Latest Articles
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Watch a climate satellite get launched
NASA's new weather satellite — which in typical NASA acronym-happy fashion, is called the NPP, standing for NPOESS Preparatory Project, standing for National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System — is a state-of-the-art way to measure climate impacts. The satellite will monitor ozone levels, temperatures, vegetation cover, ice cover, air pollution, and other effects of climate change, […]
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Snowstorm took it to the trees
Up and down the East Coast, millions of people are without power after the weekend's snowstorm. But the most severe damage the storm wreaked was on trees. Snow is particularly harsh on trees that still have green leaves on them: It's as if a person were caught out in a snow storm wearing a light […]
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Critical List: 7 billionth baby born; OWS to use green generators
The world's 7 billionth baby has been born in the Philippines. (How do U.N. arbiters know she's the seven billionth? They don't: it’s just symbolic.) It snowed on the East Coast, and "virtually every site north of Maryland to Maine … recorded their greatest October snowfall on record." An energy storage company that received a […]
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Ask Umbra: Can toxic pollutants escape from my body fat?
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, If I ever manage to lose these rolls and handles, will the toxic stuff I’m storing in my fat be released? Will I get sick in the process? Theodora S.Angel Fire, N.M. A. Dearest Theodora, Yours was the closest I could find to a Halloween question this […]
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Don’t let Solyndra fool you: Solar PV is on fire
This post was written by J. Matthew Roney, research associate for the Earth Policy Institute. Additional resources at www.earth-policy.org. Solar photovoltaic (PV) companies manufactured a record 24,000 megawatts (MW) of PV cells worldwide in 2010, more than doubling their 2009 output. Annual PV production has grown nearly 100-fold since 2000, when just 277 MW of […]
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Occupy Wall Street plans green Sunday
Got purpose?Photo: Jennifer PredigerIf you’ve been wondering whether, and how, the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) protests relate to the environment, events planned for Sunday may offer some answers. As part of a Climate Justice Day event at New York City’s Zuccotti Park, OWS’s environmental working group is organizing activities, panels and teach-ins on topics ranging […]
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San Diego residents push for new urban agriculture rules
The right to keep dwarf or miniature goats in your backyard is just one of the changes being promised in San Diego’s new urban agriculture ordinance.Photo: robotikaSan Diego resident Adam Hiner is hoping to get his chickens back. Adam and his sister were keeping hens too close to their house (breaking the city’s law that […]
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Why ‘market-based’ is poor criteria for solar policy
The energy market isn’t as free as we’d like to believe.Photo: USDAThis post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. When it comes to solar policy in the U.S., there are three flavors: tax or cash incentives, long-term CLEAN Contracts, and solar renewable energy credit […]
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Climate change is our biggest challenge, says McKibben — but we need to keep working on population
Photo: TakverIn the late ’90s, environmental activist and author Bill McKibben wrote a book about his and his wife’s decision to have only one child, connecting their personal choice to global issues of population growth and sustainability. These days, McKibben is intently focused on fighting climate change, kick-starting a clean energy revolution, and, as a […]
