Latest Articles

E.U. will no longer export mercury

Hold on to your thermometers: The European Union will ban exports of mercury as of March 2011. The 27-nation bloc stopped mining mercury in 2001, but its exports of the metal account for up to a quarter of global supply. The export ban will require mercury that’s no longer of service to be put into […]

Tesla’s motoring toward sustainability one sports car at a time

If you wanna talk about moving toward a greener future, surely the sexiest way to do that is in a Tesla Roadster. This car goes 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds — faster than a Ferrari — without guzzling a single drop of oil. All you need is about three hours plugged into the wall, and […]

Minsky on population

Artificial intelligence pioneer Marvin Minsky takes on the fraught subject of population in a rambling, semi-coherent TED talk: (Thanks LL!)

Via satellite, Obama talks to CGI about climate change and energy concerns

Barack Obama also addressed the crowd at the Clinton Global Initiative today, via satellite, outlining four issues he’ll address should he win the November election. The first global challenge he pledged to address is the combined challenges of energy and climate change.   “No single issue sits at the crossroads of as many currents as […]

GOP candidate discusses climate, energy, and the financial crisis

John McCain. In his final public appearance before temporarily suspending his campaign today to return to Washington to address the financial crisis, John McCain spoke to the Clinton Global Initiative, delivering the keynote for the panel entitled “Integrated Solutions: Water, Food, and Energy.” After some discussion of the financial crisis, McCain focused on energy needs […]

Swimming in chlorinated pools linked to childhood asthma, study says

Kids who swim regularly in outdoor chlorinated pools are up to five times more likely to develop asthma than youngsters who have never been in a chlorinated pool, according to a new study by Belgian researchers in the European Respiratory Journal. The same research team found a few years ago that kids who swim regularly […]

Obama says he will postpone some spending programs in light of financial bailout

Obama says he’ll have to delay some of his spending initiatives in light of the mega-bailout in the works. But not the tax cuts! He didn’t say what proposals might be delayed first … [but!] he said a bailout would not bar him from pushing for middle-class tax cuts, a central proposal in his campaign. […]

Offshore drilling ban will expire at the end of September

Democrats will let the ban on offshore drilling expire this month. The AP reports: Democrats have decided to allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week, conceding defeat in an month-long battle with the White House and Republicans set off by $4 a gallon gasoline […]

Urban hawk attacks

I received a strange phone call yesterday from my youngest daughter. “Dad, a hawk is eating Pinkfoot!” Pinkfoot was my daughter’s Bantam hen, which won Best in Show at the fair this summer. I raced home to find a fairly large hawk making short work of said hen and it had no intention of leaving […]

Snippets from the news

• Colorado adopts rules that protect wildlife from drilling operations. • Coal project moves ahead in Kentucky. • Pine beetle infestation may affect weather and air quality. • North Carolina experiencing gas shortage. • Northeastern and West Coast women chock full of mercury. • Pollution from Hurricane Ike could have been much worse. • Is […]