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Inuit villagers give birth to twice as many girls as boys

Twice as many girls as boys are being born in Arctic communities across Greenland and northern Russia, where Inuit villagers are known to have high levels of human-made chemicals in their blood. Many babies are being born premature; baby boys tend to be small. Hormone-mimicking chemicals originate in industrialized countries, travel to the Arctic by […]

German Chancellor Merkel focuses on climate change

In Germany, when the going gets tough, the tough go green:

Chancellor Angela Merkel seems to have realized that, contrary to the song lyrics, sometimes it's quite easy being green.

Mrs. Merkel has shied away from the biggest fight at home: the deep economic restructuring she advocated during her campaign two years ago. And on the matter of the suspected terrorist plot in the heart of Germany, she has remained in the background, apparently happy to cede the limelight to her interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble.

But in the past month Mrs. Merkel could be found inspecting glaciers in Greenland and calling for new measures to combat global warming at a conference in Kyoto, Japan. It was as if Ronald Reagan had turned into Al Gore after being elected. But the voters loved it, awarding her the highest approval ratings any chancellor has enjoyed since World War II. [my emphasis]

The fact that a center-right politician can ride eco-campaigning to popularity could be a lesson for U.S. Republicans. Though Fred Thompson recently ridiculed global warming, polls show doing so might not be the smartest political move. The environment is the one issue on which Republican politicians are most out-of-step with the Republican base. According to a recent Pew study, 65 percent of Republicans want stricter environmental laws (though it's questionable how much of a voting priority it is). Ultimately, however, Merkel's ability to pull off a green hat trick shows the importance of creating bipartisan support for environmental protection.

Washington Post vets green sporting gear

The Washington Post takes a look at athletic products claiming to be green — surfboards, sports balls, skateboards, bikes, and snowboards — and gives a rundown of their eco- and consumer-friendliness from both a layperson and expert perspective.

BusinessWeek allows Whitman to lobby for nukes under the guise of an op-ed

Here’s yet another op-ed from Christie Whitman cheerleading for nuclear power. To get a sense of the bad faith that infuses the whole thing, check out this paragraph: Of course, we could buy energy-saving appliances or drive fuel-efficient cars. We can recycle cans, bottles, and newspapers. We can even plant carbon-absorbing trees. But, no matter […]

Umbra on vegetarian remorse

Dear Umbra, I’ve been a vegetarian for almost 10 years. I started when I was 15, on pretty much a whim just to see if I could do it, but since then I’ve come to appreciate what I’m doing for my body and the planet. Lately, though, whether from boredom or subconscious protein cravings, I’ve […]

Strengthening community is an important benefit of eating locally

The following is a guest essay originally posted at AlterNet by David Morris, vice president of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

Some 30 years ago NASA came up with another big idea: assemble vast solar electric arrays in space and beam the energy to earth. The environmental community did not dismiss NASA's vision out of hand. After all, the sun shines 24 hours a day in space. A solar cell on earth harnesses only about four hours equivalent of full sunshine a day. If renewable electricity could be generated more cheaply in space than on earth, what's the problem?

A number of us argued that the problem was inherent in the scale of the power plant. Whereas rooftop solar turns us into producers, builds our self-confidence, and strengthens our sense of community as we trade electricity back and forth with our neighbors, space-based solar arrays aggravate our dependence. By dramatically increasing the distance between us and a product essential to our survival, we become more insecure. The scale of the technology requires a global corporation, increasing the distance between those who make the decisions and those who feel the impact of those decisions. Which, in turn, demands a global oversight body, itself remote and nontransparent to electric consumers.

New Russian bomb not as eco-unfriendly as a nuclear weapon, says official

Russia has tested the world’s most powerful vacuum bomb, with an explosion as powerful as a nuclear weapon. But don’t get the wrong idea: the Russian deputy armed forces chief of staff wants to stress that “the action of this weapon does not contaminate the environment, in contrast to a nuclear one.” And to think […]

An open letter from 13 governors to U.S. automakers

As you know, today automakers lost their big lawsuit in Vermont — the judge ruled their their objections to higher tailpipe emission standards were, um, silly. Now, the governors of 13 states have sent an open letter to the automakers. "We do not believe it is productive for your industry to continue to fight state […]

John McQuaid explains the lessons we should have learned from Hurricane Katrina

In an new series in Mother Jones, John McQuaid reports on what we should have learned from Hurricane Katrina. McQuaid knows what he’s talking about — three years before the storm, he coauthored an award-winning series predicting all-too-accurately what would happen to New Orleans if it were hit by a big-time hurricane, and he’s since […]

Warming globe will have major security issues, says think tank

The security implications of climate change resemble those of nuclear war, a security think tank said today. “Fundamental environmental issues of food, water, and energy security ultimately lie behind many present security concerns, and climate change will magnify all three,” wrote the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which foresees collapsed governments, heightened racial and ethnic […]