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  • Should kids be exposed to more or less toxic pollution?

    For some representatives, the health of schoolkids just doesn’t seem to be the priority.Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Some questions should be easy to answer. But, with Congress, some things are never easy. Fresh off the House vote to let polluters dump unlimited amounts of carbon pollution into the air, a House subcommittee under […]

  • Surprise! Times Square air cleaner now that cars are gone

    Refreshing, isn’t it?Photo: Ed Yourdon Despite positive reviews from local business owners, area workers, tourists, and other human beings, New York Post columnist Steve Cuozzo won’t stop frothing at the mouth about the pedestrian plazas in New York’s Times Square, lamenting that the once car-clogged streets have become “asphalt loitering grounds,” and that the redesign […]

  • Is this the natural gas industry’s fib-filled high pressure sales strategy?

    As reported by Brian Merchant at Treehugger, a tipster has offered up an internal oil and natural gas company document called "Talking Points for Selling Oil and Gas Lease Rights." If this is genuine, it’s basically a “How To Lie To Get Drilling Rights For Fun and Profit” guide. One thing the document tells us […]

  • Goldman Environmental Prize winners give the rest of us a kick in the pants

    It’s like the Oscars for the Patagonia set. Every April, just before Earth Day, San Francisco’s environmental community comes together at the city’s Opera House to laud six grassroots activists from around the globe, whose stories enrage and inspire. The prize offers recipients $150,000 to use as they see fit and international recognition that confers […]

  • Are Canada’s disastrous tar sands coming your way?

    Alberta’s scenic tar sands.Photo: Suncor EnergyThis essay was originally published on TomDispatch and is republished here with Tom’s kind permission. For years, “not in my backyard” has been the battle cry of residents in Cape Cod who stand opposed to an offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The giant turbines will forever mar the beauty […]

  • Seven ways a government shutdown will hurt the environment

    During a government shutdown, federal law enforcement agents continue to work, but what about the people tasked with protecting the environment? Yeah, they all go home. Here's how things will go down if our leaders can't come to an agreement over the nation's uteruses:

  • 350.org and 1Sky merge into one mass climate movement

    Let’s get together — yeah, yeah, yeah.We environmentalists hear this periodically from friends and family and other concerned citizens: “I wish there weren’t so many groups. It’s confusing. I don’t know who to volunteer for. Wouldn’t it work better if you all got together?” This isn’t quite as obvious as it sounds. Different groups have […]

  • Fukushima in a decade: Bucolic beach resort or Road Warrior-esque hellscape?

    Technology Review's Kevin Bullis points us to a package at Nature, on the long-term impacts of the Fukushima disaster. It's kind of a nice antidote to all the hysterical day-to-day coverage (the leak's stopped, by the way) as viewed through the cold, dispassionate eye of science. That doesn't mean it's rosy: Fully decommissioning the plant […]

  • Do environmental justice groups have a legitimate beef with California’s cap-and-trade program?

    Photo: ItzaFineDayAn environmental justice coalition called the Association of Irritated Residents (not making that up) has sued to stop implementation of California’s AB 32 climate program, and it looks like they’ve won the first round. A judge has ruled that the state’s Air Resources Board didn’t fully consider alternatives to the cap-and-trade portion of the […]

  • Environmentalists stand up to Obama, win big

    Under intense pressure from green groups and their members, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) announced Friday that Republican proposals to gut the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were off the table in budget negotiations. “Neither the White House nor Senate Leaders is going to accept any EPA riders,” Reid said. Reid’s pledge […]