Latest Articles
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BP should be like Newman’s Own
After the BP Gulf disaster is ancient history, I want that company to thrive. I want it to be vastly more profitable than ExxonMobil. It should continue exploration and drilling all over the world, including offshore. And I’m asking for just one broad change in how the company operates: BP should donate all its profits for the […]
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Just how much oil is still spurting into the Gulf?
“The immense undersea gusher of oil and gas, seen on live video feed, looks as big as it did last week, or bigger, before the company sliced through the pipe known as a riser to install its new collection device.” –From “Rate of Oil Leak, Still Not Clear, Puts Doubt on BP,” The New York […]
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CBD responds: David Roberts is right and wrong on the Clean Air Act and the Senate climate bill
When your house is burning down, you don’t debate whether grabbing a fire extinguisher is better than calling 911 or vice versa. You do both, and if you can, you drag out the garden hose too. Our global house is on fire. Congress and the president have answered the alarm by proposing a package of […]
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Ask Umbra on celebrating World Oceans Day
Some water over the rainbow … maybe there isn’t an oil spill.Photo: Sean Linehan, NOAAAhoy, mateys! Today is June 8th, and it’s one of my favorite holidays: World Oceans Day! World Oceans Day was officially declared a holiday last year by the United Nations. This year, I’m celebrating by taking a moment to consider the […]
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Readers pick their brains for ways to plug the oil leak
Crowdsourcing for solutions sometimes turns up ideas that are more creative or higher quality than the “experts” ever could think up. (Like the protein-folding game/scientific experiment, Foldit, or even urban dictionary.) Which is why we asked you, our dear readers, to plumb the depths of your brains for the slickest ideas to stop up the […]
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VIDEO: Is Gulf seafood safe to eat after oil spill?
New Orleans is world-famous for its seafood, but the Gulf Coast oil spill has left the future of the industry and those who rely on it for their livelihoods in jeopardy as fishing grounds close and diners fear for the safety of their meals. In this video, OnEarth magazine examines the impact of the Deepwater […]
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BP oil spill highlights our broken immigration system
A Health Safety and Environment (HSE) worker collects pieces of an oiled snare boom on Port Fourchon beach in Louisiana.Photo: U.S. Coast GuardFeet in 2 Worlds reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is searching for illegal immigrants among people working to clean up the BP oil disaster. ICE conducted two investigations in May at […]
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King Corn subjects Washington to ad blitz
The debate around the farm bill, and its generous support for corn production, is already heating up. Long-enshrined subsidies for ethanol production stand on the verge of being phased out. The EPA is mulling whether the nation’s auto fleet can handle more ethanol to be blended into the gasoline supply. In other words, the exalted […]
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This building is so great it doesn’t fall down
“I don’t think sustainability is a design aesthetic, any more than having electricity in your building, or telephones, or anything else … In 10 years we’re not going to talk about sustainability anymore, because it’s going to be built into the core processes of architecture.” Advertising sustainability will be like an architect getting up in […]
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Snapshots of the ‘tough oil’ era
There are vigorous debates about when we reached, or will soon reach, peak oil, the stage at which we’ve used more of the planet’s oil than we have left in supply. But it’s plenty clear that we’re deep into the age of tough oil, in which the most easily accessible oil has long since been […]
