Latest Articles

Six farmworkers compensated for pesticide exposure, six cases dismissed

Six farmworkers who became sterile after working on a Nicaraguan banana plantation three decades ago were awarded a total $3.3 million from Dole Food Co. and Dow Chemical, after a judge agreed that the corporations “actively suppressed information about” the “reproductive toxicity” of now-banned pesticide DBCP. Six other plaintiffs with a similar claim had their […]

You can’t begin an argument about coal’s future by assuming coal’s future

I swear, I don’t mean to just rant about stupid coal articles every day. But people keep writing stupid coal articles. I’m like Pavlov’s dog at this point — they say stupid things, I bash them. Good boy! The latest is this interview in Wired’s Planet Earth blog with Jeremy Carl, who researches how to […]

A review of recycled toilet-paper brands

Time for a new roll, but what’s your type? Photo: iStockphoto Deciding what kind of toilet paper to buy is a delicate issue. Perhaps most significantly because you want to protect those delicates — but what about this delicate planet of ours? According to the NRDC, if every household in the U.S. replaced just one […]

U.S. Capitol buys carbon offsets

As part of an ongoing greening plan, the U.S. Capitol is buying $89,000 worth of carbon credits to offset the 30,000 tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually by the antiquated coal plant that provides it with power. The Government Accountability Office plans to publish a review of the carbon-offset industry in April; some members of […]

New report examines the impact of climate change on national security

John Podesta and Peter Ogden of the Center for American Progress have written a chapter titled "Global Warning: The Security Challenges of Climate Change," for a report called "The Age of Consequences: The Foreign Policy and National Security Implications of Global Climate Change." They describe their work as follows:

Natural-products maker Burt’s Bees bought by Clorox

Looks like even Burt’s Bees have been affected by the recent spike in bee deaths. The much-loved company — known for its lip balms, soaps, and other personal-care products made from natural ingredients — has been bought out by Clorox. As in the bleach. Blech!

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