Uncategorized
All Stories
-
Almost extinct in the ’70s, black-footed ferrets celebrate 25 years since their rediscovery
We get all sorts of interesting press releases here. Some informative, some less-informative, others amusing and random. According to this one, today marks the 25th anniversary of the rediscovery of the black-footed ferret. It came with a complete history of the ferret, as well as charts, graphs, and contact information for prominent ferret experts.
The black-footed ferret, which is the only species of ferret native to the United States, was believed to be extinct back in 1979, after the last known ferret died in captivity. But on September 26, 1981, a fortuitous run-in with a ranch dog led investigators to the last remaining ferret colony in the United States.
-
Seriously
Okay, he's talking about Iraq, but the lesson holds for climate change, as well as all the sundry environmental crises we face:
-
Tour calls attention to low-income communities of color facing environmental challenges
This week, environmental justice activists are travelling the country with the Environmental Justice For All Tour to call national attention to sites of ecological and public-health concern in the nation's poorest communities.
Stops include both major metropolitan and rural areas, most of which are communities of color and low-income communities disproportionately affected by toxic contamination in their air, water, and soil.
In San Jose, Calif., employees toil in carcinogen-laden factories. In Dickson, Tenn., waste from a nearby landfill seeps into a community's wells. And in Syracuse, N.Y., a woman stands up to a city government that would evict her in order build a sewage treatment facility.
The tour allows these folks to tell their stories, many of which are absent from the conversation of the mainstream environmental movement.
The tour is the result of the efforts of more than 70 environmental-justice groups around the nation. It includes three tour groups -- in the northeast, south, and west -- and is intended to provide social and political forums for citizens to tell their stories. Monday, Oct. 2, is meant to be a lobbying day in Washington, D.C., where the participants speak to representatives about what they have witnessed on the tour.
-
PopSci announces this year’s top young scientists
PopSci has this month announced its fifth annual Brilliant 10 awardees. These are young scientists (average age: 34) just beginning to be noticed outside their respective fields and "changing not just what we know but the limits of what we think it's possible to know." PopSci explains the meaning of the Brilliant 10 honor:
By "brilliant," we don't mean smart. Or at least not just smart. Brilliance is marked by insight, creativity and tenacity. It's the confidence to eschew established wisdom in order to develop your own. It's the foolishness needed to set out for the edge of understanding and sail right past it, ignoring the signs reading "Thar be monsters" (not to mention "Turn back lest ye never be awarded a decent research grant again").
The work of the 10 winners ranges from the biomechanics of worm movement to birdsong "language" translation. And two of the 10 are working on eco-related projects.
-
Yet another story on Wal-Mart
As you know, I'm required by law to point out each and every story on the greening of Wal-Mart, if for no other reason than to find a way to plug my own op-ed on the subject. So with that in mind, don't miss USA Today's longish piece on every green's favorite source of cognitive dissonance.
-
-
Hummer Bummer
Correction: Schwarzenegger didn’t really sell off his Hummers News reports published last week and cited here in Daily Grist claimed that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) had, in a fit of green consciousness, sold his fleet of Hummers. Turns out that was poppycock. A media representative in the Governator’s office said Monday that Schwarzenegger still […]
-
An Accident Waiting to Aspen
Aspens are dying mysteriously in the Western U.S. Aspens, the most widely distributed trees in North America, are rapidly dying in some Western states — and no one knows why. The culprit may be insects, or climatic stress, or overgrazing. Or all of those. Or none of them. It may be a lack of recent […]
-
Bird Mentality
New sightings of ivory-billed woodpecker in Florida Bird researchers have spotted ivory-billed woodpeckers 14 times in the past 18 months in a remote area of the Florida panhandle — on some occasions, two at the same time — according to a report in the Canadian online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology. The team of scientists […]
