Latest Articles

A Low Blow

Congressional committee OKs amendment to kill Cape Wind project The Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound may have blown its final … may have been blown … in a gust of … oh, never mind. We’re out of wind puns, and the proposed offshore wind farm is out of steam: If a recent, sneaky effort […]

A conversation with climate journalist Elizabeth Kolbert

Elizabeth Kolbert. Over the past year, a perfect storm of scientific studies, dire weather events, and media coverage lifted global warming onto the mainstream national agenda. No writing had more impact than a series of closely observed pieces in The New Yorker by journalist Elizabeth Kolbert, which have now been collected and expanded into a […]

Won’t someone think of the chicks?

A family drama is unfolding in an eagle's nest near Washington D.C.'s Woodrow Wilson Bridge. A male bald eagle, nicknamed "George," has been left alone in the care of a nest of near-hatchlings. His mate, nicknamed "Martha," is recovering at a wildlife rehabilitation center after she was attacked by another female bald eagle (who was apparently not given a nickname, so I'll call her "J. Lo").

Smells like french fries

From an article in E Magazine:

According to Kathryn Phillips, manager of Environmental Defense's California Clean Air for Life campaign, it [biodiesel] actually increases nitrous oxide (NOX) emissions, which react with other chemicals to create ground-level ozone, or smog, significantly impacting lung development in children.

After glossing over the problem by telling us that "the biodiesel industry is working on methods to reduce NOX via an additive or catalyst," the author then spends the next 1,310 words telling everyone they should burn it not only in their cars but also in their furnaces.

An Inconvenient Truth: A preview

Moviefone has a trailer ... looks good.

Bush wants to drop nukes on Iran

This isn't strictly environmental, but everybody who has any audience -- even just family and friends -- should be making sure the news gets out.

The Bush administration is seriously considering -- nay, already planning -- air strikes on Iran, possibly involving nuclear weapons:

Harry Taylor

A gentleman named Harry Taylor became instantly famous when he stood up at one of President Bush's notoriously scripted "town hall" events and said, among other things, this:

You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf.

...

... in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and ... I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself.

Taylor is also a member of the Sierra Club. According to Carl Pope, Taylor had this to say when asked about the event by club staff:

Is FishScam.com a scam?

I was reading the April 10th edition of The New Yorker this morning (for the cartoons, I'll admit). As I was flipping through the pages searching for the next illustration, I came across this full page ad that featured a message that caught me completely off guard.

The smaller text reads as follows:

Environmental scares about trace amounts of mercury in fish rely on a study of island natives who eat huge amounts of whale meat. However, scientists who study heavy fish-eaters find no health risks from mercury. So unless you're lunching on a Moby Dick sandwich, there's no reason to worry.

Fish is good for you. Baseless anxiety (or whale blubber) isn't.

No health risks from mercury? No reason to worry? Now, I don't eat fish, so I haven't researched this issue myself, but something fishy seems to be going on here.

Head on over to FishScam.com to get the background on this campaign. I'd be interested to read what y'all think of this.

The barnstorming band that’s changing the world, one campus at a time

Singing a new song: Guster rocks out for eco-awareness. Photo: Ian B. Johnson.   After welcoming some 1,500 fans to a concert at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., last week, Ryan Miller — the curly haired front man of pop/rock band Guster — asked the audience if they had noticed that he […]

Cape Wind, R.I.P.

The much-debated Cape Wind project off the coast of Cape Cod has effectively been killed by an amendment to the Coast Guard budget bill.

After all that debate among the locals, it was a parliamentary gimmick in Washington, D.C., that put to rest what would have been the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., and one of the biggest wind farms in the world.

(Amanda wrote about Cape Wind here.)