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  • Grass That’s Truly Greener

    One good thing about snow is that it makes your lawn look as nice as your neighbor’s. But with most of the snow across the nation now melted away and lawn mowers emerging from their annual hibernation beneath rusting lawn furniture and pieces of an above ground pool in the garage, there’s one sure-fire way […]

  • Virginia’s AG slammed for ‘witch hunt’ against climate scientist Michael Mann

    Ken CuccinelliVirginia’s attorney general, the climate-change-denying right-wing darling Ken Cuccinelli (R), is waging what many are calling a “witch hunt” against climate scientist Michael Mann. Cuccinelli issued a subpoena that would force the University of Virginia to turn over thousands of emails and documents Mann wrote while he taught there from 1999 to 2005.  Now […]

  • Kerry-Lieberman climate bill: The details

    Editor’s Note: Please bear in mind that this is a “first read” of a very large piece of legislation. It was researched and written within 24 hours of the bill’s publication. The Kerry-Lieberman climate bill emerged yesterday mid-morning, weighing in at 987 pages. (Hey, changing the entire energy economy ain’t easy.) Like the Waxman-Markey bill that […]

  • Exposing the Financers of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

    This post was co-written by Mark Kresowik, Corporate Accountability and Finance Representative for the Sierra Club. The idea of corporate responsibility has come up repeatedly in recent weeks following the coal mine and oil disasters. That responsibility extends beyond profits to the health and well-being of our communities. By continuing to finance mountaintop removal coal […]

  • The first law of cow dynamics

    Are mathematicians working on a grand unified theory of cow dynamics? It sure seems that way, according to a MIT Technology review post (hat-tip to Boing Boing): Today, the mathematics of animal synchrony takes a cloven-footed step forward with the unveiling of a model that describes the collective behavior of cows. Cows are well know […]

  • What’s in the air along the Louisiana coast?

    Working to clean up the Gulf oil spill Cross-posted from NRDC’s Simple Steps blog. Venice, La. – “You shoulda been out here last evening” said Carey, the shrimp boat captain who took me out to South Pass today. He saw that I was taking air samples with a hand-held monitoring device, and recounted the strong […]

  • Did Elena Kagan really flunk a food-policy litmus test?

    Former Gourmet contributing editor Barry Estabrook, now writing for The Atlantic‘s online food section, has raised concerns that President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan may be too sympathetic to biotech giant Monsanto: It’s a good thing for Elena Kagan that there’s no non-GMO litmus test for Supreme Court nominees. She’d flunk. As solicitor general, […]

  • American PRIDE – alternative to the Lieberman-Kerry Disaster

    The leading U.S. bill in tackling the climate crisis is so flawed and weak and full of concessions to major polluters that even centrist environmental groups like Greenpeace have noticed that it is worse than nothing. It fails to take advantage of the many opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in ways that strengthen our […]

  • Farmers don’t get vacation

    The old granary on our Nebraska property (Steph Larsen)Farmers know that their chosen profession is not an occupation, but a lifestyle. If you believe the Hollywood version, farming is all about waking up at sunrise, frolicking with cute lambs and chicks, and driving a tractor through a field of waving golden grain. And when the […]

  • Birth-control opponents greenwash their message

    Even opponents of birth control are “going green” these days.  The uber-right-wing American Life League, founded by Catholic activists in 1979, launched a “The Pill Kills” campaign in 2008, and this year shifted its message to “The Pill Kills the Environment.” “Study after study has shown how the chemicals from the pill discharge into our […]