Latest Articles

The Illumi-nicey

New California bills would outlaw inefficient light bulbs As Thomas Edison adjusts his eternal resting position just a tad, two California state legislators plan to introduce separate bills that would effectively ban incandescent light bulbs in the state over the next decade. One of the bills, backed by California Assembly member Lloyd Levine (D), has […]

Merkel, May I?

E.U., Germany duke it out over auto emissions standards Once upon a time, the European Union proposed a carbon-dioxide emissions limit on all vehicles made or imported there. But Germany — home of Volkswagen, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, and Porsche — has yanked on the e-brake. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the country would not support a […]

Frankly, My Dear, We Don’t Want These Dams

Federal decision may be first step toward dam removal on the Klamath River Four hydroelectric dams along the Oregon-California border must ease fish passage to earn license renewal, says the Bush administration. The decision may spur the largest dam-removal project in history, as installation of fish ladders and other devices could cost far more than […]

Paris Exposed

As world awaits climate report, French capital sends a message All eyes are on Paris this week as the world waits en retenant son souffle for tomorrow’s release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. (That means “with bated breath.” We love the Google!) So Paris, ever obliging, is doing a banana dance to […]

How crooked are farm subsidies?

Just check out these proposed "reforms" and you can get a sense of what a colossal ripoff it is.

It dates back to the mid-20th century

There’s something strange and disturbing about the fact that what Naomi Oreskes says here is in an opinion column rather on than the front page of the news section. It is, from the perspective of public education and policymaking, the single most relevant fact about climate change: the basic consensus about it is longstanding and […]

Chlorine plant goes mercury free

Now that cell phones are choking hazards and television is high def, it's hard to believe some chlorine plants are still using mercury-cell technology developed back in 1894. The good news is that in the last 48 hours, one of these technological dinosaurs has agreed to enter the 21st century. Each plant that uses this technology emits hundreds of pounds of mercury pollution to our environment every year. So it is cause to celebrate when another one of these dinosaurs agrees to go mercury free.

Record profits

ExxonMobil’s profits in 2005 were $36.13 billion — the largest annual profit ever recorded by a U.S. company. So much for that record. 2006 profits: $39.5 billion. Update [2007-2-1 12:12:21 by David Roberts]: Groovy Green offers this handy way of thinking about Exxon’s profits: Think of it this way, if ExxonMobil invested less than one […]

Al Gore, Nobel winner?

Al Gore has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Two out of three is pretty darn good

It's a banner day in celebrity "journalism," y'all. Two out of the three items in TMZ's Party Favors section were environment-related:

"Monster Garage" host Jesse James was slapped with a $271,250 fine by California air regulators, claiming his custom bikes didn't comply with the state's clean-air laws. The bikes were spewing 10 times the legal limits of hydrocarbons ... While traveling to the U.S. to receive an environmental award, Prince Charles opted to take a commercial plane instead of his private jet because he didn't want his visit to cause unnecessary pollution ... An escaped prisoner who stole singer Crystal Gayle's tour bus was arrested in Daytona Beach after a five-day manhunt.

OK, OK, the banner day was actually Sunday -- can I help it if I've been too busy going to class to keep up with my gossip blog reading? (And yes, that is the stale stench of martyrdom in the air.)