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Tea Party: Don't build public transit, because the terrorists might attack it

Apparently public transit is now helping the terrorists win. That's according to a Tea Party group in Georgia, at least. The group wants to 86 a light rail project because "when they [THE TERRORISTS!!] blow up a rail, that just brings the system to a grinding halt." So we should not build rail in the first place, because in the event of terrorism it would cease to work. Makes sense!

To be fair, the dude who said that also seemed to be ok with a bus system, because in his words "if the terrorist blow up a single bus, we can work around that." 

 

You want a war on cars? Fine, here's your war on cars

The Stranger, Seattle's alt-weekly, has had it with the nasty attacks from car-loving, carbon-spewing, anti-bike crazies. The city's bike advocates have been accused of waging a "war on cars," and after too many hours trying to defend itself, the Stranger got angry:

For cars we have paved our forests, spanned our lakes, and burrowed under our cities. Yet drivers throw tantrums at the painting of a mere bicycle lane on the street. ... No more! We demand that car drivers pay their own way, bearing the full cost of the automobile-petroleum-industrial complex that has depleted our environment, strangled our cities, and drawn our nation into foreign wars. Reinstate the progressive motor vehicle excise tax, hike the gas tax, and toll every freeway, bridge, and neighborhood street until the true cost of driving lies as heavy and noxious as our smog-laden air.

Other demands: mass transit should serve the masses, and walking and biking should be safe. Maybe it is war.

Hey, we found a new dolphin species!

We all know the Earth still has more and stranger species than we've discovered, or at least it will until we clear-cut and climate-bomb them right into extinction. But you usually figure these fragile exotic lifeforms are hanging out in caves under Madagascar, or somewhere else that's tough to get to. Turns out, though, that at least some of them have been chiling near Melbourne, Australia, where researchers have discovered a new species of dolphin just basically right under their noses. 

Critical List: Climate change kills jobs; making a bridge out of live trees

Climate change kills jobs: A new study says California's economy could take a hit in the hundreds of millions of dollars as climate change takes it toll. So really, any program that fights climate change should be considered a job-saving program.

Job creation may be a different story. Loan guarantees for green energy projects aren't creating as many jobs as the Obama administration promised.

Green groups in Texas are growing, which means staffing up. (Now green is good for jobs again!)

How is Obama's overall record on the environment?

Is Obama's record on climate change and air pollution better than Bush's? How is it relative to the ideal, and relative to what seems politically realistic? Good questions ...

Cheap date: Take Slow Food’s $5 challenge

Slow Food USA's $5 Challenge invites you to gather friends and family for a sustainable meal this Saturday that costs no more than $5 per person.

Can bikes bring back the neighborhood bookstore?

Cars and the rise of big-box behemoths killed independent bookstores, but bicycling could help bring them back.

Solyndra is the next 'Climategate'

Conservatives are trying to use the bankruptcy of solar firm Solyndra to tar the whole renewables industry and all efforts by government to support it.

Fossil-fueled Republicans grandstand against Solyndra, solar energy

At a hearing in Congress today, GOP representatives used Solyndra's collapse to declare that government investment in clean energy is a bad idea.

Josh Fox scores an Emmy for fracking documentary 'Gasland'

Josh Fox's film Gasland, which exposes the dirty underbelly of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, lost out on an Oscar, but won an Emmy.