Climate Climate & Energy
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Laugh at the crying Indian all you want — the joke’s on us
Remember the crying Indian in the 1970s TV commercial? Well, he's back, and this time, he's not sad -- he's pissed.
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South Pacific islands are in water crisis
Man, Tuvalu just can't catch a break. The island nation is getting slowly submerged by climate-related sea level changes -- and now, in addition to having too much water, they have not enough water. Tuvalu and nearby Tokelau have declared water emergencies because of fresh water shortages; they're relying on bottled water for drinking, but some areas have no more than a two-day supply. Samoa is starting to ration water as well. Maybe they can get some from Fiji.
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Jerry Brown wishes we could treat clean energy like we treat stuffed lions
California Gov. Jerry Brown (whose full first name is Edmund, who knew) has reached across the aisle for the sake of dead mountain lions. Now he'd like to gently suggest to the California senate that things like clean energy might be almost as important.
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Why is Britain's best environmentalist barred from the U.S.?
John Stewart -- not that Jon Stewart, the one with the H -- was voted the U.K.'s most effective environmentalist in 2008. Like our Jon Stewart, he gets things done. So how come his visa was revoked while he was over the Atlantic, traveling to the U.S. for a speaking tour?
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No, the EPA is NOT expanding 1,350 percent
Apparently the right-wing blogosphere, not to mention some "news" organizations, will believe just about anything about the EPA. The most recent ridiculous rumor is that the agency, which currently employs 17,000 people, is on track to hire "230,000 new bureaucrats" -- at taxpayer expense, natch -- while bumping its $8.7 billion budget up to $21 billion.
How did this happen? Basically, the world's dumbest game of telephone.
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Oh, now we're not regulating greenhouse gases either
The EPA, as expected, has decided to postpone making rules about carbon dioxide and other harmful gas emissions from power plants. I mean, greenhouse gas regulations? How is that REMOTELY the job of the Environmental Protection Agency, amirite?
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Alternative fuel source: Doritos?
We use hydrocarbons in cars, home heating, and so forth because hydrocarbons burn. We also make snack chips out of hydrocarbons because we are disgusting. Ergo, we should be able to run our combustion energy off of Doritos! Okay, so it would probably miss the point if we tried to replace fossil fuels with snack […]
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Critical List: Congress holds Solyndra hearing; Bill Gates pushes for more clean energy funding
Lawmakers want to talk about Solyndra, its federal funding, and its bankruptcy. Solyndra execs realized that if they don't come to Washington, they don't have to talk about any of that. For good measure they may build a pillow fort to hide in.
Congress is still going to talk about it, of course. And probably use some strongly worded language.
A day before this hearing, Bill Gates and a bunch of other rich guys urged Congress to invest more in clean energy. #badtiming
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Looks like we might get a do-over Earth after all
A research team at Chile's La Silla Observatory has found a new crop of 50 exoplanets, at least one of which is in the "habitable zone" (i.e. an Earthlike distance from the sun). HD 85512 b is rocky instead of gaseous, big but not too big, and preliminary observations suggest an average surface temperature of a balmy 77 degrees F -- all of which make it a good candidate to be Earth Mark II. Phew, just in time! This one's almost worn out!
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Two good (and overlooked) ideas in Obama's jobs plan
David Roberts highlights two great ideas from Obama's jobs plan: greening schools and expanding job-sharing.