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A nice package of stories that aren’t about rich people

L.A. Weekly has a package of stories on green building that, in the words of editor Linda Immediato, "DOESN'T involve tear-downs, massive square footage homes and insane water-intensive landscaping." Huzzah for that!

The lead piece is "Green Without Envy," about the many ways existing homes can be added to, tweaked, or remodeled -- instead of torn down -- to increase their green-friendliness.

Also check out similarly sensible articles on lawns, floors, and individual rooms, as well as a piece on the shortcomings of LEED and another one on, er, re-using a Boeing 747 as a house.

Good stuff.

Jerks.

I try to be a good person. I try to keep love in my heart for all people. Why do they make it so hard?

Declaring them "mature technologies" that need no further funding, the Bush administration in its FY 2007 budget request eliminates hydropower and geothermal research, venerable programs with roots in the energy crises of the 1970s.

We're talking about -- cumulatively -- roughly $50 million in research money. There's nowhere else in the federal budget we could find $50 million to trim? Really?

Oh, wait, but look, we're not even saving the money, just reallocating it:

Any savings from the cuts would be nil since all of the nearly $24 million ($1 million from hydropower and $23 million from geothermal) research funding would go to other programs such as biofuels.

Why? Why?

It's a small amount, but it matters quite a bit to the people laboring in the trenches studying this stuff:

More ideas needed

Here's a recent story of how two poachers, while posing as tourists, managed to slip away just long enough to kill a couple of rhinos and cut their horns off.

National Geographic has this story about the discovery of a critically endangered male Sumatran rhino in Malaysia. Problem is, that horn sure would make a nice dagger handle. It is just a matter of time now before the locals find out one is there.

This problem has been discussed a few times in letters to Science magazine: Biologists report finding an endangered species only to lose it again to collectors and poachers who learned of its whereabouts from the same report. This profit motive thing is powerful. Maybe we should be looking harder for ways to use it to protect what remains.

From Strippers to Stingrays

It’s getting hot in herre … Climate scientists got hot and bothered last week when a group of burlesque dancers began a striptease at a government-sponsored conference in Australia. When the show started rubbing the researchers the wrong way, the seven performers were asked to pull out prematurely. Prius passes GO, collects more than $200 […]

Why canvassing no longer works

A while back, Nathan Wyeth wrote a Soapbox for Grist about the crappiness of green-group canvassing operations. It kicked off quite a discussion.

If you're interested in the subject, Dana Fisher has a good piece on it at The American Prospect:

Grasping at Straw

Alternative fabrics hit the action-sports market Surf’s up, dude — and so is action-sports apparel makers’ interest in alternative fabrics. (OK, that was a stretch.) Clothes made from organic cotton, hemp, bamboo, and even recycled plastic bottles are hitting the action-sports apparel market. Sustainability will “definitely be the next big wave,” says the oh-so-punny Don […]

San Joaquin Phoenix

Dead San Joaquin River will be revived More than 60 miles of California’s dead, sandy San Joaquin River may yet run with water and salmon again, as enviros and farmers have settled an 18-year legal battle over the river’s fate. Based on a new 20-year, $250-to-$800 million restoration plan, agricultural water diversion from the river […]

You Can’t Always Nyet What You Want

Russia plans enormous sports complex near pristine national park Hoping to strengthen its bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics, the Russian government has approved an $11.3 billion project to turn areas of Sochi National Park into a ginormous winter-sports complex. The park is home to 300 endemic plant species and a variety of endangered flora […]

Wigley Room

Spewing sulfur dioxide into atmosphere could slow warming, says research On earth, sulfur dioxide contributes to acid rain and harms human hearts and lungs — but if injected into the stratosphere, says new research in Science, it could shade the sun’s rays and keep global warming at bay. Hey, if volcanoes can spew it, why […]

You are now entering science fiction land …

Sometimes life in the 21st century feels like a weird science fiction movie -- one so unnerving it's difficult to distinguish reality from nightmare.

Here are some science fiction-y nightmares well-known scientists, writers, and bloggers brought forward this week: