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Yes, really

Reports out of Spain over the holidays indicate that Siberian bears aren't the only ones losing sleep this winter. In the Cantabarian mountains of northern Spain, mother bears are postponing hibernation to gather food that isn't usually available.

Hybrid cars dangerously quiet for pedestrians

Turns out that it isn't just U.S. automakers that have been put in mortal danger by hybrids (it is their fault, of course): the National Federation of the Blind said this week that those at risk include (gasp) cyclists, the blind, the elderly, and distracted pedestrians. Lay on those horns, people!

Offers boldest plan of any candidate

To call ex-Iowa governor Tom Vilsack a dark horse candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination is to underestimate the chances of dark-colored horses. But it seems to have freed him up to make some serious policy proposals. The energy plan (PDF) Vilsack unveiled on Tuesday is the ballsiest and most detailed any candidate from either […]

She says the right thing

Hillary Clinton says the two questions she’s asked most often by young people are about stopping genocide in Darfur and about stopping global warming. Here she is at a town hall meeting in New Hampshire: (via Hugg)

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 […]