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Hustle and Muscle

Schwarzenegger, frustrated by inaction, threatens to sue U.S. EPA In a smackdown between U.S. EPA head Stephen Johnson and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), who would you bet on? It’s OK if you need time to ponder, because their battle is unfolding in slow motion. On Tuesday, Johnson said he had begun the process of […]

More exciting than it sounds

British Columbia has just joined Schwarzenegger’s Western Regional Climate Action Initiative, which is meant … … to identify, evaluate and implement ways to collectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region and to achieve related co-benefits. The initiative requires partners to set an overall regional goal to reduce emissions, develop a market-based, multi-sector mechanism to […]

Video, yo

Here’s Sen. Barbara Boxer (most appropriately named!), discussing global warming at the National Press Club (for 25 min.). Good stuff: (h/t: Hugg)

Bike racks in rain, smokers under cover

I am pissed. I just learned that my county would rather provide shelter from the weather for its employees who smoke (and drive up healthcare costs) than let those citizen-terrorists on bikes park out of the rain near the county building.

Johnson astonishes Whitehouse

I meant to highlight a post on Warming Law that contains this delightful bit from a recent hearing on the consequences of Mass. v. EPA: When asked to identify our most serious environmental challenge, [EPA administrator Stephen] Johnson again refused to say, explaining “I don’t see one being most serious.” Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse […]

Shooting for a green capitol

No, it's not a new psychological disorder, but a plan for greening the capitol complex.

Over at Building Design and Construction they've got a piece on the acceptance of a "green the capitol initiative."

Not all amphibians are toast

Not all amphibians are toast. From Mongabay:

Poison arrow frogs appear to make special effort to avoid exposure to damaging ultraviolet-B radiation ... The researchers found that the two species of frogs appear to be exhibiting UV-B avoidance behavior, with vocalizing frogs found at sites where UV-B levels were more than six times lower than average.

The ozone depletion problem is generally assumed to be under control for now, though I'm sure you can find scientists who would argue otherwise, especially if fame and wealth would result (as with the topic of global warming). A lot of people have confused the two largely unrelated issues. However, UV-B radiation levels are still elevated and are suspected to be a major factor in the present amphibian extinction crisis. If so, then there is hope that the amphibian extinction event may slow as UV-B radiation levels continue to drop:

New island ‘made’ by global warming

In the same week that science discovers a new, earth-like planet, we get a new island off the coast of Greenland. From The Independent:

The map of Greenland will have to be redrawn. A new island has appeared off its coast, suddenly separated from the mainland by the melting of Greenland's enormous ice sheet, a development that is being seen as the most alarming sign of global warming.

Yikes.

Biofuels scam at 12 o’clock high!

Is there anything that the rich and venal won't do to stave off limits on jet flights? The new scam is a discussion of laundering the fossil fuels through "biofuels" ...

Now that I’ve actually read the book …

When I caught up with 100-mile dieters Alisa Smith and James MacKinnon a few weeks ago, they were just kicking off their book tour with a stop in Toronto, and I hadn’t even had a chance to read Plenty, in which they recount a year of local eating. Sure, I had the basic info — […]