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California condor still endangered by lead bullets

California condors came to the brink of extinction in the 1980s, largely from eating game felled by toxic lead bullets. A recovery effort has proved successful, but attempts to bring condors back into the wild have been frustrated by the birds’ continuing poisoned-carrion habit. More than one-third of condors released into the wild in California […]

Right-wingers will do whatever Gore says not to

I bet it would work:

Better yet, maybe Gore will make a major speech telling people to not stick their tongues in wall sockets in an effort to save electricity. Afterward, expect lots of flickering lights in your neighborhood and fewer right-wing bloggers on the internets.

Largest U.S. garbage hauler greens operations

Strange but true: Our trash is going green. The nation’s largest garbage hauler and landfill operator, Waste Management Inc., has announced plans to make its operations more eco-friendly. The company hopes to double its landfill methane-to-electricity production by 2020, boost the fuel efficiency of its fleet by 15 percent by 2020, process more recyclables, and […]

The horrid misreporting on the case of the British judge and An Inconvenient Truth

There are three things you’re unlikely to learn from the mainstream media about the Case of the Nine Errors, wherein a British judge is said to have taken issue with the accuracy of An Inconvenient Truth. The parent who filed the suit, Stewart Dimmock, is a member of a far-right political group with ties to […]

Reggae artist Michael Franti lets loose on inspiring social change

Michael Franti. Photo: anti.com/Megan Gentile “Everyone deserves music, sweet music,” Michael Franti sings in the title track from a 2003 album. The man behind Michael Franti & Spearhead — a band that blends hip-hop with jazz, folk, and funk music — also believes that everyone deserves health care, social justice, and a sustainable planet. And […]

EPA not enforcing Clean Water Act, says report

The U.S. EPA is not so much enforcing the Clean Water Act, says a new report from green group U.S. PIRG. According to EPA data, 57 percent of the country’s industrial plants and municipal wastewater facilities dumped more than the allowable level of pollutants and sewage into waterways at least once in 2005, the most […]

Nobel Prize is a nice follow up to Oceana Award

We are thrilled to learn that Al Gore just won the Nobel Prize. As David Roberts points out, he certainly deserved it and this is good news for all of us in the environmental community and in the world.

Gore was also presented with Oceana's 2007 Partners Award this past Friday. The former vice president's work on highlighting the challenges climate change presents to our oceans is incredibly important.

Gore was joined by Dr. Daniel Pauly, winner of the 2007 Ted Danson Ocean Hero award. Pauly is one of the world's preeminent fisheries scientists.

Top climate scientist debunks Lomborg in the Washington Post

The Washington Post has at least had the decency to run a rebuttal to the absurd Bjørn Lomborg piece they ran on Sunday (also debunked here and here).

They chose one of the top climate scientists in the country -- Judith Curry, chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. I count her a friend, having interviewed her for my book and having spent a couple of days in Florida with her giving joint talks -- she on hurricanes and climate (with her colleague Peter Webster), and me on climate solutions.

I recommend anything she writes (here is a great piece on the science and politics of the hurricanes and global warming debate [PDF]). You can read the whole piece debunking Lomborg, "Cooler Heads and Climate Change," here. One point in particular bears repeating:

EPA will develop industry regulations for carbon sequestration

Setting aside questions of technical challenges and commercial viability, the U.S. EPA has announced that it will develop industry regulations for carbon sequestration by power plants. By next summer, expect exciting new regulations to “ensure there is a consistent and effective permit system under the Safe Drinking Water Act” for injecting captured carbon dioxide deep […]

Can the House and the Senate agree on energy legislation?

The prospects for a successful reconciling of the House and Senate energy bills remain as iffy today as they were last month. How sad such failure would be at a time of record oil prices and a growing consensus of the need for urgent action on climate change.

The big obstacle right now is that Senate Republicans oppose a House-Senate conference. E&E News (subs. reqd.) reports:

"It looks like Senate Republicans are not going to agree to a conference, so we will probably see the same process on this bill that we saw with several other pieces of legislation this year," [Henry] Waxman [D-Calif.] told reporters after the meeting.

What is this alternative process?

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) intends to reconcile the House and Senate energy bills without convening a formal conference committee.

Even this approach is no guarantee of success, as many roadblocks remain in Congress and the White House: