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Church of England urges carbon fast for Lent

Planning to give up alcohol or chocolate for 40 days when the season of Lent begins tomorrow? Two Church of England bishops are urging churchgoers to instead take part in a carbon fast.

Masdar

I know you can never bank on these things until they’re completed, but if this goes as planned it sure will be righteously cool: Groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday for Masdar City, a nearly self-contained mini-municipality designed for up to 50,000 people rising from the desert next to Abu Dhabi’s international airport and intended as […]

Fewer folks are regularly getting out in nature, says study

Kids — and adults — these days are “videophiliacs” who prefer their nature through the TV screen rather than personally experienced, says a new study estimating that U.S. folks’ participation in outdoor recreation has dropped as much as 25 percent over the past 20 years. Researchers looked at four metrics: visitation to public lands, number […]

Way better than oil dependence

Conservatives love energy independence and nuclear power. In other news (sub rqd): Russia could earn more than $5 billion selling nuclear fuel to U.S. utilities over the next 10 years under an agreement it reached Friday with the Bush administration. The Commerce Department deal allows Russia to sell low-enriched uranium and other uranium products directly […]

Birds die in Portland neighborhood after alcohol binge

This story from The Oregonian gives new meaning to the term "dead drunk":

It's a case fit for wildlife CSI: 55 robins from the Mount Tabor neighborhood -- all dead within a few nearby backyards.

Toxic spill?

Mystery virus?

Maybe not. The leading theory is that the birds were fatally intoxicated, said Bob Sallinger of the Audubon Society of Portland's wildlife care center, where the birds ended up last week.

That's right: The birds drank themselves to death.

Not from a bottle, though. The birds' bellies were chock full of holly berries, skins and seeds. Sallinger isn't dismissing other explanations yet, but the current thinking is that the birds ate aged and fermented berries that killed them.

...

The robins travel in flocks this time of year, so they could have gobbled the berries together last week. They may have died from ethanol poisoning directly or dropped into such a stupor they died of exposure.

"Certainly a drunk bird in the rain is pretty vulnerable," Sallinger said.

Maybe they were just depressed.

Slim down with the ‘Waste Diet’

There are people who talk about reducing, reusing, and recycling -- and then there's Maren Engelmohr.

Engelmohr, a St. Louis architect with an impressive set of green credentials, her husband, and her two children are embarking on a year-long "waste diet," and are challenging you (and me) to do the same:

Romney flip-flops, does not support California CO2 waiver

Remember how Mitt Romney joined with the other GOP presidential candidates in appearing to support California in its quest to gain a waiver from the U.S. EPA to allow it to regulate vehicle CO2 emissions? How Romney said, and we quote, “I side with states being able to make their own decisions, even if I […]

The latest on green tax breaks in the stimulus bill

I hope everyone saw Josh’s Saturday update on the green tax breaks that may or may not end up in the stimulus package. The L.A. Times has another update today. There are quite a few Dem heavyweights behind Baucus’ alternative stimulus bill, the one with green tax breaks, but its fate is unclear. The vote […]

Judge rules Navy must comply with sonar rules

A federal judge has ruled that the Navy must comply with earlier restrictions imposed on its use of sonar near the California coast despite a recent attempt by President Bush to exempt the agency from relevant environmental laws. The judge said that Bush’s Navy exemption last month was “constitutionally suspect,” but that she didn’t need […]

Dubious 2009 energy budget released

On the heels of giving away the (decorative) centerpiece of his climate technology effort, NeverGen FutureGen, Bush released a heartless and mindless FY09 energy budget yesterday.

Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, sent around an email on the President's Budget Request for FY2009 (I will post budget details later). Bingaman is "pleased to see overall growth in the DOE budget, particularly in the area of basic research," but critical of a number of dubious administration choices: