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In Obama's Hands: The Future of the Arctic
The Beaufort Sea, off Alaska’s northernmost shores, and the Chukchi Sea, which separates Alaska from Russia, are home to one in five of the world’s remaining polar bears. These icy waters are crucial feeding and migration zones for bowhead, beluga and other whales, seals, walruses and migratory birds; for thousands of years they have also…
Read MoreGreen Will Suffer From California Tax Rejection
I worked in the polls on Tuesday, during the special election asking California voters to approve an enormously complicated and controversial set of measures aimed at averting fiscal catastrophe. All but one failed, by nearly two-to-one. The one that passed (by three-to-one) limits lawmakers’ raises. The election itself was a bit of a farce. Turnout…
Read MoreHow Technology Might Shape the Future of Our Cities
The future is now — at least, the future is now in theaters. And what the future looks like, particularly, our cities in the future, is highly disputed in the pop culture realm. Take this article contrasting Star Trek‘s vision of San Francisco with Terminator: Salvation’s view of same. One movie envisions a future where…
Read MorePart 2: 'Easy Things' for Obama to Do Now
Last November, as Barack Obama won the election, we recommended a list of "easy things" the new president could immediately do to cement his promises about being a pro-environment president. This is our second update on how he’s doing. The new president’s greatest achievement clearly is the abrupt reversal of the Bush-era philosophy favoring those…
Read MoreVain Obstructionism
On May 13, Senate Republicans managed to block confirmation of David Hayes to the number two job in the Interior Department via filibuster, with three Democrats (Kennedy, Kerry, Mikulski) absent. Hayes spent eight years in Interior under Bruce Babbitt, one strike against him, defended Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision to yank 70-odd gas leases in the…
Read MoreBloggers Unite over Fight to Clean Up Cement Kilns
People around the Web and across the country are talking about our Cleaning Up Mercury, Protecting Our Health campaign to raise awareness about the serious health risks of mercury poisoning and to support the recent EPA proposal for cutting mercury pollution. Here are some of the comments making the rounds: Jack E. urged: Should you…
Read MoreOf Pikas and Cuteness
A victory came Wednesday in the case of the pika. This tiny, threatened alpine creature now has a shot at endangered species protections. The pika is eligible because its habitat is warming, and it is the first mammal in the lower forty-eight to be considered for that reason. But if you know only one thing…
Read MoreFlying With Air Google Over Toxic Hot Spots
As part of our campaign to clean up sources of toxic mercury pollution, we experimented with Google Earth to tell the story of how pollution from cement kilns is hurting local communities. Below is a video we produced that features two cement kilns right along the water in Seattle, WA. Let’s get a quick show of…
Read MoreStunning Flip-Flop in Kansas: New Governor Chooses Coal
Spinning faster than a Kansas twister, the state’s new governor has done what he led us to believe he wouldn’t: approved massive expansion of the Sunflower coal-fired power plant. This is a totally unexpected setback for those who took Gov. Mark Parkinson at his earlier word, believing that he would support the clean-energy policies of…
Read MoreFlying in Place: Videoconferencing
As an information technology director whose livelihood depends pretty heavily on the use of electricity, I’m constantly looking for meaningful ways that the technology I’m immersed in can contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases. The saying "If you aren’t part of the solution you’re part of the problem" doesn’t even suffice — technology is…
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