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Me and Vanity Fair

As noted by James Wolcott here (a small thrill for a longtime Wolcott fanboy), I have a guest residency this month on the Vanity Fair green blog, which is running throughout April in conjunction with their green issue. As you’ll see at the link, I have a few things up already. Drop by!

IMF report says economic costs of climate-change action negligible

The International Monetary Fund said in a report released today that sharply reducing the world’s carbon emissions will cost relatively little economically if a carbon-pricing scheme is adopted soon that includes all the major-emitting countries. The report didn’t endorse one specific pricing mechanism, but said that either a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade system could […]

‘State Farm can get you back behind the wheel’

Witness the humiliation as this distinguished professional is forced to … my God, I can barely say it … ride a bike to work. Do something, State Farm! Anything! "You know that place where you’re swapping four wheels for two? Oh, man, I’m there." Says Streetsblog: "Yeah, I know that place. It’s called a city." […]

Time bashes grain ethanol

This post is by ClimateProgress guest blogger Bill Becker, executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project.

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All that glitters is not gold. And all that grows is not green.

That is the belated realization about grain ethanol -- in fact, about any ethanol whose feedstock is grown on cropland. Joe Romm has done a good job posting on this issue, including his report on the recent studies featured in Science magazine. I'd like to weigh in with a few additional points.

File under: Sherlock, No sh*t

I give you clean coal: The study, “Relations between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia,” found that in the 14 counties where the biggest coal mining operations are located residents reported higher rates of cardiopulmonary disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, diabetes, and lung and kidney disease. In each of […]

A roundup of news snippets

• An independent expert recommends an up to $16 billion fine for Chevron’s role in polluting the Ecuadorian Amazon. • “Eco-fur” doesn’t fly. • More funding is needed to fix the Gulf of Mexico dead zone. • A Paris airport will tap geothermal energy. • The sun still isn’t causing global warming.

Animal-welfare group backs toad-killing in Australia

Australian politician Shane Knuth has proposed a special “Toad Day Out” for residents of the state of Queensland to kill cane toads, a poisonous invasive species that Knuth calls “the greatest environmental vermin and probably the most disgusting creature known to man.” The plan even has the backing of the Royal Society for the Prevention […]

Solar’s new mega-plants

Good stuff. (Thanks, Brian)

So say Big Oil-friendly opponents of protecting them

You know, if you set aside the massive threats to their habitats posed by global warming and oil and gas development, polar bears are an "otherwise healthy" species.

That was the argument made Wednesday by William Horn, an attorney and former Assistant Interior Secretary for Fish and Wildlife in the Reagan administration, at a Capitol Hill hearing about the ongoing delay in whether to cover the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. Horn's case was echoed by several Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

To listen to Horn, the 33-51 percent chance that the recently signed oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea on Alaska's northwest coast would result in a major offshore oil spill is no big deal. And Horn clung to outdated projections that widespread Arctic Sea ice loss is 45 to 50 years away when, just four months ago, a NASA scientist predicted the Arctic Sea could be ice-free in the summer as soon as 2012.

We all know the threats to polar bears posed by rapid climate change. But what would happen in the case of a major oil spill?

Chinese environmental activist jailed

Chinese activist Hu Jia, a high-profile campaigner for human rights, religious freedom, and environmental protection, has been convicted of “inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system” and will be jailed for three-and-a-half years.