Latest Articles

On World Oceans Day, consider the jellyfishburger and fries

Photo: Christopher ChanAround the world, fishermen and swimmers are running into a problem: jellyfish. The slick, stinging blobs are showing up in increasing numbers, earlier in the year, and in more places than ever before. Is there a reason for the jellyfish invasion? Unfortunately, yes—and like most reasons for ocean decline, it relates to how […]

‘Sea Change’ documentary highlights threat of ocean acidification

Sven Huseby and his grandson Elias during production of the film A Sea Change.Photo: Daniel de La Calle   If you’ve ever doubted the power of the printed word, strike up a conversation with one Sven Huseby, whose entire life was changed by one article in the New Yorker. The retired history teacher found himself […]

Ask Umbra on license plates

Q. Dear Umbra, Today I obtained a Wisconsin driver’s license and plates, after nearly a year of denying my residency in America’s Dairyland due to my pride in my home state (which has produced gems such as Rod Blagojevich, and his hair). But instead of accepting my olive branch, the DMV issued me license plates […]

Industry defends federal loophole for drilling before packed Congressional hearing

Abrahm Lustgarten / ProPublica ProPublica’s Abrahm Lustgarten reports: In a packed and sometimes contentious hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday, representatives of the oil and gas industry and their state regulators vigorously defended the practice of injecting toxic fluids underground without federal regulatory oversight. The House Energy and Minerals subcommittee called the hearing to explore the […]

Philly’s universal school lunch program lives on — for now

Sometimes sanity prevails. Philly’s Universal Feeding school lunch program–whose announced cancellation caused an uproar the other week–just got a reprieve, at least until 2010. The Philly Inquirer has the story: The U.S. Department of Agriculture has decided not to discontinue a Philadelphia school breakfast and lunch program that provides free meals to poor students, members […]

Renewables industry protests weak RES proposals in Congress

In January, Barack Obama stopped by the Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Co. in Bedford Heights, Ohio, to promote his economic-stimulus plan. The company, which has manufactured parts for bridges and machinery since 1968, began three years ago to make giant nuts and bolts to hold together wind turbines. During his visit, Obama cited the factory […]

Snap, son! Baseballer Ryan Howard gets White House garden tour

Here’s some good stuff, via Obama Foodorama: While a camera rolls, White House chef/gardener Sam Kass shows baseball star Ryan Howard around the White House garden. They have some great dialogue, climaxing with Howard’s reaction to the garden beehive: “Oh snap, son!” Kass hips Howard to the genius of composting–food scraps go from the White […]

Obama on climate action: “Tough decisions and… concrete actions”

President Obama was asked a question today on global warming at his press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel: Q:  And another political issue, if I may. Madam Chancellor, climate change. Germany, Europe are putting concrete targets on the agenda, concrete reduction targets. Will America in the post-Kyoto process be willing to commit itself to […]

94-year-old former U.S. Representative calls for end to mountaintop removal

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963 Last month, as protestors from around the country converged in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia to protest Massey Energy’s reckless mountaintop removal blasting operations within a short distance of a 7-billion gallon coal sludge impoundment, […]

Climate-news poem: plagiarism edition!

Each time I set out to pen one of my climate-news poems, I try really hard not to make it bouncy and rhyming. But terrible bouncy rhymes seem to flow in my veins. It’s a curse, to write such verse! So this week I promised myself I’d experiment with blank verse — and hey, why […]