Climate Science
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Indian tigers make a comeback
Please, extinction, you think you can beat tigers? Have you SEEN tigers? Okay, so we’ll pass lightly over what happened to their saber-toothed cousins. And tigers aren’t out of the woods yet. But India’s latest tiger census showed a population stronger than it has been in some time — more than 1,700 tigers, about 300 […]
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Germany continues breaking clean energy records
A German wind farm.Photo: Dirk Ingo FrankeAs the nuclear reactor accident at the Fukushima Daiichi plant continues to dominate the world’s attention, Germany has quietly broken more renewable energy records. The conservative government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, struggling to stay ahead of public attitudes toward nuclear power in the run-up to regional elections, issued its […]
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RIO+20: Toward a new green economy — or a green-washed old economy?
I’ve got good news and bad news about the future of the planet. Good news first. Next year, a honking big global Earth Summit is coming our way — one with a proud heritage. Formally titled the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, the meeting is known as RIO+20 because it will come 20 years […]
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The Climate Post: Trace radiation isn’t the only global fallout from Fukushima
As Japan’s nuclear disaster stretched into its second week, traces of radiation from the stricken power plants showed up in several U.S. states, and as far away as Iceland. With the reactors and uranium fuel rods still proving difficult to bring under control, the disaster could be the “death knell” for nuclear power, some analysts said. Countries around the […]
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Congress is making ignoring science a habit
In a recent House Energy and Commerce Committee climate hearing, Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) jokingly asked if some of his fellow colleagues were going to overturn the law of gravity, “sending us floating about the room.” It seems funny until you realize that it’s in response to a disturbing trend in Congress of misusing, manipulating, […]
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A pre-voyage interview with climate-crusading Navy sailor [VIDEO]
Before John David Shelton raised anchor to raise greater awareness of climate change, he agreed to sit down and answer some questions on camera — from tales of tattoos and piercings to the most embarrassing thing he’s done in the name of the environment. Spoiler alert: it’s not that embarrassing. Help John David reach his […]
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Obama administration announces massive coal mining expansion
The future’s looking sooty.Photo: Tami Heilemann, DOIInterior Secretary Ken Salazar announced yesterday an enormous expansion in coal mining that threatens to increase U.S. climate pollution by an amount equivalent to more than half of what the United States currently emits in a year. A statement from Wild Earth Guardians, Sierra Club, and Defenders of Wildlife […]
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Why does Congress have Clean Air Act phobia?
Cross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. It’s a sad state of affairs when members on both sides of the aisle in Congress seem to think it is a good idea to attack the Clean Air Act — the landmark law that Richard Nixon signed and George H. W. Bush strengthened. Yet the hits on […]
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Japan’s wind farms save its ass while nuclear plants founder
Wind turbine in Yokohama, JapanPhoto: shibuya246If Japan’s wind turbines were to get a new theme song, it would be Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries“, and it would ring out from the hills upon which they stand triumphantly, unscathed by the the country’s earthquake/tsunami double whammy, lifting their skinny, still-turning blades like antennas to heaven. While Japan’s […]
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The Climate Post: The aftermath in Japan
Japan’s been through a lot in just one week.Photo: Matthew BradleyLast Friday, Japan was rocked by a magnitude 9.0 quake — its most powerful earthquake on record, and the strongest anywhere in the world in the past 140 years — with its epicenter off the coast, creating a 30-foot-high tsunami that swallowed up whole towns and killed more than 5,000 people. […]