Latest Articles

I Wish They All Could Be California Copycats

New York, Massachusetts to adopt tougher auto-emissions standards The New York State Environmental Board voted unanimously this month to adopt California’s toughest-in-the-nation rules for cutting automotive greenhouse-gassiness. The new rules, which will be phased in with 2009 model-year cars, aim to cut carbon dioxide emissions about 30 percent by 2016 — effectively improving auto fuel […]

Consciousness of Streams

Sprawl is dirtying streams and posing threat to U.S. drinking water Storm-water runoff threatens nearly every urban and suburban stream in the U.S., with serious implications for the country’s drinking water. Used to be rain fell largely onto meadows, forests, and fields, where it was absorbed by plants or filtered into the underground water table, […]

Against Montreal Odds

Pro-Kyoto Canadian gov’t likely to fall as Montreal climate meet begins Some 10,000 officials, activists, and scientists from more than 180 countries are gathering in Montreal today for a U.N. climate-change summit. It was supposed to be Canada’s moment to shine: Its influential and persuasive environment minister Stephane Dion, a strong Kyoto advocate, is chairing […]

Torch Songhua

China chemical-spill crisis eases, but water’s still not safe to drink As Americans gorged on turkey and pumpkin pie, a 50-mile-long toxic chemical spill was flowing along the Songhua River through northern China — the worst environmental disaster in the nation’s recent history. The crisis began on Nov. 13, when two explosions at a state-owned […]

Blogging from COP MOP

As I'm sure you all know, COP MOP started today up in Montreal.

Several young bloggers are writing about their experiences at the non-official portions of the summit -- the rallies, the marches, the street-hockey games -- over on It's Getting Hot in Here. Check it out.

(But people? The proper spelling is "herre.")

Umbra on low-flow flushing

Dear Umbra, I live in an apartment. What can I do to reduce the amount of water that is flushed in the toilet? The landlord will not fix it. AudreyBrookline, Mass. Dearest Audrey, Ooh, more toilet talk. I quote USA Landlord, which supplies landlords and tenants with water-saving devices: “This really is a landlord no-brainer!” […]

It may be time to embrace nuclear power

I was writing a post about nuclear energy based on an article in Scientific American when I noticed an interesting comment on one of Dave's posts on global warming, which all somehow tied together. From Scientific American:

Smarter Use of Nuclear Waste [ ENERGY ]
Fast-neutron reactors could extract much more energy from recycled nuclear fuel, minimize the risks of weapons proliferation and markedly reduce the time nuclear waste must be isolated

Sorry, you can't read the full article without a subscription. Not to worry, the gist of it is that fast breeder reactors could eliminate most of the problems associated with today's reactors (bomb grade material, nuclear fuel shortages, and large amounts of long-lived waste). I learned long ago not to get worked up when reading articles on imminent scientific breakthroughs that are going to save the world, but this technology (unlike fusion) is actually within reach.

Political circus to distract from COP MOP

Oh fer chrissake.

The COP MOP meeting in Montreal starts Monday. Guess what else is happening Monday up in Canadaland?

... Monday is also the day that Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberal Party government is expected to fall in a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons. Many of the Canadian cabinet ministers and other members of Parliament who were supposed to attend the conference will now be scurrying to the campaign trail instead.

"It's the nightmare scenario that environmental activists around the world have been hoping would be avoided," said Elizabeth May, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada.

Great. And it gets better. Meet Canada's environment minister, Stephane Dion:

Mr. Dion, a mild-mannered man who wears a windmill pin on his lapel, has been credited by many environmentalists for his diplomatic skills with China, India and the Bush administration. He has pushed for international efforts to increase technological innovation like hydrogen fuel cells and methods for ... carbon sequestration, and planning for droughts and floods that he says will be consequences of the existing buildup of the heat-trapping gases. "What Canada will attempt to do is reach a rapprochement," he said.

But about that rapprochement ... funny story:

Should the Liberals lose the vote now expected in January, a minister from the Conservative Party - which is critical of the Kyoto Protocol and rooted in oil-rich Alberta Province - would probably replace Mr. Dion as president of the conference for the rest of the year.

And I'm sure that Alberta oilman be working doggedly for an extension of Kyoto's mandatory CO2 targets.

Can someone tell me why acts of fate keep sandbagging our biggest chances for progress on climate?

Alien abductions on the rise …probes continue

I am no longer alone. Others now know that alien species are abducting the planet's rainforests. I was greatly relieved to find this article in New Scientist via Treehugger a few days ago.

Admittedly, the number of environmentalists who think biofuels are a bad idea are outnumbered by people who have been abducted by aliens a million-fold, but maybe it's a start (I know, my posts on the subject are starting to look obsessive/compulsive).

Geeks and peak oil

If you want to know what the young, internet-residing, tech-savvy crowd -- an influential if lamentably self-regarding demographic -- thinks about peak oil, read through the comments on this post over at Digg. Eye-opening, and not all bad.