Environment

China's More-Child Policy?

China is considering scrapping its one-child policy because of worries about an ageing population and how much of a social net the country can afford without the traditional reliance on large families to care for the aged. "We want incrementally to have this [one-child policy] change," said Vice Minister of the National Population and Family Planning Commission Zhao Baige. Planet Ark reports that...

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| Sun Mar. 2, 2008 3:48 PM PST

NYs Black Cabs Go Green

Good news for New Yorkers. And Earthers. New York City set new fuel emissions standards for the city's 10,000 black taxis Wednesday. Town car owners must switch to hybrid tech within 5 years. The move, reports Reuters, is part of Mayor Bloomberg's grand plan to decrease the city's carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Yellow cabs in New York are already under...

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| Wed Feb. 27, 2008 11:52 PM PST

Biodiesel Burps... Wrong Mix

What if the biodiesel you're buying doesn't have as much biodiesel as advertised? Or a whole lot more? Well, according to a new analysis of more than 20 distributors and small U.S. retailers, blends sold as 20% biodiesel contained as little as 10% or as much as 74% biodiesel. The study by Christopher Reddy at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and colleagues is...

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| Wed Feb. 27, 2008 8:20 PM PST

China Sacks Plastic Bags

The dragon is changing its color. China launched a surprise crackdown on plastic bags in January. Now production of ultra-thin bags is outlawed and supermarkets and shops are forbidden from handing out free carrier bags starting June 1. Reuters reports via the Xinhua news agency that the country's largest plastic bag maker—Suiping Huaqiang Plastic Co, which employed 20,000 workers—has closed following a state-led...

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| Tue Feb. 26, 2008 10:25 PM PST

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The West Gets 500% Dustier

The west wasn't always so dusty. It got a whole more so in the past 200 years, 500 percent more so—thanks to American expansion, complete with trains, ranches, and livestock. Sediment records from dust blown into alpine lakes in southwest Colorado's San Juan Mountains over millennia indicate the sharp rise in dust deposits beginning in the middle of the last century. "From about...

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| Mon Feb. 25, 2008 7:41 PM PST

Virgin Atlantic Biofuel Test a "Vital Breakthrough," Says Branson

I wrote last month of Sir Richard Branson's conversion to the cause of environmentalism and his quest to develop...

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| Mon Feb. 25, 2008 10:45 AM PST
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Hollywood's Eco Trip

Made-for-TV environmentalism recycles green messages for Prime Time

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| Sun Feb. 24, 2008 1:00 AM PST

Business 101: Get Green

Great piece in the Christian Science Monitor on a worldwide greening business climate. Notably, clean technology investments are on the rise because going green is turning out to be good for the bottom line. Businesses are surveying CO2 footprints, purchasing greenhouse-gas credits, and hinging executive bonuses on environmental targets. Meanwhile, Florida now requires investment managers of state money to report on the potential...

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| Fri Feb. 22, 2008 6:20 PM PST
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Editors' Note - March/April 2008

From the March/April 2008 Issue

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| Fri Feb. 22, 2008 1:00 AM PST

Less Golf, More Water?

Number one on the New York Times' most-e-mailed list today is a story about the mass exodus from American golf courses. No one knows exactly why corporate America is abandoning its erstwhile favorite sport. Not enough time? Too lazy? Whatever the reason for the shift, there's at least one good thing about it. Golf courses are notoriously thirsty, and developers have a nasty habit...

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| Thu Feb. 21, 2008 10:05 AM PST
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Doreen the Downer

Ever wonder what goes into making a tasty and delicious hamburger? Doreen the Downer will explain all in this political cartoon.

Thu Feb. 21, 2008 1:00 AM PST

Who's Really Paying for Cheap Shrimp?

Not you and me. That farmed tiger shrimp costs five times what we're paying. So who's getting charged the difference? Local poor people and the local environment. This according to Daniel A. Bergquist of Uppsala University. Despite what many international aid organizations claim (and fund), Bergquist says his studies in Sri Lanka and the Philippines prove that a major portion of the local...

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| Tue Feb. 19, 2008 7:03 PM PST

Whippets No Laughing Matter

It's called the forgotten greenhouse gas. You know, nitrous oxide (N2O), the magic behind whipped cream. You might not know it's 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and represents 9% of all greenhouse gas emissions. Its longevity in the atmosphere provides a potentially more damaging legacy than CO2, reports the University of East Anglia. Currently, agriculture and wastewater treatment industries account for...

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| Mon Feb. 18, 2008 6:00 PM PST

Good News on the Border Fence?

Maybe. The AP reports that 28 miles of virtual border fence was approved by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff yesterday. The virtual fence will include 98-foot unmanned towers equipped with radar, sensor devices and cameras capable of distinguishing people from cattle at a distance of about 10 miles. (MoJo reported on the controversy over this fence from an environmental perspective in Gone. Think:...

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| Thu Feb. 14, 2008 3:24 PM PST

World's Largest Sea Sanctuary Created in Pacific

Couldn't come at a better time. Conservation International reports the tiny Pacific Island nation of Kiribati (pronounced: Kiribas) just established the world's largest marine protected area—a California-sized ocean wilderness of pristine coral reefs and rich fish populations threatened by over-fishing and climate change. The Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) conserves one of the Earth's last intact oceanic coral archipelago ecosystems, consisting of eight...

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| Thu Feb. 14, 2008 2:27 PM PST

More Than 40% of World Ocean "Heavily Impacted" by Humans

A new study in Science reports more than 40% of the world ocean is heavily impacted by human activities. Scientists from UCSB and NOAA combined 17 data sets of different human activities, examining overfishing, fertilizer run-off, commercial shipping, and pollution, and analyzed the effects on marine ecosystems, including coral reefs, seagrass beds, continental shelves, and the deep ocean. The team also examined climate...

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| Thu Feb. 14, 2008 1:36 PM PST

Scary New CO2 Numbers on Shipping, Plus a Hopeful Breeze

More bad news on the real costs of all the cheap goods that come our way from all over the world via the high seas. A leaked UN report says pollution from shipping is nearly three times higher than previously thought, and that annual emissions from the world's merchant fleet have already reached nearly 4.5% of all global emissions of CO2. The report...

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| Tue Feb. 12, 2008 10:49 PM PST

Sea Level Rise Twice As High as Current Projections

New research on Greenland glaciers suggests that sea level rise will be twice as high the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimate of 18 to 58 cm (0.6 to 1.9 ft) by 2100. The study, published in the Journal of Glaciology (pdf), combines important data long missing from the ice sheet models. Researchers from the University at Buffalo, Ohio State University, the University...

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| Tue Feb. 12, 2008 7:25 PM PST

Whales (and Dugongs) Hear Good News

In the last week federal courts have twice slapped the Navy for sonar testing in the ocean. The first, by a federal court in San Francisco, is a preliminary injunction against the use of Low-Frequency Active (LFA) sonar, which relies on extremely loud, low-frequency sound to detect submarines at great distances. According to the Navy's own studies, LFA generates enough noise to significantly...

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| Mon Feb. 11, 2008 4:41 PM PST

The Dark Side of Biofuels

Yet another study deepening our understanding of just why converting native ecosystems to biofuel farms is increasing not mitigating climate change. This according to a study by the University of Minnesota and the Nature Conservancy published online today in Science, finding that turning rainforests, peatlands, savannas, or grasslands into biofuel-yielding croplands emits large amounts of carbon that add to the atmosphere's already heavy...

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| Mon Feb. 11, 2008 1:54 PM PST