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Coal front group pouring millions into targeted disinformation campaign

Speaking of reasons climate legislation is going to be impossible this year: It’s good to see the Washington Post pick up on the coal industry’s massive lobbying effort. The focus is Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), which we’ve discussed before. WaPo’s Steven Mufson uncovered a few details. Right now, ABEC is spending $1.3 million […]

Sonar gets presidential pardon, seas more violent

Citing national security, President Bush exempted the U.S. Navy from a judge's order to cease sonar use in areas frequented by marine mammals ...

... the National Marine Fisheries Service said that the Atlantic white marlin did not meet requirements to be included on the Endangered Species List ...

... a report by the U.K. Marine Climate Change Impacts Partnership found that seas around the U.K. were becoming more violent, thanks to rising water levels and increased carbon dioxide ...

... a Japanese whaling ship detained two activists that were accused of throwing acid and illegally boarding their vessel ...

Ecosystems are nonlinear

Here's a disturbing study that seems to mimic nothing so much as my mother-in-law's theory that small brownie pieces cut from the edge of the remaining mass of brownies left in the pan ("the efficient frontier," an economist might call it) don't have calories, because each little tiny mini-slice hardly changes the amount of brownie left at all.

On the one hand, the example cited is not particularly objectionable: Researchers claim to have found a mangrove where you can remove 20% of it with little reduction in flood control capacity -- meaning you can use that 20% for factory farmed shrimp and such.

The attitude of this article is in sharp contrast with that of Aldo Leopold and others, who would suggest that recognizing nonlinearity is a good first step, but that wisdom, or even an approximation of it, doesn't begin until you recognize that this ...

Friday music blogging: Ha Ha Tonka

Growing up in the South, I was pretty keen to reject everything connected to the culture, which I viewed — even before I’d seen any alternatives — as closed-minded and mean. Sadly, a lot of babies got tossed out with the bathwater (oh, the posts I could write). Among them, southern rock music of the […]

Clean-tech and wind power both soaring

Investment in clean-tech companies rose 44 percent from 2005 to 2006, and jumped an additional 44 percent from 2006 to 2007, soaring to $5.18 billion, according to the Cleantech Group LLC. Last year in clean-tech, energy generation received $2.75 billion in investment, followed by energy storage ($471 million) and transportation ($445 million). And you know […]

Vodka maker launches global cooling campaign

In a partnership with Live Earth (yes, they’re still doing stuff), Absolut Vodka has launched a Global Cooling campaign that "encourages consumers to reduce the effects of global warming by offering simple steps they can implement in their daily lives." As part of the campaign, Absolut is sponsoring the Live Earth Film Series, a collection […]

From Bling to Brothel

Air of mystery Hmm, should we buy the ridiculously expensive “green” MacBook Air, or the ridiculously expensive “green” Air Jordans? What do they think we are, Million Airs? Photo: Apple.com Under where? When it comes to what we wear under there, we prefer eco-lingerie … though, truthfully, we’re most happy when we’re wearing nothing at […]

Federal officials suggest killing sea lions to protect salmon

To protect endangered Northwest salmon, the National Marine Fisheries Service suggests giving Oregon and Washington state officials the authority to kill sea lions, which last year gobbled up more than 4 percent of the salmon running through the Columbia River’s Bonneville Dam. The action would likely result in about 30 sea lion deaths a year. […]

House energy committee not primed to rush through climate bill

John Dingell says getting climate legislation done this year will "verge on impossible" (sub rqd), what with the compressed schedule and the presidential and Congressional elections. Oh, and also because Republicans are gearing up to block progress yet again. A while back, Denny Hastert left Dingell’s committee and there was some inside baseball speculation about […]

It’s not always just Monsanto screwing with the food system

Creating a food system that is "good, clean, and fair" involves more than the buy-local mantra and the anti-Monsanto-ADM-WalMart rhetoric I and so many others constantly chanting. Sometimes even more evil and insidious obstacles lie in our way.

Witness what's taking place in Kenya: