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Mercury Retrograde

U.S. DOE backs off plan to sell neurotoxin to rest of world Caving in to critics and maybe, just maybe, its own conscience, the U.S. Department of Energy has decided against selling off nearly 1,300 tons of mercury left from pre-1960s weapons production. Though the neurotoxin brings a quick buck on the world market — […]

Next year’s prize, a flex-fuel Hummer?

The Kansas Lottery has launched a "Truck & Bucks" scratch-card game, the second-chance prize for which is the flex-fuel version of the 2007 GMC Sierra Crew Cab Pickup. Flex-fuel vehicles can burn ethanol-gasoline blends containing up to 85% ethanol (normally abbreviated as E85). The game was developed by the Lottery, in partnership with the 3i Show and the GMC Division of General Motors.

Ted Danson, Leo DiCaprio fight for oceans

New England fishermen, frustrated by how hard it is to catch a boatful off the once-abundant New England coast, are pointing fingers at those clearly responsible for dwindling fish populations: A-list celebrities. According to one source quoted in the article published Monday in South Coast Today, "I don't think they're [that's the celebrities] cognizant of the harm that they're actually causing." Hollywood's got some nerve.

The article focuses on my group, Oceana, as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), citing our opposition to provisions Rep. Frank proposed as part of the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) that would weaken the government's ability to rebuild threatened fish populations. The new MSA, which passed a few weeks ago, enables local administrators to set more scientifically appropriate catch limits and targets to start rebuilding the long list of collapsed or nearly collapsed fish species in New England and around the country.

No

As international attention focuses on Iran, everyone’s shared assumption is that it’s a huge and rising danger, thanks to [cue ominous music] the power of oil. And indeed, with so much oil, why would it need to build nuclear power plants? Clearly those are for weapons. Fear Iran! Nay, invade it, quick, before it eats […]

The film will explore the conflicts between the fishing industry and the environment

Ahoy mateys, and a happy new year to ye. I celebrated me holidays with some good booty — givin’ and receivin’ — and some pirate-style parrrtying. Here’s hopin’ ye did the same. And now that we be recovered from our rum-induced stupor, I’ve got news of an oceans-related documentary airing on PBS tonight. Part of […]

Lesson: be careful to whom you lend your name

Forbes is engaging in some hard-hitting investigating of various companies' finances.

Their latest article considers the alleged troubled finances of Earth Biofuels, a small Dallas-based outfit trying to build a national chain of filling stations dispensing biodiesel. The company took on country-western singer Willie Nelson as a director when it licensed his name for "BioWillie®", the brand under which the biodiesel, made mainly from U.S. soybeans, is marketed.

Polar bears may be listed as threatened in U.S., and more

Read the news items highlighted in this week’s podcast: Threat Level: White Since U Been Gone Naughty and Nice Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Ed Over Heels We Got Our Kicks in 2006 Dingell Minded A Different Angle

What are you optimistic about?

Every year at the Edge Foundation World Question Center they ask a single question of a huge collection of diverse thinkers. The results are always fascinating — intellectual crack, as BBC radio has it. (I wrote a bit about last year’s question.) This year’s question is: What are you optimistic about, and why? As you’d […]

Things will fall apart

Shorter James Kunstler: Sure, things didn’t fall completely apart in 2006, but this year … this year it’s gonna happen!

The supposed ‘middle way’ is debunked

Andy Revkin produced a truly bizarre piece over the weekend: "Middle Stance Emerging in Debate Over Climate." Frankly, I’m surprised it got past the NYT’s news editors. It strikes me as a good illustration of the limits of traditional journalism, since what Revkin’s up to is not a description of a state of affairs — […]