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Me, at Discover Brilliant

From Mon. – Wed. next week, I’m going to the Discover Brilliant conference in Seattle. It will be attended by a who’s-who of smart folks working to green the utility, transportation, and technology worlds. Green geek heaven! Here’s a list of speakers. Anybody in particular you Gristies want me to chat with?

U.S. EPA falls short of fiscal-year goals for Superfund cleanup

The U.S. EPA had aimed to clean up 40 Superfund sites in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, but only got around to 24 of them. The Bush administration will now average 39 finished cleanups a year; just for comparison’s sake, the Clinton administration gussied up an average of 76 sites annually. More than […]

This week in ocean news

• the U.S. Geological Survey announced that the polar bear population could plummet to one-third of its current level by mid-century because Arctic ice is receding faster than predicted ...

• a new 350-foot super-ferry designed to go 40 mph between Hawaiian islands concerned scientists, who thought it would collide with whales and dolphins despite new cetacean-avoiding technology ...

• new DNA studies suggested that the historic population levels of Pacific gray whales far exceeded the 22,000 estimated, with researchers putting the number closer to 100,000 ...

• a six-week survey of the Yangtze River failed to turn up a single baiji, one of few dolphins species to adapt to a freshwater habitat. A survey in the 1990s turned up 13 of the dolphins ...

• an Alaskan man taped himself provoking a monk seal and her pup while vacationing in Hawaii. After he posted the video to MySpace, the man found himself under federal investigation and could receive a $25,000 fine ...

• a lake in Alaska boiled violently with methane ...

A chat with actor Morgan Freeman

It’s 6 p.m. and I’m sitting by the phone in a midtown Manhattan cubicle, waiting for Morgan Freeman to finish a round of golf in Chicago. Freeman is in the Windy City at the invitation of BMW, playing in the car company’s golf tournament and talking sustainability and hydrogen technology with Tom Purves, chair and […]

Environmental protection trending negative, says report

The Worldwatch Institute yesterday released its “Vital Signs 2007-2008” report, which generally concluded that the earth is flatlining. Only six of 44 studied environmental trends were declared to be positive (such as the growth of wind power), while 28 were “pronouncedly bad.” Among the bad: meat production hit a record 304 million tons, or 95 […]

EPA says oil spill in Brooklyn, N.Y., may be larger than originally thought

A giant oil spill that’s been languishing underground in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Greenpoint neighborhood since at least the 1950s might not be as big as first thought — it’s likely even bigger! Initial estimates pegged the spill, which came from a number of petroleum facilities in the 1950s, at 17 million gallons, but a new U.S. […]

Air pollution makes hail bigger

Caution: air pollution causes big ol’ hail.

Top 10 most polluted places on earth tallied by Blacksmith Institute

China, India, and Russia are each home to two of the most polluted places on earth, with sites in Azerbaijan, Peru, Ukraine, and Zambia rounding out the top 10, says the second annual tally by the nonprofit Blacksmith Institute. Some 12 million people total live in the affected areas, which are tainted largely by chemical-weapons […]

Cutting edge investment philanthropy from the search engine’s .org arm

Joel Makower brings news of an interesting and innovative initiative (an III, if you will) from Google.org, the search company’s non-nonprofit philanthropy arm. They’re sending out an open call asking inventors and entrepreneurs to pitch them on products and services that would speed the commercialization of plug-in hybrids. There’s $10 million in investment capital waiting […]

Tell us what to call our new news section

Our sharp-eyed readers will have noticed changes in Grist’s news section. Used to be, we had the Daily Grist: five (or so) news blurbs, sent out via email and published in the eponymous section of the site. Only five blurbs? you ask incredulously. Published once a day? That’s not very internety! We know. Thus the […]