Latest Articles

This one will hit harder in the global south

Climate change is affecting the oceans in any number of unpredictable ways. For example, under pressure from rising ocean temperatures (and toxic waste), coral reefs — those glorious engines of biodiversity — are degrading. I knew that. But this one was new to me: They also become breeding grounds for poisonous algae. And that poison […]

Biofuel facilities that use fossil fuels help no one, waste resources.

The Onion, America's Finest News Source (TM), once told of a special device for dealing with a lost TV remote: a remote you could use to make the other TV remote beep, so you could find it underneath the discarded pizza boxes and such.

Little did the Onion writers know that Big Coal and Corporate Agribusiness would apply that same principle to produce a horde of monsters, the so-called "biofuels plants," facilities with a voracious appetite for fossil fuels, particularly yummy coal.

Sea-dweller stops McConaughey in his tracks

The recent discovery of Irukundi jellyfish off the coast of Fraser Island, Australia, has stopped production of Fool's Gold, a sure-to-be-Oscar-contender starring Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson. The teensy-tiny toxic creatures ("no larger than a thumbnail") are usually found only in northern Queensland, but -- you guessed it -- warming temperatures seem to be pushing the deadly (and we mean deadly) critters south.

The upside: Now that global warming has deprived the world of the wacky romantic-comedy stylings of Matt and Kate for a few whole days, maybe the administration will finally have the motivation it needs to do something about global warming.

Yeah. And maybe Matthew McConaughey will finally go a whole day without taking his shirt off in public.

Dare this mom to change her life

Few things are less environmentally friendly than kids.

You know it's true. They stand as examples of our populating an overpopulated planet. They need a lot of stuff, or at least that's what other parents and Babies 'R' Us tell us. And nothing says "earth hater" more than the billions of dirty diapers now calling landfills home.

But here's the thing: Before kids, I wasn't much of an environmentalist.

X Marks the Pot

X Prize Foundation offers $10 million prize for creator of eco-friendly car Wanna win a cool $10 million? Read on. The X Prize Foundation is launching a contest to see who can design the best mass-producible, low-emissions vehicle, cheap enough to sell 10,000 units a year, with a fuel economy of at least 100 miles […]

Deca Dent

Washington state first in the nation to ban PBDEs Washington state will be the first in the nation to phase out nasty fireproofing chemicals called PBDEs, which show up in the bodies of people and wildlife and may cause neurological damage. Yesterday, the state Senate passed a measure that will eventually ban home items containing […]

Drown and Out

Baby seals drown from melting ice as Canada hunt begins Pop an antidepressant before reading this: Canada has reduced this year’s quota for its annual harp seal hunt by 20 percent, to a mere 270,000 — not because of pressure from conservationists and animal activists, but because thousands of baby seals have already fallen through […]

An interview with Duke Energy CEO Jim Rogers

Meet Jim Rogers, a great American paradox. He’s the top gun at Duke Energy, a huge (and hugely polluting) power company; he’s also one of the nation’s most dogged advocates for federal regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions. Jim Rogers. Duke Energy operates smack in the heart of coal country in the Midwest and Southeast and derives […]

You heard it here first

The lawsuit filed by automakers against states that have adopted California’s greenhouse-gas restrictions on vehicles may be dismissed as early as tomorrow (Wed.) afternoon. When the Supreme Court ruling in Mass. vs. EPA was announced, the judge handling the automakers’ lawsuit — Judge William K. Sessions III of the U.S. District Court of Vermont — […]

I do not think it means what you think it means

President Bush "said he took climate change very seriously Tuesday, a day after the US Supreme Court ruled the government must regulate greenhouse gases." In other news, President Bush "said on Tuesday he planned no new action to impose caps on greenhouse gases blamed for global warming."