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Ben & Jerry’s names ice cream in honor of Colbert

Vermonty ice-cream makers Ben & Jerry’s announced yesterday their newest flavor, "Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream." The vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel is like "the sweet taste of liberty in your mouth," reps said at the unveiling. In honor of the new flavor, the Ben & Jerry’s website has a truth-themed […]

We need this

Rep. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) just introduced a federal renewable portfolio standard bill. HR 969 would mandate 20 percent renewable energy by 2020. We need this. You can cap and trade all you want, but that won't necessarily develop a market for renewables. This will. And we will not be effective against global warming without a transition to renewable energy. Full stop.

Our good friends at UCS have made taking action easy, here.

White House has new tools to interfere with regulation

Our friends in the Bush administration recently amended a key executive order to tighten the executive's grip on federal agencies that enforce health, safety, and environmental protections. Who could be surprised? The NewStandard reports:

Fun with analogies

RealClimate has an unusually accessible and non-technical article explaining the difference between our knowledge of the contemporary climate (CSI) and our knowledge of paleoclimate (Cold Case). Well worth a read.

Farm Bill to gut wildlife provisions?

The USDA released a set of 2007 farm bill recommendations last week, and it's kinda ugly. Every five years, the bill is reauthorized, and it's important that greens pay attention. Aside from the glaring question of why the U.S. subsidizes its food chain with $20 billion a year that largely determines which crops are grown, the news is that it proposes (PDF) to eliminate the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) and the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP) by rolling them into larger programs that will likely suck the funds up without effecting good policy. These programs are key farm bill conservation programs that provide farmers and ranchers money to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat.

Farms and wildlife can and must coexist. Oodles of proof now on display courtesy of superb grassroots group Wild Farm Alliance.

Surely you jest

This piece in The Boston Globe is packed with hilarity, mostly of the unintended variety. It’s about how the debate over global warming is shifting, and by "shifting" we’re talking about the public finally coming to accept what the vast majority of climate scientists have known for decades: the climate is warming. Maybe I’ve been […]

From the hills of West Virginia

My good friend Peter Slavin just published the most up-to-date article on mountaintop-removal mining out there.

Here's some information on developing MTR stories:

The Appalachian Coal Field Delegation will be attending the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Conference for the second time this year. The conference runs from April 30-May 11, but Bo Webb learned from experience last year that corporate execs and the bigwigs that matter usually only attend the last week, so this year he and the other delegates will, too. They want to go beyond linking to NGOs with similar interests and goals to form a common language with which to (hopefully) influence U.N. policy. To bring attention to their efforts, the Coal Field Delegation, along with friends and supporters, will host an event in New York. Should attract some pretty big names from what I hear.

A candidate for president of France is quite Obamish

As you may or may not know, France is holding presidential elections this year. The two frontrunners are Nicolas Sarkozy (Chirac’s heir, from the right-wing UMP party) and Ségolène Royal, a rising star in the Socialist Party who surprised everyone by elbowing ahead of several more senior party members in the polls. She’s held a […]

Get Out of Jail Fee

Dutch company pays nearly $200 million to help resolve Ivory Coast mess Six months after toxic sludge was pumped from a ship and dumped in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, leading to 10 deaths and thousands of poisonings, the company responsible will pay the country nearly $200 million. Oops, did we say responsible? Trafigura, the Dutch-based company […]

Salon dishes out Grist-like advice

Roz pointed me to this advice column on dishwashing from Salon. In typical hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing style, an eco-aware woman writes a (long, long) letter asking whether it’s OK to buy non-green detergent that gets her dishes cleaner. Cavalier columnist Cary Tennis writes a (long, long) response saying: use whatever the hell you want. Then go […]