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Better Red Than Dead

Annual “Red List” of threatened species says lots of species are threatened The World Conservation Union released its annual Red List of threatened species today, and it ain’t pretty. Some 15,589 species — 7,266 animals and 8,323 plants and lichens — are in danger, up more than 3,000 from just last year. Nearly an eighth […]

I’ll Have a Side of Hash Browns

U.S. joins 13 other nations in plan to reduce methane emissions Fourteen nations agreed yesterday to a non-binding agreement to curtail methane emissions by trapping the gas and using it as a relatively clean-burning fuel before it’s released into the atmosphere. Methane is the second most common heat-trapping greenhouse gas — albeit a distant second […]

Givin’ the Smog a Bone

Huge new study shows that smog does, in fact, kill The largest study ever conducted on the health effects of smog, or more particularly, ground-level ozone, concludes that, well, smog kills people. Published in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study found that a ground-level ozone rise over a […]

Bright green living

Over at WorldChanging, they are big on the idea of "bright green living," the notion that the future can be both more profitable and more sustainable. (Bright as in smart, get it?) They lamented the lack of a central resource for information about BGL and then said screw lamenting, let's make one.  Thus the Bright Green Living Wiki.  (What's a wiki, you ask? See here.) It's a great collection of articles, definitions, and other such resources for those interested in being hip, smart, and green.  Check it out.

More windmill tilting from PETA

Do you ever feel a slight twinge of guilt when digging into a plate of baked salmon, envisioning the poor fish frolicking with its family and thinking deep thoughts?  Yeah, me neither.  But PETA hopes to change that.  Their "Fishing Empathy" (seriously) campaign kicked off yesterday. It's built around convincing folks that fish are more intelligent than we thought (based on several recent studies).  "No one would ever put a hook  through a dog's or cat's mouth. Once people start to understand that fish, although they come in different packaging, are just as intelligent, they'll stop eating them," says PETA's Bruce Friedrich with that characteristic PETA blend of earnestness, hope, and slight creepiness.

Reception thus far has been, shall we say, skeptical.

GOP has set its sights on revamping the Endangered Species Act

The newly empowered Republican majority on Capitol Hill will grease the skids for plenty of legislation that’s sure to gall environmentalists and delight developers, but the most galling and delighting of all could be sweeping changes to the 30-year-old Endangered Species Act. A Florida panther wonders whether ESA is really past its prime. Photo: U.S. […]

Isn’t it oxymoronic

Elizabeth McCarthy investigates and comes away unimpressed with "clean coal."

Starbucks tokens

Next year, coffee mega-super-behemoth Starbucks will begin stocking its stores with partially recycled coffee cups -- 10 percent recycled, to be precise. Ten percent is no great shakes, of course, but even if this is a largely symbolic gesture, perhaps enviros should consider for once hailing the symbolism rather than immediately bashing the company for not doing more. Just a suggestion.

It’s all about oil

Yesterday we pointed to a story about China's alliance-making with global bad actors, part of its efforts to quench its growing thirst for oil. In today's Washington Post, Robin Wright follows up, focusing on Iran. Readers of James Fallows' seminal article on Iran in the new Atlantic Monthly know that our options around that country's nuclear ambitions are already few and grim -- an alliance with China is certainly not going to help that situation.

Hope springs delusional

On Monday we wrote about Oregon voters' rather ... what's the word? ... shortsighted approval of Measure 37, which many folks felt would eviscerate the state's largely successful (if slightly bloated and overly complex) land-use planning rules.  Today, Ore. Gov. Ted Kulongoski said that voters didn't actually mean to eviscerate the program, and that he would pay out Measure 37 claims to landowners rather than abandon the rules.  

Good luck with that, Ted.

David Hunnicutt, head of the property-rights group that pushed the measure, promptly replied: "Ninety-nine out of a hundred people who've had their rights taken from them don't want a check. They just want the ability to use their land the way they could when they purchased it." Why, it's almost like he did want to eviscerate the rules!

Not wanting to commit political suicide, Kulongoski rushed to assure voters that he wouldn't do anything crazy, like raising taxes.  Instead, he'd pay out the claims by taking money from other programs -- say, "health programs, programs for senior citizens, and help for low-income children and families." Lovely.