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Unintended consequences?

According to this article there is a downside to fluorescent light bulbs; they have small quantities of toxic mercury that are hard to remove. Goes to show that sometimes working on one dimension of environmental quality exacerbates another. It's also why I don't like the idea of government mandates in favor of fluorescent bulbs.

Wheee!

More alarmism from scientists: By the end of the century up to two fifths of the land surface of the Earth will have a hotter climate unlike anything that currently exists, according to a study that predicts the effects of global warming on local and regional climates. And in the worst case scenario, the climatic […]

Wrestlemania for the future of the planet

El Hijo del Santo to the rescue!

Someone tell Inhofe that after a worldwide search we've finally found his doppelganger. If the money is right and Don King doesn't want too big a cut, I don't see why we can't put together a pay-per-view event and settle this thing once and for all.

Biz magazines spotlight the sustainability revolution

If the business press is any indication, sustainability issues have risen up the corporate ladder and are now seen as a central challenge for companies in the coming decades. In its first-ever green issue, Fortune commends “10 Green Giants” — corporations that are making impressive environmental gains. The editors decided to bypass GE and Wal-Mart, […]

Use Google Maps to simulate rising sea levels anywhere in the world

Somehow this isn't as much light-hearted fun as Sim Earth.

New business and climate change video

Sea Studios Foundation has a new 12 minute video entitled Ahead of the Curve: Business Responds to Climate Change. It features some of the biggies (DuPont, Wal-Mart, PG&E) and the hot green business broker, Bill Reilly, who facilitated the TXU energy deal. It also has John Holdren, the Harvard climate change prof who is pushing AAAS in more aggressive directions on climate as board chair. It is a format that works well done by real professionals (Sea Studios does Strange Days on Planet Earth, the excellent series narrated by actor Ed Norton).

Grist reviews the spring crop of green glossy mags

Last year at this time, Vanity Fair and Elle tried a shocking experiment: they published green-themed issues. Could mainstream readers handle eco-news if it came in the shape of Julia Roberts and Evangeline Lilly (and, uh, Chip Giller)? Would green really prove to be the new black ink? Covering green issues … or just green-issue […]

Human impacts, Al Gore, and more

I was fortunate enough last night to hear Tim Flannery -- he of The Weathermakers -- speak here in Toronto to a crowd of businessmen and lawyers. Favorite moment:

Questioner: Mr. Flannery, do you think or wish that Al Gore should run for President?

Flannery: He's already done it, and what's more, he won!

Levity aside, Flannery delivered an excellent talk and specifically explained why, exactly, the atmosphere is so much more vulnerable to human disruption than something like the ocean.

‘Nature for nature’s sake’ has limited appeal

Stephanie’s post on Dave Foreman’s rant raises a subject that’s been hashed over on this site many times. But we’ve got some new readers around, so I’m going to hash it over some more. Here’s how I see it. If you really love "nature for nature’s sake," you’ll want to do or say whatever it […]

Why bother filing an EIS for a biodiversity-destroying project?

Ag giant Cargill was forced to close a soy export terminal in the Brazilian Amazon this weekend, marking a major victory for greens, who have argued for years that the plant was built illegally and became a significant cause of rainforest depletion.

The terminal spurred a major leap in soy production -- millions of acres of rainforest were turned over to soy bean fields -- which is used principally to supply European livestock farms. Ironically, it was closed not because of the destruction, but because they never submitted an EIS. Mmm, soy.