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Sonar will kill some marine life but safeguards are adequate, says Navy

Navy training exercises could expose 94,370 marine mammals to behavior-altering sonar frequencies each year, potentially injuring or killing as many as 30, according to an environmental impact statement released Friday by the Navy. But in its 1,796-page report, the Navy sticks with current safeguards for protecting marine animals, not adopting stricter standards imposed by a […]

Elton John, Lindsay Lohan, and 50 Cent unite to free a killer whale — meet the man who brought them

Celebs are flipping out over Lolita’s living conditions. Photo: Krosstok Hollywood producer Raul Julia-Levy’s current project involves an impressive cast ranging from Johnny Depp, Lindsay Lohan, and Harrison Ford to Elton John, 50 Cent, and Plácido Domingo. He’s attracted high-powered producers including Cameron Crowe, Ed Elbert, and Ron Howard. It’s a veritable A-list role call, […]

Drudge hijacks headlines to sell global warming denial

From the Think Progress Wonk Room.

Atop the Drudge Report right now:

Do the stories behind these headlines tell the tale that global warming alarmists have "hijacked" the political debate despite a "lack of natural disasters" and no global warming "since 1998"?

No.

Wow

This is the kind of article where you’d really like to be able to see the full text!

Sports continue to ‘go green’

It’s everyone’s favorite time: sports roundup time! And our sport-by-sport structure worked so well last time, perhaps we should try it again. Basketball: Three of the four teams in the NCAA Final Four — UCLA, North Carolina, and Memphis — are signatories to the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment. Get with the program, […]

Global temps may drop this year but, alas, world still warming

Brace yourself for climate-change-denier delight, as the World Meteorological Organization is expecting global temperatures to drop this year thanks to a strong La Niña. But, of course, says WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud, “When you look at climate change you should not look at any particular year. You should look at trends over a pretty long […]

At least, according to South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.):

"Climate change is the road less traveled but he's traveled it even more than Al Gore," Graham said. "Al Gore has talked about it and deserves great recognition but he was around here a long time and never introduced a bill."

Let's see: McCain got 43 votes the first time he pushed his bill with Lieberman. He added some nuclear subsidies for the second go-round and got 38 votes. I'm not sure he can lay claim to great achievements.

The key point for me is that unlike Gore -- and unlike Clinton and Obama -- McCain doesn't support the policies needed to successfully address catastrophic climate change without devastating the economy (and without an absurd over-reliance on nuclear power):

• McCain "might take [new CAFE standards] off the books"
• McCain's crooked talk on nuclear power
• Even more doubletalk on mandates from John McCain
• Why John McCain isn't the candidate to stop global warming
• McCain's doubletalk express on global warming

Heck, McCain ramped down his talk about climate recently, even as Gore ramps up his communications effort. For the full statement by Graham, and a full rebuttal, see ThinkProgress, which has a great post that I'll just reprint below [unindented]:

Forty years gone: MLK’s dream today would be colored green

The following are my introductory remarks to the Dream Reborn conference, beginning today and running through the weekend in Memphis, Tenn.

Forty years ago today, on April 4, 1968, a sniper assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dr. King had come to Memphis, Tennessee, to aid striking sanitation workers. The preeminent civil rights leader of his time, he was only 39 years old.

Four decades have passed since that fateful day. As of this month, Dr. King has been gone from us longer than he was ever here. As we pass this milestone in history, we gather in Memphis to remind ourselves and the world that a bullet killed the dreamer -- but not the dream.

Dr. King had a vision of an America as good as its promise, and a world at peace with itself. That vision lives on in the hearts of hundreds of millions, including two generations of adults and a rising generation of teenagers, all of whom have been born since Dr. King's passing.

The time has come for us to step forward. We must take full responsibility to advance the cause of justice, opportunity, and peace in a new century.

And yet it must be said that we are stepping onto history's stage at a frightening time -- a time of global warming and global war. A time when "the market" is free and the people are not. A time of mass incarceration of people and mass extinction of species. A time of no rules for the rich and no rights for the poor. A time of increasing profits for the few and decreasing options for the many. A time of buyouts and bailouts for the powerful and convictions and evictions for the powerless.

And yet, inside the United States, the tide has begun to turn.

Another big horticultural seed company bought by Monsanto

When Monsanto buys into a market, they buy in big. In 2005, Monsanto's seed/genetic trait holdings were primarily in corn, cotton, soybeans, and canola. That year, they purchased Seminis, the world's largest vegetable seed company (see And We Have the Seed) specializing in seed for vegetable field crops. Now their takeover of the vegetable seed sector continues, as they have announced the intent to purchase the Dutch breeding and seed company, De Ruiter Seeds.

Boosts for renewable energy get another go-round in the Senate

Wind- and solar-boosting folk are crossing their fingers that new Senate legislation will succeed in extending renewable-energy tax credits set to expire at the end of 2008. The Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act is framed as an economic boon: “If both houses of Congress don’t pass a bill and the president doesn’t sign it into […]