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Park Service hacks down some trees in Pa.

This is sorta effed. The National Park Service is cutting down hundreds of acres of trees on the Gettysburg Battlefield to restore historical accuracy. From NBC News in Pennsylvania: The National Park Service is starting another phase of its efforts to return Gettysburg Battlefield to how it looked in 1863, during the Civil War. The […]

BS green

Given the surge of interest in climate and energy, it’s no surprise that a lot of BS — rainforest-screwing biodiesel, everyone-screwing liquid coal, etc. — is getting passed off as "green" and bellying up to the public trough. Glenn Hurowitz calls out some of the more egregious offenders.

You know you wanna listen

Yesterday, I was on radio show called Earthbeat, discussing the presidential candidates and their views on climate and energy. You can read about it here, or download the one-hour mp3 here.

And a bit of introspection

From the Oregonian: Wild birds competing with youth baseball. City wants to turn Little League diamond into wild space. Little Leaguers don’t want to be forced out of their park. Should wild birds trump kiddie baseball players? If I say no, does that go against everything I allegedly stand for as an environmentalist a person […]

Global-warming-themed game now online

A new video game teaches users about saving the planet is coming on the market, and you can try it out for free first. Check out Global Warning, a new game from Midori Tech. Here’s what happens: A dump company sets up an immense (nearly the size of 50 football fields) landfill next to your […]

Umbra on radiant heating

Dear Umbra, We’re trying to build a really small house and be really economical as we do it. Radiant floor heating sounds practical for the first floor, although it’s expensive. What do you think about radiant floor heating, pluses, minuses, efficiency? Radiantly yours, Kerry Florence, Mass. Dearest Kerry, Thank you for helping me to write […]

Harry Potter is way greener than your average book

I wrote last week about Harry Potter going green in the seventh and final installation of the series. Turns out, it’s even greener than we thought. It might just be the greenest book of all time [PDF] (except for all those books that have never been published, I guess). Production of the book spurred the […]

Mmm, pollutocrats

The Simpsons flee Springfield in the dark of night.

TM and © 2007 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Fans of The Simpsons have had to wait 18 years for the first full-length feature film about the family, opening on July 27. Although the hype leading up to the release date has included unique publicity stunts -- such as a contest between 14 Springfields across the U.S. to determine who gets to host the hometown premiere, and the conversion of selected 7-Elevens to Kwik-E-Marts, complete with KrustyO's, Buzz Cola, and Squishees -- the film's producers have kept mum about the details of the plot.

However, the word on the street is that Homer, his new pet pig, and a leaking silo full of pig droppings somehow spur a large-scale environmental crisis that must be contained by the U.S. EPA. The EPA chief is a villainous Russ Cargill, who reports to U.S. President Arnold Schwarzenegger (voiced, respectively, by Simpsons veterans Albert Brooks and Harry Shearer). Somewhere along the way, Erin Brockovich makes a cameo as herself.

The Guardian got a peek at 10 minutes of the film, and notes that a cameo of Green Day in the film has the band members "poisoned and drowning in the fetid Lake Springfield after interrupting a Duff Beer-sponsored show 'to say one thing about the environment.'" Methinks that the water pollution may link back to the pig-poop issue, but that's just wild speculation an educated guess on my part. Another spoiler is that Lisa is rumored to develop a crush on a green activist while pulling together a school presentation on climate change, appropriately entitled "An Irritating Truth."

But we'll all have to wait for another week and a half to find out exactly how it all plays out, unless Fox wants to give Grist staffers a prescreening (hint, hint).

A new report with numbers and stuff

Our discussion of carbon offsets has been rather hand-wavey — lots of intuitions and moral judgments and gut feelings flying around. This obviously offended the gods of wonkitude, who have now seen fit to deliver unto us a report on the voluntary carbon credit market, containing some sweet, sweet numbers and graphs. The report was […]

Can’t They Just Use the Ocean?

Schwarzenegger announces $5.9 billion plan to battle drought California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced a $5.9 billion plan to prepare for his state’s almost-certain continued drought and population boom. Taking the need to douse Big Agriculture as a given, Schwarzenegger called for construction of new reservoirs and dams — but, true to his Greeninator reputation, […]