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Dearly Befuddled

With green weddings a growing trend, Church of England offers eco-tips Dear Mr. Potsworth, I’m writing this email to formally ask for your daughter’s hand in marriage. As you consider my request, there’s something you should know: We’re planning a green wedding. Rita and I feel, like many other couples today, that our Big Day […]

Sending Out an SOS

Protesters ask whalers for help in missing-persons search The bone-chilling waters of Antarctica are seeing heated conflict as the U.S.-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society tangles with Japanese whalers. The protesters, upset over a 1,000-whale hunt they deem illegal — but which was OK’d by the International Whaling Commission as a scientific pursuit — have dumped […]

Roger Pielke Jr. is at it again

Based on a bit of methodology that sounds like a bad joke — only he never tells us the punch line — Roger Pielke Jr. ventures the "hypothesis" that An Inconvenient Truth is "alarmist." Perhaps Republicans will call him to testify about it.

And no, global warming doesn’t change that

As far as I can tell, there are precisely three environmentalists of any note who have come to support nuclear power: James Lovelock, Stewart Brand, and Patrick Moore. It’s become something of a parlor game for journalists to mix and match those three names in an effort to claim that there’s a "growing debate" among […]

Raise a toast, you monkey

Today is the 198th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth and the 148th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species. So take some time out today to celebrate Darwin Day and the body of scientific work from him and others that makes up what we know about evolution.

If your knowledge of Darwin and his work is skimpy, consider picking up David Quammen's The Reluctant Mr. Darwin for a highly enjoyable and insightful introduction. Or if you are in the Boston area, consider visiting the excellent Darwin exhibit that will open February 18th at the Museum of Science.

And freedom of speech wins big

Dreamy Al made a surprising appearance at the Grammy Awards last night, presenting the award for Best Rock Album along with Queen Latifah (who acknowledged that most of the cheers coming from the audience were for the Oscar-nominated supa-star). Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to win Melissa Etheridge the Grammy for her Inconvenient Truth score "I […]

Gets into it

Clearly nobody slipped this guy the memo on the necessity for bipartisanship on climate change:

Bush rewrites history again

An ABC reporter asks President Bush the long-overdue question: you’ve said the “fundamental debate” is about whether global warming is natural or man-made. Scientists overwhelmingly say it’s man-made. Do you still doubt that, and if so, based on what? Bush says: “I don’t know where you got that quote from.” President Bush, March 29, 2006: […]

Watch Obama’s video

Tomorrow morning, Barack Obama will officially kick off his presidential run. Here’s a preview video:

Rub-a-dub-dub, there are toxins in my tub

In a study released today by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and written up in the L.A. Times, 18 of 18 bath products tested contained traces of 1,4-Dioxane, a suspected carcinogen. Three of the products -- Clairol Herbal Essences Rainforest Flowers Shampoo, Olay Complete Body Wash With Vitamins, and Hello Kitty Bubble Bath -- contained levels higher than those recommended by the FDA. Goodbye, Kitty.