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Wow

I'm on vacation, so I'll keep this short, but wow. I mean ... wow. It's difficult to fathom how out to sea the conservative movement is on this issue.

New museum exhibit shows visitors how to build green

Sometimes it feels tough to get through a day without despoiling the planet. The products most of us use come through a wasteful global production chain; discarding old stuff is cheaper than repairing it; and our energy supply is inefficient and hard on the earth. Making matters worse, most of this excess centers around the […]

Environmentalism makes the H-list

OK, I have a Hotmail account (is that too 2002 of me?), and I check it once a day. There's always a little story off to the left, something really thoughtful like "27 Ways to Pad Your Resume" or "Is He Cheating with Your Ex?" But today, the teaser is "Hot on Hotmail: Why environmentalism is so hot in the U.S." Granted, it just links to this not-so-hot Newsweek story. But still. We're, uh, officially hot.

Plugs and Kisses

Toyota considering plug-in hybrids and flex-fuel vehicles for U.S. Toyota plans to develop a plug-in hybrid vehicle, the company announced this week. Rechargeable via any typical electrical outlet, a plug-in would be able to “travel greater distances without using its gas engine, … conserve more oil, and slice smog and greenhouse gases to nearly imperceptible […]

Making the Trade

Britain looks into carbon trading system for individuals British Environment Secretary David Miliband has endorsed the idea of a carbon trading system for individuals, requiring people to limit personal emissions and allowing energy-savers to sell back unused carbon allowances for a profit. “Imagine a country where carbon becomes a new currency,” Miliband said. Each citizen […]

Act Normal

Illinois mom blogs about her car-free month In some ways, Christine Gardner lives a normal life — she’s a mom, a writer, and, after all, she lives in Normal, Ill. But for July she’s doing something decidedly out of the norm — going car-free in a suburb without amenities right around the corner. Halfway through […]

That Extincts

Scientists, worried about mass extinction, call for international biodiversity panel The planet faces a “major biodiversity crisis” that could lead to mass extinction of species, warn 19 of the world’s leading biodiversity specialists in Nature. Stating that “biodiversity is still consistently undervalued and given inadequate weight in both private and public decisions,” the specialists urge […]

In working with Wal-Mart, activist Adam Werbach is abandoning his principles

In late 2004, Adam Werbach proclaimed that environmentalism was dead due to the movement’s unwillingness to connect with ordinary working people and its inability to effectively grapple with the most profound problem the earth has ever faced, climate change. His diagnosis was clear: In order to build the next liberal majority in this country, environmentalists […]

Don’t worry, I’m here to help.

I know you're wracked with indecision over whether to participate in World Jump Day tomorrow. It's a tough one, but I'm here to help. Below the fold is a comprehensive and handy pros and cons list to help you make your decision.

Vegetarians are ruining our bad headline

It was a headline many took personally: "Vegetarians Are Ruining the Planet."

As we know from the source article for our news blurb -- and from the many readers who wrote in to emphasize this particular point -- about 80 percent of the world's soy goes to feed livestock, much of which is then eaten by non-vegetarians.

So yes, meat-eaters, dog-food purchasers, leather-jacket wearers, and other sundry livestock end-users thus are about four-fifths at fault for destroying the soy-deadened parts of the Amazon.

But chew on this: inadvertently helping to destroy even 20 percent of these vast Amazonian tracts is still helping to destroy the planet, is it not? Alas, we're all playing a part -- though veggies less so than meat-eaters in this instance (particularly ones who make sure their soy patties and tofu nuggets are certified organic).

Anyhow, we are sincerely sorry that the headline offended many of you, dear readers. We thought, in our innocence, that it was such a clearly ridiculous assertion that it would be taken in jest. We've nothing against vegetarians, we swear -- in fact, we've even let some of them infiltrate our ranks.