Latest Articles
-
UPDATE: Vote often for Climate Progress in TreeHugger’s Best of Green Awards
Click here to vote. I’m updating this post because I now see you can vote every day (!) for Climate Progress in TreeHugger’s Best of Green Awards. You’ve got a whole ‘nother week (through April 2) to vote for CP in the category of Best Political Website. Sure, you like the insider’s view of climate […]
-
“Anybody that is a global-warming denier at this point in time has got their head so deeply up
James Cameron’s eco-pic has become the top grossing film of all time (see “Post-Apocalypse Now“). And that did not endear him to the anti-science crowd. Glenn “brainless frog” Beck said Cameron “is officially running for Antichrist.” Cameron has now responded, as Brad Johnson reports in this repost: Avatar director James Cameron thinks global-warming deniers […]
-
Global cooling bites the dust: Hottest January followed by second hottest February.
Last month, NOAA reported the world experienced the warmest January in both satellite records. And NOAA just reported (here) that it was the second warmest February on record in both satellite records. Now the UAH satellite data shows record-smashing temperatures in the first half of March: The yellow line is the 20-year average temperature, the […]
-
How export-focused agriculture has failed everyone it was meant to help
A recent Washington Post article documented the stark reality of Haiti’s non-existent agricultural infrastructure: Decades of inexpensive imports –especially rice from the U.S. — punctuated with abundant aid in various crises have destroyed local agriculture and left impoverished countries such as Haiti unable to feed themselves. …Today Haiti depends on the outside world for nearly […]
-
Ask Umbra on eyewear, faux eco efforts, and Easter baskets
Send your question to Umbra! Q. Dear Umbra, I need to replace my eyewear—the lenses need updating and the frames are damaged—and I’m wondering what the most sustainable choice is. Frameless seems likely, but if I want to go with a frame (Coke bottle lenses, anyone?) then is metal the way to go? Blindly,Hope K.Providence, […]
-
More evidence that Sen. Byrd sees the writing on the wall for coal
Last Friday, the EPA took a significant step toward blocking a Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce Mine, the largest proposed mountaintop-removal coal mine in West Virginia history. It’s a big deal — see Ken Ward Jr. for more on what it means and what comes next. I just wanted to highlight the […]
-
Domesticated Dogs–Mutualists or Parasites?
Photo courtesy of Dog Tag Art via Flickr This thought exercise was motivated in part by my second reading of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (by Matt Ridley) while on a trip to Argentina. The book covers parasitism’s role in evolution. While in Argentina I noticed the stark difference between […]
-
Have Jesus’ disciples been overeating?
Leonardo da Vinci’s 1498 painting of The Last Supper.Photo: Drewwiki via Wikimedia Commons In a strange study published this week by the International Journal of Obesity, professors found that portion sizes in artistic renditions of The Last Supper increased dramatically in the past 1,000 years, the L.A. Times reports. The study, conducted by brothers Brian […]
-
Friday music blogging: She & Him, again
She & Him — the indie It band composed of musician/producer/genius M. Ward and actress Zooey Deschanel — have released a follow-up to their 2008 debut, Volume One. They’re calling it … wait for it … Volume Two. When I first FMB’d She & Him, I went on at length about my unseemly crush on […]
-
Watching the green screens at the Environmental Film Festival in D.C.
HomegrownSpring and the Environmental Film Festival both burst into full bloom at the festival’s start in the Nation’s Capital last weekend. Eco-movie buffs, many having withstood record snowfalls in Washington, D.C., this winter, eschewed the beauty of the outdoors to watch the beauty of the outdoors indoors in the form of a wellspring of eco-conscious […]