gross. It’s enough to make us want to pull our hair out — then take some ‘shrooms and clean up a beach. Oodles of fun Drawing a blank on how to bring your cartoons to life? Use your noodle to create a […]

A review of The Host

What is an environmental movie? Is it a movie that uses the beauty of wilderness to make us fall in love with the earth, as for example Into the Wild, or Brokeback Mountain? Is it a movie that explicitly tackles an environmental issue, such as Erin Brockovich, or The China Syndrome?

Or is it a picture that exploits the power of raw film to open up an environmental theme -- such as the risk of radiation -- with sheer imagination, such as (the original) Godzilla?

It's a rhetorical question, but one with an inescapable answer: all of the above count as environmental movies, each in its own way, some better than others. And if this is true, as it surely is, than the best environmental movie of the year may turn out to be an unlikely candidate: the mesmerizing -- and funny -- Korean movie released internationally this year, The Host.

Though essentially a cheesy horror movie, it's phenomenally well-directed, and to date has been the best-reviewed foreign film of the year.