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Response to the population doomsayers and Robert Walker

Thanks for all of the responses over the past two days to my queries about proposed solutions to the population problem and the "optimum" global population. So here are some observations followed by my response to the questions Robert Walker posed in his piece claiming that population is still a major issue.

Long Island town threatens to sue Fannie & Freddie over clean-energy program

Here’s the latest in the dispute with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), a finance tool that helps homeowners cut energy waste: Babylon, N.Y., Supervisor Steve Bellone tells Fannie and Freddie to stop hating on his town’s clean-energy program at a rally with local building workers and homeowners.Courtesy Town of […]

ScamWow! Greenpeace has the perfect solution for scrubbing BP’s oily image

Mocking the scam that is the BP cleanup, Greenpeace today released the “ScamWow!” infomercial targeting BP and other oil companies who need a quick solution whenever pesky ecological devastation results from their irresponsible, risky drilling practices. Spoofing the original late night cable sensation, the ScamWow! info-mock-cial demonstrates how the simple budget picker-upper’s cleaning powers can […]

Ads aim to humanize climate scientists, but are they doing enough to make themselves more lovable?

Do the new ads from the Union of Concerned Scientists make climate scientists more huggable? Climate scientists smeared in the “Climategate” spectacle have been cleared of wrongdoing in one investigation after another — but they’ve still got a lingering image problem. The play’s the thing: With a new ad campaign, the Union of Concerned Scientists […]

Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Isn’t the ocean an all-you-can-eat buffet?

Dearest readers, What did you think of Sylvia Earle’s The World Is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One? I must say, it left me awed and inspired. They don’t call Earle “‘Her Deepness” for nothing. The book has such depth and range — from how whales play to the perils of ocean […]

Kick your industrial-beef consumption up a notch with Emeril!

Emeril Lagasse, industrial beef’s new best friend(Red Marble Steaks)Far be it for me to lament the state of food television. Don’t get me wrong — watching a man lurch about a stage kitchen, bellowing canned slogans (“Bam!”), and pandering to the studio audience, destroys my appetite. But people receive pop culture in multiple and unpredictable […]

Cleaning up Gulf oil, one f-bomb at a time

Two guys are “mad as f–k” about all the sh*t Big Oil has undammed in the Gulf of Mexico, and they’re hoping the rest of the internet is too. Nate Guidas and Luke Montgomery are the organic-eating, vegan minds behind the dirty-mouthed campaign to Unf–k the Gulf. They’ve created a t-shirt to raise funds for […]

Solar projects continue to shine despite dark economic times

Three years into a decade-long project to install 3,000 megawatts of photovoltaic arrays, California is almost halfway to its goal.Photo: Flickr via Jason Levine DesignAs the Great Recession drags on in California — unemployment rate: 12.4 percent, state government in a state of collapse — the solar boom continues. The Golden State’s decade-long program to […]

Of course population is still a problem

There are already 6.8 billion of us …Photo courtesy James Cridland via FlickrFred Pearce keeps on saying that population growth is no longer a problem. He said it again yesterday as part of his World Population Day message. In Fred’s view, it’s very simple. Fertility rates have come down sharply over the past half century. […]

Washington Post asks why Gulf spill isn’t leading to green progress

The Washington Post brings the serious gloom and doom today with a front-page story: “Historic oil spill fails to produce gains for U.S. environmentalists.” It’s making the rounds among green groups and climate activists. Lead environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin and David A. Fahrenthold write: This year, the worst oil spill in U.S. history — and, […]