Friday Finds: The Longest Swim

Polar bear swims hundreds of miles in effort to survive In a testament to the rapidly deteriorating conditions that polar bears face in a changing climate, researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey recently discovered a polar bear that swam nonstop for more than 200 hours and 400 miles, reports the BBC. The epic journey in…

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And the Oscar Goes To…

I don’t want to jinx anything, but we’re positively thrilled to see GASLAND—the truth-telling/irreverent film about toxic gas drilling—get an Oscar nod for best documentary. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? It’s readily available on DVD. And there are more and more community screenings being organized every week. Apparently industry’s…

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Reframing the Climate Change Debate

Whether or not the United States addresses impending climate change hinges largely on the marketing message driving the discussion. Last night, President Barack Obama made his best pitch to reframe the climate change debate, casting it through the prism of a Works Progress Administration-style plan for achieving a clean energy future. While Obama’s idea of…

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Tr-Ash Talk: OMB Must Protect Health, Not Industry

(This is the latest in a weekly series of 50 Tr-Ash Talk blogs discussing the dangers of coal ash. Earthjustice hopes that by December 2011, the third anniversary of the TVA coal ash spill, the EPA will release a coal ash rule establishing federally enforceable regulations ensuring the safe disposal of this toxic waste.) Today, the House…

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State of the Union: President Promises A Clean Energy Future

Last night in his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama rightly spoke about the importance of growing a clean energy economy. Dedicating a chunk of his speech to the promise of the clean energy sector of the economy and the necessity for us as a nation to invest in this sector, the president…

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Monday Reads: The Pigs and Toilets Edition

As anyone who has been lucky enough to pass by a factory farm can attest, Confined Animal Factory Operations (or CAFOs) bring a certain…fragrance to the surrounding environs.

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Trading Clean Energy for a Lump of Coal

The Union of Concerned Scientists has a snazzy new interactive slideshow on its website, highlighting states that are bypassing opportunities to ditch dirty coal and embrace clean energy. The slideshow is both interesting and an office-safe distraction good for at least a five-minute break from your spreadsheet formulas. Go ahead, call it up on your…

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Mark Rey, Green Lobbyist?

Thanks to an email from my old friend George Alderson, I nearly dropped my teeth the other day. You may remember. In the gallery of baddies service in the G.W. Bush administration, the one most reviled by the environmental movement—or certainly one of the most reviled—was Mark Rey, Under Secretary of the Department of Agricuture,…

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Friday Finds: Celebrity Frackdown

Celebrity disses hydraulic fracturing Forget traipsing around a creepy island with Leonardo DiCaprio. Actor Mark Ruffalo recently went on a much more daring crusade in his latest roll as a passionate environmental advocate speaking out against the practice of hydraulic fracturing, according to HuffPo. After attending an NYC event called “Fracking and Its Effects: A…

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