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Disturbing news is more likely to be ignored

An interesting post on the phenomenon encountered by peak oil "doomers" in trying to explain their dour views to those that are unaware:

But if the purpose of the peak oil movement is to spread awareness and ultimately spur action, then telling uninformed people news which radically challenges their worldview may cause them simply to tune us out. In this regard, the worse the news is, the less likely people are to want to hear what we have to say or to believe it if they do listen.

No carbon reduction program is a silver bullet

Something about NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg’s arguments for a carbon tax struck me as a little too glib, too pat. Barack Obama’s energy advisor Madhuri Kommareddi does as good a job as anyone of explaining why, arguing that a cap-and-auction system beats a carbon tax on the merits: Why this system instead of carbon tax? […]

An exciting bill people are talking about

I give you RCESA: Two members of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, U.S. Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), today introduced legislation in the House that would make renewable electricity produced in rural areas available to urban energy users. Specifically, their Rural Clean Energy Superhighways Act would improve electricity […]

Notable quotable

“If the internet goes down, global warming will triumph for sure.” — Bill McKibben

Big-box store Target will phase out PVC

Big-box store Target is right on the mark with plans to phase out nasty plastic polyvinyl chloride. The store that we like to pronounce “Tar-zhay” has announced that it will aim to detox the packaging of its table linen stock by spring and try to find PVC alternatives for all toys by next fall. It […]

Industries get a break on tracking and disclosing dangerous chemicals

The Department of Homeland Security late last week released rules requiring industries to track and disclose large amounts of chemicals potentially alluring to terrorists. Draft regulations released in the spring had been heavily criticized by Big Chemical for their strictness, so the new regulations say, “Try not to put dangerous chemicals out on the sidewalk […]

7 items you didn’t know you could recycle

This time around, Chip and Katharine chat about how to recycle unusual items:

New Kaiser poll reveals voter priorities

These answers are from a new Kaiser Foundation poll: —– What do you think is the most important problem for the president and Congress to address? Is there another problem you think is almost as important? (open-ended) Issue Rank Total Republicans Democrats Independents 1 Iraq (54%) Iraq (53%) Iraq (62%) Iraq (52%) 2 Health care […]

Umbra on power strips

Q. Hi Umbra, Around the table at lunch today, my colleagues and I were discussing ways to conserve and be more energy efficient. We’ve all heard that “dormant” appliances still draw energy. We’ve all been told we should plug some of our electronics into a power strip that we can easily flip off when they […]

Groups band together to save Sherwood Forest

After the daily grind of stealing from the rich and giving to the poor, a current-day Robin Hood might want to find a hideout other than his beloved Sherwood Forest, which has shrunk to less than 0.5 percent its historical size. Merry men (and women) in more than a dozen British organizations are banding together […]