Latest Articles

Ford u-turns in EV kerfuffle

Following a seven-day protest at a Sacramento dealership, Ford Motor Co. announced today that it will reverse a decision to repossess and scrap any remaining electric-powered Ranger pickup trucks.

Public outcry on the original decision began with California drivers Bill Korthof and Dave and Heather Raboy who had leased the zero-emissions vehicles from Ford during a new-vehicle pilot program and weren't quite ready to give them up to the junkyard. They joined with other supporters who staged a round-the-clock sit-in at the downtown car lot. And, according to a press release from Jumpstart Ford, the protestors plan to stay put until Ford follows through on the deal.

You’re Fired Up

Former Berkeley professor fights biotech industry Former University of California at Berkeley professor and one-time biotech supporter Ignacio Chapela is fighting against what he alleges are huge sums of money being used by the biotech industry to influence research at U.S. universities. After what he says was a coordinated PR push by the industry, the […]

Trees: The Quicker Picker-Upper?

Study says trees can play crucial role in battle against global warming Planting forests to remove carbon dioxide from the air — a form of carbon sequestration — would be roughly as effective in the battle against global warming as conserving energy or switching to new fuels, according to a new study from the Pew […]

Terra Cognita

New company offers guilty motorists a way to offset emissions In what is likely to be a growing trend, a private company is stepping in to make money by offering people a concrete way to take positive action against global warming. Benven LLC runs a program called TerraPass, which emerged from a classroom project at […]

Peer review

The indispens... uh, hang on, let me check my thesaurus ... the necessitous RealClimate has a stellar essay up on the subject of scientific peer review, a topic that anyone who ever talks about climate change ought to know a little something about. They agree with the general sentiment that non-peer reviewed scientific papers shouldn't be taken seriously, but go on to say that peer review is not a magic bullet. It's an important process, but doesn't ensure scientific validity.

The best part is a discussion of some of the many recent peer-reviewed papers that have been hyped as overturning the scientific consensus on anthropocentric global warming. They show how the peer review process breaks down, and more importantly, how even after the scientific community has refuted some of these papers, they go on being hyped by climate change skeptics. Specific examples abound.  Here's the money passage:

More death

Speaking of the death of environmentalism, there's a good post and discussion of the issue over on greenState, which I shall be adding forthwith to our blogroll.

Umbra on leather upholstery

Dear Umbra, It seems everyone is getting leather upholstery in their cars and on their couches these days. Where is it coming from — the same cows that are being slaughtered for hamburgers, or special cows that are raised for their hides? What is the environmental impact of all this luxurious leather? SharonCollegeville, Penn. Dearest […]

Bush judicial nominees could shake the foundations of environmental law

William G. Myers III is George W. Bush’s choice for a lifetime position on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. That court’s jurisdiction covers three-quarters of all federal lands, in nine Western states where contentious battles rage over energy, mining, timber, and grazing. Which way will the scales of justice tip? Unlike most judicial […]

China

Here's a worthwhile David R. Francis editorial about China's growing demand for oil. It's another reminder that environmentalists who really care about the fate of the earth -- the entire earth, not just their favorite camping spot out West -- can do nothing more valuable than trying to make sure that China does not follow the same development path as the U.S. and Europe. This means lobbying the Chinese government not only to adopt aggressive conservation and renewable energy programs, but also to open up the free flow of information, in the press and particularly on the internet. A vigorous exchange of information inside the country can lead, through the distributed efforts of thousands of concerned citizens who experience those problems directly, to the development of innovative energy, resource, and conservation solutions. Despite the fond hopes of China's ruling elite, sustainable economic development is not feasible without the simultaneous development of an open democratic culture. Bottom-up, distributed, openly shared solutions are China's best hope of leapfrogging.

Perchlorate

We get lots and lots of press releases here. Occasionally I like to pass one along.

Earlier this month, virtually every paper in the nation published a story on a National Academy of Sciences report on the rocket-fuel ingredient perchlorate. The report, they claimed, showed that perchlorate is some 20 times safer than U.S. EPA estimates, which could save businessses millions.

But according to the Environmental Working Group, this isn't actually what the report said. Read on: