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A simple change that can help utilities and their customers conserve energy

This is good news: According to NW Current, more and more utilities are becoming interested in "decoupling" -- which could be the single most cost-effective step I've heard of for encouraging conservation.

An interactive illustration of how the other half lives

Click on the image to see a full-size version. The wrong side of the tracks: we often talk about a figurative gulf between rich and poor in the United States, but as this phrase suggests, there is also a literal chasm between the classes. If you live in poverty in this country, odds are you […]

Global Warring

Climate change a major security problem, says U.K. defense chief U.K. Defense Secretary John Reid has echoed a growing number of analysts by stressing that global warming is not just a weather problem, or a health problem, or a problem for biodiversity. It’s a global security problem. In a Monday speech, Reid called on the […]

Repent, Ye Synners

Shady synfuel industry making billions off tax-credit loophole A budget bill currently being hashed out in Congress may help a few dozen coal plants continue to get filthy rich off of taxpayer money. The backstory: In 1980, Congress enacted tax incentives for turning coal into synthetic fuel, requiring only that the coal be chemically altered […]

Bring in Da Illinois, Bring in Da Hunk

Obama speechifies for energy independence, chemical-plant security Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is calling for a bipartisan effort to create a cabinet-level national director of energy security, who would coordinate federal policies to cut U.S. dependence on foreign oil. In a Tuesday speech to U.S. governors, Obama touted several policies to promote oil-free energy, among them […]

Mardi Grist

By all accounts -- that is, all accounts from people who were privileged enough to attend, as opposed to people who were told that their presence was not worth the price of a subsidized plane ticket and hotel room, even though they totally would have rocked the party, hmph -- last night's Mardi Grist in NYC celebration was a resounding success.

You can see some pictures from the bash here, courtesy of fiftyRX3.

That man’s got a pair, you gotta give him that

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) delivered a major speech on energy independence today. The setting was a meeting of the National Governors Association -- specifically, the Governors' Ethanol Coalition.

I'll probably have more to say about it in coming days, but for now, I've just reprinted the entire speech below the fold, for your viewing pleasure.

I think it's pretty ballsy. But let me know what you think.

Avian flue expert calls on birders to become first-alert front

Like anyone who's neither an idiot nor willfully ignorant, I've followed the avian flu issue with enough depth and interest to know that it's scary as hell. Yesterday I happened to pick up a copy of the International Herald Tribune (it was in the lobby of the Zurich hotel we stayed in after a week of skiing in the Alps; yes, I know, life is tough) and read a scary piece about how avian flu has turned up on a poultry farm in France, forcing French health authorities to quarantine a farm family. The family's young daughter was away from home when the outbreak was discovered and she's not allowed to return home, and because the local postman is afraid, he leaves the family's medicine on the road near their farmhouse.

And then I read a scary piece about how avian flu is likely to make its way around the globe, written by Laurie Garrett, who apparently has written a scary book about the topic.

Her analysis is fascinating, but so is her solution -- mainly because it relies heavily on the longtime footsoldiers of grassroots environmental activism. Writes Garrett: "One of the best untapped resources in this epic battle against influenza is bird-watchers, who are among the most fanatic hobbyists in the world."

Chuck Norris strikes again.

From your reliable online source of Chuck Norris Facts:

There is no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned the sun up.

The hobgoblin of little minds

This NYT review of two new climate-change books is fairly good, but it's especially notable for bringing to light this delicious quote:

And [Eugene Linden] appreciates the value of complex, ambiguous data in forging roundabout paths to new discoveries. As one of his sources in oceanography says admiringly of another, "Republicans would call him a flip-flopper, but he's really just a good scientist."