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Talking carbon tax in N.H.

Democratic presidential candidate Chris Dodd talks energy policy at a house party in New Hampshire last week:

Bald eagle soars off the threatened-species list, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: John Ashcroft, Where Are You? We Always Thought It Was Industrial Strength Barrier Methods Sure to Hit Fox News Soon Spit on Polish Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Postcard From the New Atlantis No (Hot) Dogs Allowed Ka-Boom 15 Green […]

Natalie names a baby gorilla

Adorable actress and Grist–darling Natalie Portman visited a Rwandan wildlife park Saturday to name one of 23 baby mountain gorillas. Naming her gorilla “Ahazaza,” meaning “future,” Portman and others hoped to draw attention to conservation efforts for the highly endangered primates. I’ve yet to find any images from the event, but I’m sure Cute Overload […]

A good reason we shouldn’t love trees, at least not in this case

Everybody loves trees. They are so popular as offsets they even make Wikipedia's definition:

When one is unable or unwilling to reduce one's own emissions, Carbon offset is the act of reducing ("offsetting") greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. A well-known example is the planting of trees to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions from personal air travel.

But does planting trees reduce global warming? Not in most places on the earth. The Carnegie Institution's Ken Caldeira summarized the result of a major 2005 study (PDF) this way: "To plant forests to mitigate climate change outside of the tropics is a waste of time."

Why? Because forest canopies are relatively dark, compared to what they replace outside the tropics -- grass, croplands, or snowfields -- and so they absorb more of the sun's heating rays that fall on them. That negates the "carbon sink" benefit trees have soaking up carbon dioxide. Worse, the study found that planting a large number of trees in high latitudes would "probably have a net warming effect on the Earth's climate." Ouch!

Parsing 15 years of electric data

Environmental pressures have forced us to generate more of our power from natural gas, and this focus on gas has caused power prices to increase ... right?

Wrong, conventional wisdom notwithstanding. And the lessons from the last 15 years indicate the importance of considering how markets will respond when mandating new technologies and fuels.

Umbra on fireworks

Dear Umbra, Our family has always lit a fair amount of fireworks for our 4th of July celebration. I would like to encourage my family and friends to find other ways to celebrate due to the CO2 emissions that will result. However, I don’t really know how much carbon is emitted. I already have to […]

Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sink

Wilderness is pretty much a thing of the past, says report Regardless of whether humankind was given dominion over the earth, we’ve most certainly taken it. A new report in Science calculates that only 17 percent of global land mass has been untainted by human dwellings, agriculture, or roads. And that was as of 1995; […]

We Always Thought It Was Industrial Strength

McDonald’s to power U.K. delivery fleet with its own grease Proving once again that everything’s cooler in Europe, McDonald’s has announced that it will run all its U.K. delivery vehicles on biodiesel — from its own greasy grills! The chain will convert the 155-lorry fleet to a mix of 85 percent fry grease and 15 […]

After All, She Knows The Secret

Poll respondents pick Al, Oprah, and Kofi as climate messengers Recent polls have shown that people all over the world … join hands, start a love train, love train! Oh sorry, we get distracted. People all over the world are worried about the environment — and the latest poll says that Oprah could help save […]

Readers write in about violent fires, violently bad puns, and more

  Dear Editor: How significant is the difference between one idiot burning a building full of rare plant tissues, research, writing, curricula, slides, and books all regarding the worthy goal of a better understanding of the natural world and the idiot who burns a church because it is occupied by a group of people they […]