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Cool feature in Nat’l Geo

National Geographic has a fairly awesome new web feature. It's an interactive look at smart growth that does a good job of spelling out -- with pictures! -- some of the key differences between low-density sprawl and healthier compact communities. There's more in the magazine.

Unfortunately, NG's representation of healthy urban development seems to make a puzzling omission. I was unable to find the multibillion dollar giant new elevated freeway through the heart of town -- the hallmark of responsible planning for the future.

A bit odd, if you ask me.

More interesting than it sounds

In case you hadn’t heard, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is suing the Bush administration’s Council on Environmental Quality for refusing to reply with its FOIA request for records relating to global warming science and policy. Surely the administration isn’t hiding anything …

Finally!

At last, some of the nation's biggest newspapers have been making a big deal of energy efficiency and conservation.

Over the weekend the Washington Post ran an article on California's ambitious and profitable efforts by utilities. The Post's article followed an energy series by the Wall Street Journal on cutting energy use and costs.

It doesn’t work out

There’s a lot of talk about geoengineering lately, specifically around climate change. We can just send up space mirrors or seed the atmosphere with sulfur or some such, right? Then we can just keep on keepin’ on. Sprol has a great post on a huge geoengineering project that didn’t turn out quite as well as […]

Chlorine plants receive polluting awards

It's a bird! It's a plane! No, it's a spray-painted pregnant mannequin bestowed to uncomfortable chlor-alkalai chlorine plant executives ...

Five days before the Oscars, Oceana announced the winners of the inaugural Masters of Making Mercury in the Environment (MOMMIE) Awards, celebrating America's chlorine plants for outstanding achievement in the field of poisoning our tuna fish sandwiches. In 2004, the FDA advised women who might become pregnant, women who are pregnant, nursing mothers and young children to limit their consumption of certain types of seafood to prevent mercury contamination.

Most people remain unaware that a small subset of the chlorine industry makes a major -- and completely preventable -- contribution to the global mercury crisis. Oceana has been working to convince nine chlorine companies to go mercury free since early 2005. Of these "naughty nine," four plants have stopped using the outdated technology.

Read all about an awards moment that was even more uncomfortable than David Letterman's ill-fated "Uma ... Oprah ... Oprah ... Uma" monologue.

Wyoming joins Oklahoma in drought

Irony is no stranger to our posts derived from the U.S. Drought Monitor, and again, this case is no exception.

The monitor reveals severe to extreme drought covering most of the state of Wyoming (for at least the last three months), the home of none other than Vice President Dick Cheney.

A coastal geologist explores the flaws in modeling nature

The New York Times yesterday published a short piece on a new book by coastal geologist (and InterActivist alum) Orrin H. Pilkey and his daughter Linda Pilkey-Jarvis, also a geologist. The book, Useless Arithmetic: Why Environmental Scientists Can’t Predict the Future, argues that nature’s unruliness — conditions are highly variable and uncertainties inevitable — makes […]

Aerosols

Andrew’s mentioned this stuff before, but if you want to learn more about aerosols and their role in climate change (and climate change modeling), RealClimate has a nice post up on it.

The system changes or we’re all screwed

Having finally gotten the memo that the debate on climate change science is over, conservatives now need a new attack on green advocates. It appears they’re reverting to an old standby: hypocrisy. Watch (via Hugg) as FOX News’ Sean Hannity lays out the charge against Al Gore: The hypocrisy attack on environmentalists is extremely common, […]

Umbra on air quality and temperature

Dear Umbra, Is there a relationship between air quality and temperature? I thought about this on my bike ride to work this morning when the smell of exhaust from cars seemed more potent, and the fumes were certainly more visible in the 32-degree air. I know that air quality in Los Angeles is worse during […]