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That status of global warming negotiations in Germany

I’ve been participating since last Monday in the global warming negotiations in Bonn, Germany.  This is the second session of the year. There are 53 days of official negotiations before Copenhagen and Monday was day 17 (the first 10 days were held in the first session in Bonn in March — as I discussed here […]

Burning Embers design contest seeks new ways to illustrate climate change

Photo courtesy spike55151 via FlickrNow here’s a great idea: The student-driven not-for-profit Artist as Citizen has a new Burning Embers design competition, inviting student artists to find new ways to portray climate change trends, causes, and effects. The contest, open to undergraduate and graduate art students and recent graduates, invites work in any medium that […]

Should Wilderness Society strip Rahall of award?

“Something like a shadow has fallen between the past and the present, an abyss wide as war that cannot be bridged by any tangible connection, so that memory is undermined and the image of our beginnings betrayed, dissolved, rendered not mythical but illusory. We have connived in the murder of our own origins.” — Edward […]

Sierra Club, MoveOn call on House leaders to strengthen climate bill

The Sierra Club, MoveOn, and other green and progressive groups have sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) asking her to work to strengthen the American Clean Energy and Security Act when it moves to the House floor. The letter also went to Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.), the bill’s […]

Jane Lubchenco: “Ocean acidity has increased by 30%” thanks to human emissions

Global warming is a major threat to life in the oceans – and humans who depend on that life (see Ocean dead zones to expand, “remain for thousands of years”). As one recent study found: Global warming may create “dead zones” in the ocean that would be devoid of fish and seafood and endure for […]

Slideshow: The plug-ins and electric vehicles of 2009

Can’t wait until 2010 for the Chevy Volt (or Coda or Fisker Karma or Chrysler Circuit)? Check out these electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles that are either on the market now or will be by the end of 2009. In slideshow order: Aptera 2e Th!nk City Subaru Stella Toyota Prius extended-range hybrid Mitsubishi i-MiEV smart […]

A warming world means more destructive storms

Elevated global temperatures bring a number of threats, including rising seas and more crop-withering heat waves. Higher surface water temperatures in the tropical oceans also provide more energy to drive tropical storm systems, leading to more-destructive hurricanes and typhoons. The combination of rising seas, more powerful storms, and stronger storm surges can be devastating. As […]

On working with the UNFCCC and making aerial climate art

500 marshmallows organize for climate action.Robert van Waarden / Spectral QFor better or worse, ours is the age of distraction. Texting while in lectures, talking while in the car driving, iphoning while going, well, anywhere really. The possibilities for connecting beyond our immediate environment can take 25 hours of the day, and those possibilities are […]

No, Washington Times: New Brookings study finds strong climate action would NOT hurt the economy

Less than a postage stamp a day. That’s what it will cost the average American to cut US greenhouse gases 83% in four decades and give the world a chance of avoiding catastrophic global warming while jumpstarting the transition to a clean energy economy. The right wing likes to take economic analyses that don’t model […]

The return of the uranium boom?

In a small community near a broad expanse of valley floor known as the West End, there’s a certain glow in the air. It’s the glow of progress, the glow of prosperity … and the glow of the uranium miners coming home from work? The Paradox Valley in southwestern Colorado.Courtesy U.S. Geological SurveyProbably not; we […]