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The price is right

I suppose it was bound to happen sometime: the Olympia, Washington Olympian is reporting that biodiesel is now cheaper than regular diesel.

Until now, biodiesel consumers have had to pay a premium at the pump; making highway fuel from vegetable oil was more costly than pumping it out of the ground. But thanks to rapidly rising crude prices, that's no longer true.

Against hope

Derrick Jensen weighs in on the ongoing proper-level-of-hope debate with a bold anti-hope argument.

Free as a jailbird

When I spoke to Jeff Luers by phone from Oregon State Prison, our wide-ranging talk covered more than just his political views. Having never spent time in prison -- and hoping never to do so -- I was curious about what his day-to-day life is like there.

Here's part of that discussion ...

Kempthorne’s contributors

The confirmation hearings of Bush Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne start today. To get yourself in the mood, check out this story in the Idaho Statesman. It takes a look at where Kempthorne's gotten the bulk of his contributions over his career -- nothing that will surprise you -- but does so in a more measured and sophisticated way than most articles of this nature.

Can You Fear Me Now?

Scientists plot to warn future generations about dangers of nuclear site A thousand or so years from now, a huge underground salt mine in Carlsbad, N.M., will collapse and bury the tons of radioactive, plutonium-covered detritus from nuclear-weapons production that are stored within. But the plutonium will be exceedingly toxic for another 249,000 years. How […]

A Patch Made in Heaven

Ozone layer is recovering, a little Remember the ozone layer? It’s doing better, thanks for asking. A report in Nature indicates that our layer of protection from the sun’s ultraviolet rays has stabilized or increased slightly in the past decade. Thanks to human use of ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in aerosols and refrigerants, scientists found in […]

Andes Are Dandy

Grist continues to hype Great Peru Giveaway So you’ve been reading about Brangelina’s impending Namibian nativity, and you’re thinking you wouldn’t mind heading south of the equator yourself — but without all the labor pains and paparazzi? Boy, are you in luck! Grist is giving away an eco-trip for two to Peru, and you could […]

It’s Like We Peed in the Entire World’s Snow

Pesticide traces found in snow on high mountains in national parks Snowfall in high-elevation parks in the Western U.S. is not, um, pure as the driven snow. A recent study found traces of agricultural pesticides in the snowfall at six national parks studied: Sequoia (California), Mount Rainier (Washington), Rocky Mountain (Colorado), Glacier (Montana), Denali (Alaska), […]

The period of consequences

Uh-oh.

Climate scientists have documented a pronounced slowdown in the Pacific Ocean atmospheric system that drives the trade winds, a prediction of global warming theory that appears to be coming true.

You -- or Jonah Goldberg -- might say: Trade winds? Who uses trade winds anymore? I get groceries by truck, not square rigger. The scientists continue:

They focused on the giant system known as the "Walker circulation," named in honor of Sir Gilbert Walker, the late British scientist who was one of the first to trace connections among widely scattered weather events. The system is a kind of heat engine that drives half the world's climate.

When you read things like this, remember that there is a relatively small group of people who took money to ensure that our federal government not only ignores the threat, but undercuts those working toward effective remedies.

A dispatch from China’s Jiuzhaigou National Nature Reserve

Eric Wagner is a graduate student in biology at the University of Washington. He reports from China, where a group of students and faculty from UW and Sichuan University is working to help create a management plan for a popular national park. Saturday, 22 Apr 2006 On the road, Sichuan Province, China “It’s weird,” Yuh-Chi […]