Latest Articles

Gimme my P-Per

According to Yanko Design, this mobile phone — the lamentably named "P-Per," designed by the folks at Chocolate Agency — is eco-friendly because it minimizes materials, consisting "of just 4 layers, a printed circuit board, extruded polycarbonate, recycled titanium, and a wrap around flexible haptic LED touchscreen." Gaze upon it: photo: Yanko Design I want […]

McCain wins Florida after endorsement from pro-climate governor

John McCain has won the Florida Republican primary, a race that pundits prophesy may decide the GOP nominee for president. Environmental issues may have played a part; McCain got a boost in the state when he was endorsed by popular and climate-conscious Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. In pre-race campaigning, McCain took heat from main rival […]

Florida primary

CNN has projected McCain the winner. With 62% of precincts reporting, McCain is ahead of Romney 36% to 32%, with Giuliani’s presidential aspirations going up in smoke, or rather, going up in a 15% debacle. More later. UPDATE: Final is 36-31. It’s a Romney/McCain race and McCain is the prohibitive favorite. He’s now the yardstick […]

Department of Energy backs away from funding Future

The U.S. Department of Energy has told lawmakers that it plans to pull funding for FutureGen, its ambitious and crazily expensive “clean coal” demonstration plant. The feds had planned to cover some three-quarters of the $1.8 billion price tag, and cited ballooning costs as its reason for backing out. The announcement pissed off lawmakers from […]

Breaking: Dept. of Energy pulls support for FutureGen

Whoa! The Dept. of Energy just announced that it’s yanking its support for FutureGen, the much-ballyhooed and much-delayed “clean coal” demonstration plant that greens refer to, never more appropriately, as NeverGen. What’s behind the decision? “Ballooning costs.” But wait … I thought coal was cheap!? UPDATE: Note that Senator Dick Durbin expresses great outrage and […]

Notable quotable

“… perhaps the worst example of inter-specific aggression any of us had ever seen. This young female had literally had the life beaten out of her.” — members of the Cetacean Research and Rescue Unit, commenting on the recent discovery that packs of dolphins are attacking, pursuing, and bludgeoning to death not only porpoises but […]

FEMA said to ignore research on effects of toxic hurricane trailers

While housing Hurricane Katrina refugees in formaldehyde-tainted trailers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency “ignored, hid, and manipulated” government research on the long-term effects of formaldehyde on humans, according to an investigation by congressional Democrats.

Focus the Nation events to heat up campuses across the U.S.

Focus the Nation, a series of climate-change-focused educational events on over 1,000 campuses across the United States, is basically the student-centered cousin of Step It Up. And if you were one of the thousands who attended SIU (or SIU 2), you know that raising climate consciousness doesn't have to be a drab affair. It can be a colorful, creative, youth-infused party of a time. Enter Focus the Nation.

Hoping to pick up where SIU left off, Focus the Nation is gathering together thousands of students and teachers for climate festivities, billing it as the largest teach-in in U.S. history. It all goes down Jan. 31. (Or, you know, whatever the kids say these days.)

If people want to keep up with the Joneses, could they at least adopt a different set of Joneses?

Social scientists tell us that having more material goods doesn’t make us happier, but that we buy them in order to retain parity with our social group. It is very difficult to resist this urge to keep up with the Joneses. It is, however, possible to voluntarily adopt a different set of Joneses with a […]

Conservation work will potentially be undone by climate change

Habitat preservation is a noble cause — so it’s really too bad that many conservation efforts may end up rendered moot by climate change. For example, restoration of Pacific Northwest salmon runs won’t do much good if warming makes streams unlivable; restoring fresh water flow in the Everglades will be somewhat pointless if sea-level rise […]