Latest Articles
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From Yellin’ to Melon
Are you yella? Kids driving you crazy? Steer ’em onto this trike: the louder they scream, the farther away they’ll go. The shitty by the bay San Franciscans will flush with pride when they honor the nation’s Number One with a building that filters their number two. The soon-to-be George W. Bush Sewage Plant is […]
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What drove the dramatic retreat of arctic sea ice during summer 2007?
Funny you should ask. That is the title of an analysis published this month in Geophysical Research Letters ($ub. req'd) by four scientists from the Polar Science Center, Applied Physics Laboratory, College of Ocean and Fishery Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle. What did they conclude?
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How the organic movement can regain its relevance
Buying organic makes you feel good … but does it make you think? On June 25, I spoke at the Organic Summit in Boulder, Colo., to an audience consisting largely of people who work in the organic food industry. This column is an adapted version of my talk. In his wildly popular satirical blog Stuff […]
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Olympics worsening Beijing water crisis, says report
The Beijing Olympics are putting a strain on already-tight water supplies, says a new report from NGO Probe International. Preparations for the Games have sucked up 52 billion gallons of water above normal consumption this year, in a city that already consumes more water than is naturally supplied. Beijing’s two main reservoirs are at less […]
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Farm animals consume 17 percent of wild-caught fish
Here's a guest post from Jennifer Jacquet of the Sea Around Us Project and the UBC Fisheries Centre in Vancouver, B.C.
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It is one thing to grind up wild fish to feed to farmed fish, but it is quite another to grind up these perfectly edible fish to feed factory-farmed pigs and poultry. After all, when is the last time you saw a chicken catch a fish?
In the not-so-distant past, pigs and chickens ate grass, some grains, and food scraps. Today, in the throes of a perverse industrial food system that favors cheap protein and quick growth (with often astonishing results such as Mad Cow disease), we now feed farm animals lots of small, tasty fish.
Lots.
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Senate Republican tries to tack renewable tax extensions onto housing bil
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) is attempting to add the tax break extensions for renewables that keep failing in the Senate to a giant housing package. His attempts have stalled the housing bill, which would overhaul mortgage finance and create programs to help borrowers refinance. The Senate is supposed to go into recess today for the […]
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Compressed air cans are contributing to ozone destruction
Photo: Jeff Mo There was an interesting post a while ago about the havoc created by compressed air cans — you know, the ones you use to dust off your keyboard. Who knew that they were full of intensely powerful greenhouse gases? I sure didn’t, but thanks to Eric de Place, now I do — […]
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Whaling commission avoids controversial decisions
Wrapping up its annual meeting this week, the International Whaling Commission decided to defer decision-making on various controversial issues. The IWC took only one vote at the meeting, deciding to disallow Greenland’s request to take a higher quota of humpback whales. It also agreed to research the impact of climate change on cetaceans. But with […]
