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Spring brings a new crop of climate bills in Congress

A small crop of new climate bills is sprouting up in Congress, and none too soon. Grow, little seedling, grow. Photo: iStockphoto. Earlier this month, a number of influential energy execs called on Congress to regulate industrial greenhouse-gas emissions. And earlier this week, the EPA quietly released dismal new figures showing that U.S. emissions are […]

Earth Day Network TV

Today, the Earth Day Network launched Earth Day Network TV (currently streaming: a live panel discussion on matters earthly, accompanied by a live chat).

You'll also find a variety of videos submitted from different groups, on subjects ranging from renewable energy to climate change to trailers for environmental-media projects.

Here is some info included in an email that I received back in March:

[The network] will include hours of interviews, documentaries, film clips and compelling visual and interactive information on climate change from leading independent films such as "Nobelity" and "The Great Warming", cable television networks such as Lime, public and broadcast television networks and leading television production groups. The Earth Day TV Network will be available worldwide to anyone with high speed internet, and will look much like a regular television broadcast. EDN is partnering with Google Video as part of this IPTV launch.

For more info on today's live chat, go here.

Yahoo! also celebrates Earth Day

AOL is not the only Internet giant celebrating Earth Day. Yahoo! is as well. And while Yahoo! only has 10 ways to reduce climate change (to AOL's 11 planet-saving tips), Yahoo!'s dress-your-avatar-in-Earth-Day-gear trumps AOL's buddy icons. (By the way, check out the handsome virtual devil to the right.)

And all you Ask Umbra readers go make your momma proud: Yahoo! is awarding a trip to the FIFA World Cup for people who answer Earth Day questions, such as this one: Why does it matter if the seas rise and the ice caps melt? How will that affect my children and me anyhow?

And taking advantage of their acquisition of Flickr, visitors can check out a collection of environmental photos.

From Hip-Hop to Hybrid

The Ghostface of Earth Day present Want to celebrate Earth Day, but don’t wanna roll wit dem punk-ass bitchez? Stop by NYC’s Green Apple Music and Arts Festival and catch a set by Ghostface Killah, who shared these words of wisdom about the importance of conscientious environmental stewardship: “I don’t know nothing about that.” Word, […]

You hear that? Eh, it’s probably nothing …

Anchorage Daily News:

A pipeline leak-detection system sounded warnings on four straight days in the week leading up to last month's record North Slope oil spill, but field workers interpreted the signals as false alarms, a new investigative report says.

The report, prepared by a team of BP and state investigators, confirms that the leak from a large Prudhoe Bay oil field pipeline went on undetected for at least five days "and probably much longer."

Pussy Galore

The lynx returns to Colorado After a deluge of depressing news about dying polar bears and baby walruses (who we love and would never, ever joke about), finally some good animal tidings! The fuzzy-wuzzy lynx is endangered in Colorado and threatened in 47 other states, but a Colorado Division of Wildlife program is making progress […]

That’s Some Good Ship

Calif. plan would curb air pollution from shipping and cargo industries Yesterday, the California Air Resources Board approved a far-reaching plan to reduce air pollution by the cargo-moving industry to 2001 levels — no small feat, as the amount of goods entering California ports is expected to triple in the next 15 years. A combination […]

Careful, The Last Hunter Who Crossed Cheney …

Hunters, anglers fight Bushies’ efforts to sell or drill on public lands Bush administration plans to sell off big chunks of public land and open other parcels to drilling are meeting stiff opposition from a traditionally Republican constituency: the hook-and-bullet crowd. Hunters and anglers anxious to protect fish and game are being wooed by environmental […]

Global-warming glamour shots

Imagine you're a pro photographer with an unlimited travel budget and your editor says he needs some pics for a story on global warming.

Sure thing, you say. Just tell me the intersection and what time to show up. Well .... huh. Where do you go? Who do you look for? What's the most arresting and memorable way to depict an event that's both global and gradual?

Photographer Gary Braasch has the enviable job of trying to figure it out. His advice: People connect with images of large animals (ah, that explains the ubiquitious polar bears) and with photos that show humans already at risk. Don't hate him because his work is beautiful.

Braasch spoke today in Washington at the Center for American Progress.

Triumph

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog interviews four Republican Senators on the subject of global warming. Seriously.