China
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Critical List: More than 800,000 anti-Keystone messages delivered; Obama could veto transportation bill
The anti-Keystone email campaign gathered more than 800,000 messages to Senate leadership. Check out this picture of the messages being delivered. Internal documents from Heartland Institute, the climate-denying think tank, show funding from sources like Microsoft, Koch Industries (which had reportedly stopped funding the institute), tobacco companies, and other corporations. One “Anonymous Donor” gave more […]
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Happy Valentine’s Day, here’s a sheep and a deer getting married
Oh look, it's Rick Santorum's worst nightmare. Changmao the ram and Chunzi the doe are engaging in some sheep-on-deer marriage at China's Yunnan Provincial Wildlife Park today.
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![New York subway]()
![New York subway]()
Why do we suck at building subways?
At Salon, Will Doig asks why American public transit projects have decades-long time lines, while in China, new transit projects open in a heartbeat. And as Matt Yglesias points out, American transit projects are also more expensive than comparable build-outs in other big, rich cities, like London. So what’s our problem?
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Critical List: China’s emissions outstrip America’s; Bill Gates hearts geoengineering
By 2015, China will emit 50 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than the United States does. The Texas drought has forced some towns to ship in their water by truck. Bill Gates is underwriting geoengineering lobbying efforts.
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Critical List: Sierra Club took natural gas money; solar panels made from grass clippings
The Sierra Club’s executive director, Michael Brune, revealed that from 2007 to 2010 the environmental group took more than $26 million of donations from people and companies connected to the natural gas industry. The Obama administration is moving forward with offshore wind development. Warming oceans are encouraging the growth of coral … for now.
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Critical List: Illinois installed the most wind turbines in 2011; Weathercasters aren’t climate scientists
Illinois installed the most new wind turbines in 2011. In five years, there could be 39 million “micro-hybrids” — cars that have a battery to increase cars’ efficiency, but that aren’t quite as awesome as Priuses or other full hybrids. Weather forecasters don’t understand climate science. Don’t believe them when they say climate change doesn’t […]
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Critical List: Republicans still pushing Keystone; Yosemite to limit Half Dome hikes
House Republicans just can’t let go of the Keystone XL pipeline. Speaker Boehner now says it could be part of a bill expanding domestic energy production. The value of renewable energy deals grew by two-fifths last year, which means, according to analysts, that businesses like wind and solar are “maturing.” Yosemite could limit the number […]
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Critical List: Military could produce 7 GW of solar; British survey hedgehogs
Solar projects at desert military bases could produce 7,000 megawatts of solar energy — a huge amount. EVs have more than enough range to make 95 percent of the trips we take by car. Scotland aims to source 100 percent of its power from renewables by 2020, but to reach that goal, it needs the […]
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The five big forest trends of 2012
In the past year, examples abounded of forests being protected or restored on a grand scale. But those successes put the colossal failures and the corrupting forces behind them in stark relief: For too many forests, some combination of rapacious corporate greed, rising global population and consumption (particularly in Asia), local corruption, ignorant or careless […]
