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Friday music blogging: Stephen Fretwell

I know next to nothing about Stephen Fretwell aside from his amusingly-appropriate-for-a-guitarist name. I stumbled across his album a couple weeks back and it’s been growing on me. He’s your basic Dylanesque singer-songwriter — the nearest analogue that I can think of on the current scene is Josh Ritter. If you like pleasant acoustic tunes, […]

Freelance writer embarks on biodiesel tour of sporting events

Freelance sports writer Joe Connor is embarking this fall on a four-month-long Green Power Sports Tour (holy neon website!), visiting more than 100 football, hockey, and basketball venues — in a biodiesel car, natch. Hey ladies … he’s self-described “very, very single” …

White House advisor reveals Bush view of climate change policy

White House science advisor, on the options available for addressing climate change: You only have two choices; you either have advanced technologies and get them into the marketplace, or you shut down your economies and put people out of work. Remind me again how long until these clowns are gone?

The subjects of PETA and vegetarianism …

… have clearly driven you people insane.

Rates of black lung disease double in a decade

Rates of black lung disease have doubled in the last decade, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The disease, which is caused by inhaling coal dust, now occurs in almost 10 percent of coal miners who work 25 or more years underground, as opposed to about 4 percent a decade ago. […]

A must-read article from Science on the underestimation of climate change impacts

The new issue of Science has a terrific article that underscores many of the points I have been making here. Its central argument is that the scientific consensus most likely underestimates future climate change impacts, especially in the crucial area of sea-level rise and carbon-cycle feedbacks.

The authors are highly credible, led by Princeton's Michael Oppenheimer, one of the most widely published climate experts. I will excerpt the article here at length ($ub. req'd):

Me, at Discover Brilliant

From Mon. – Wed. next week, I’m going to the Discover Brilliant conference in Seattle. It will be attended by a who’s-who of smart folks working to green the utility, transportation, and technology worlds. Green geek heaven! Here’s a list of speakers. Anybody in particular you Gristies want me to chat with?

U.S. EPA falls short of fiscal-year goals for Superfund cleanup

The U.S. EPA had aimed to clean up 40 Superfund sites in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, but only got around to 24 of them. The Bush administration will now average 39 finished cleanups a year; just for comparison’s sake, the Clinton administration gussied up an average of 76 sites annually. More than […]

From Models to Mates

Televisionary From a solar-panel canopy to locally grown catering goods, the stars walking the recycled red carpet on Sunday will be “green with Emmy.” And speaking of modeling eco-behavior, Tyra’s banking on green as the fashion color of the season. Photo: the CW Network Everybody’s surfin’ now More than 80 surfers recently got on board […]

This week in ocean news

• the U.S. Geological Survey announced that the polar bear population could plummet to one-third of its current level by mid-century because Arctic ice is receding faster than predicted ...

• a new 350-foot super-ferry designed to go 40 mph between Hawaiian islands concerned scientists, who thought it would collide with whales and dolphins despite new cetacean-avoiding technology ...

• new DNA studies suggested that the historic population levels of Pacific gray whales far exceeded the 22,000 estimated, with researchers putting the number closer to 100,000 ...

• a six-week survey of the Yangtze River failed to turn up a single baiji, one of few dolphins species to adapt to a freshwater habitat. A survey in the 1990s turned up 13 of the dolphins ...

• an Alaskan man taped himself provoking a monk seal and her pup while vacationing in Hawaii. After he posted the video to MySpace, the man found himself under federal investigation and could receive a $25,000 fine ...

• a lake in Alaska boiled violently with methane ...