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Big-money investors urge global climate deal

In a letter timed to kick policymakers in the pants before an upcoming United Nations climate summit, more than 130 investors holding more than $6 trillion in assets urged world leaders to rassle up a binding agreement to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions 50 to 80 percent by 2050. “The climate crisis is a multi-generational challenge […]

Don Tyson details plans to export the U.S. meat model to global south

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat and livestock industries. —– A handful of large companies [PDF] dominate the U.S. meat industry. The biggest of all (besides Cargill whose interests extend well beyond meat) is Tyson Foods, one of the two largest beef packers, the second-largest pork packer, and the […]

Al Gore discusses energy and Obama

Here’s a Current video interview with Al Gore, with questions selected via Digg, in which he discusses — among other things — “clean coal,” Obama’s energy plan, and whether he’d accept top slot at EPA: (thanks LL!)

Florida scales down U.S. Sugar buyout in Everglades

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) is set to announce Tuesday that his state is modifying a deal struck this summer to buy out a massive sugar company in the Everglades and turn the company’s land back into wetlands. The retooled deal will likely cost the state about $400 million less than the original plan and […]

Hawaii switches to digital TV early to help endangered petrel

Hawaii’s television broadcast signals are going digital a month earlier than the rest of the country in an attempt to avoid disturbing the endangered petrel‘s nesting season with the destruction of the old transmission towers, which are near the birds’ nesting sites.

Fossil-fuel power plants in U.S. to test using some solar energy

A utility group in the United States said it plans to test coupling solar thermal power with natural-gas and coal-fired power plants in an apparent bid to reduce fuel costs and greenhouse-gas emissions.

Monsanto purchased a Brazilian sugarcane ethanol company for $290 million

At a time when many people were questioning causes of the recent food crisis, many more were investigating how our food systems can move forward to sustainably feed the increasing world population. Recently, the U.N. Task Force on Trade, Environment and Development released a report touting the noteworthy yields and economic benefits of organic agriculture […]

Placemaking in the Cabinet

Excellent news: “White House to Establish Office of Urban Policy.”

Nick Kristoff praises Obama’s ability to ‘exult in complexity’

Nicholas Kristof’s terrific Sunday NYT column, “Obama and the war on brains,” opens: Barack Obama’s election is a milestone in more than his pigmentation. The second most remarkable thing about his election is that American voters have just picked a president who is an open, out-of-the-closet, practicing intellectual. Maybe, just maybe, the result will be […]

UPS to deliver by b-i-k-e?

The president of the Salem (Ore.) Bicycle Club got an e-mail from someone purportedly at UPS looking to hire seasonal drivers to make deliveries by bike — and thus to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Wowie! If this is for real, it means that all those with admiring eyes for the buff men and women in brown […]