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Also, ew

Denise Caruso, author of Intervention: Confronting the Real Risks of Genetic Engineering and Life on a Biotech Planet, has an excellent op-ed that explains the deep concerns about animal cloning. If you have doubts about this issue, or want to be better informed, this piece is a good place to start.

A nice newsweekly cover story on ethanol

Well tickle my toes and call me Elmo! If it isn’t a big story — a cover story, no less — in a major American newsweekly that resists the siren song of ethanol. Kudos to Marianne Lavelle and Bret Schulte, whose U.S. News & World Report piece systematically deconstructs the ethanol craze, from twisted economics […]

Electric bikes enhance performance

Took the rig out in the rain Saturday to run errands. The trip was mostly along the bike trail. At one point I caught up with a guy riding a nice racer, and as usual, rather than let some goofball pulling a trailer pass, he sprinted to put some distance between us, and as usual, exhausted himself trying. To add insult to injury, I was chatting on my blue tooth headphone the whole time he tried to shake me.

FY 2008 request out today

Bush’s proposed 2008 budget was released today, coming in at $2.9 trillian trillin trillion. It will surely be picked apart by plenty of people with intelligence and patience I lack. But some key parts: $4.4 billion for research programs including: Coal Research Initiative — A request of $385 million, part of a plan to spend […]

Landmark report says humans cause warming, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Now We’ve Done It The Airspeed Velocity of an Uneaten Swallow The Triple Threat Eh, You’ll Be Fine Grandchildren, Schmandchildren The Illumi-nicey Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: You’re Getting Warmer The Short-Term Solution That Stuck ESR Said Than Done Re: […]

Wow, that’s a truly terrible pun.

Sick and tired of hearing from me about lead-up to the Olympics in London and Beijing? (I know Patrick is.) Well, exciting news, sports fans — we can look ahead to environmental devastation in preparation for Olympics 2014! Leading environmental groups said on Friday Russia’s bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics would involve tearing […]

Environment is top concern for Canadians. Americans, not so much.

Cascadians on both sides of the U.S.-Canadian border share a deep connection to our temperate corner of the world. But if national polling data is any indication of regional opinion, we may not necessarily share the same views when it comes to the fate of our piece of the planet -- or even of the planet itself. Public opinion polling in the two countries shows a boundary between perceptions almost as stark as the national border drawn on a political map.

In recent polling by Gallup and Pew, Americans display little concern about the environment and global warming -- far less, as it turns out, than their Canadian counterparts.

A nice interview with the folks behind Ethicurian.com

There is a nice interview on Culinate.com with the people who created and write for Ethicurian.com.

Kevin Bacon launches SixDegrees.org

Kevin Bacon has gone über-meta. The once-ubiquitous film actor has taken the “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” trivia game — itself based on the already-meta concept that everyone (and everything?) is somehow connected — to a whole new level with a new charity-based website: www.SixDegrees.org is about using this idea to accomplish something good. It’s […]

Characteristically grim

Lordy, the news and commentary on green matters is coming so fast and heavy that I can barely link to it all, much less contribute. (For the love of God, people, stop emailing me interesting stuff!) Here’s something to chew on: James Kunstler, sick and tired of being accused of doom-mongering without offering solutions, offers […]