Climate Climate & Energy
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EPA scientist warns Atlantic seaboard will be swallowed by rising seas
For most of the 20th century, Chesapeake Beach, Maryland, was known for its boardwalk, amusement park, and wide, sandy beaches, popular with daytrippers from Washington, D.C. “The bathing beach has a frontage of three miles,” boasted a tourist brochure from about 1900, “and is equal, if not superior, to any beach on the Atlantic Coast.” […]
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Engineers plan underwater dome to contain Gulf oil spill
They’re trying a dome because the robots didn’t work. No, really. Damage control for the oil-rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is sounding like a bad science-fiction movie: Engineers are crafting a giant underwater dome to help to contain an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico after attempts to shut off the leak […]
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Cashed Coal Plants
As the US struggles to agree on an energy policy, Canada is telling energy providers that they’ll have to gradually close their coal plants when they reach the end of their commercial life, which in most cases is 5 to 15 years from now. As a weekend story in The Globe and Mail explains, the […]
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Details emerge on study of cancer near U.S. nuclear plants
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission recently asked the National Academy of Sciences to study cancer risk for people living near nuclear power plants and other nuclear facilities, and details of that research were discussed at yesterday’s meeting of the Academy’s Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board. The research request came in response to “recurrent stakeholder concerns,” said […]
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TED talk on building a greener house
Robotics engineer Catherine Mohr is tired of enviros “long on moral authority and short on data.” She’s got a smart TED talk clip about the greenest options for (a) wiping up a yogurt spill and (b) building a house. The point in each case is that the best option is often not what you’d expect. […]
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Win a signed copy of ‘In the Empire of Ice’!
Welcome back, dear readers, to another Grist book giveaway. There are prizes at stake here, so listen up. We’re giving away 10 autographed copies of Gretel Ehrlich’s new book In the Empire of Ice. To nab one, all you have to do is answer this question — in 400 words or less: “How is climate […]
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How Bolivia celebrates Earth Day
This morning my email inbox was full of advocacy groups commemorating the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. As the ecological systems that support life are reaching their brink, there is certainly a good reason to use this opportunity to shine a spotlight on a range of issues and challenges. But activist organizations aren’t alone in […]
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Massey denies time off for workers to attend funerals of mine victims
The coal and oil industries are really trying to outdo each other these days. Massey Energy, the criminally unsafe coal mining and intimidation company, refuses to give workers time off to attend the funerals of friends who died in Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine, the Washington Independent reports: Massey Energy, the Virginia-based coal giant that […]
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The people speak at the world people’s climate summit
Cochabamba, Bolivia — The voice of Evo Morales cut through the autumn heat, no problem: “The principle causes of climate change are from capitalism,” the Bolivian president told attendees at his country’s alternative climate summit, the first World People’s Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. It was time, said Morales, for […]
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Burning oil rig sinks into Gulf of Mexico
This is bad: The oil rig that has been burning in the Gulf of Mexico since an explosion on Tuesday has sunk, CNN reports. The human cost: 17 workers injured (3 critically) and 11 missing. The Coast Guard is searching for them. The ecological cost: Crude oil is leaking from at a rate of about […]
