Environment

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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

A Natural Ocean "Thermostat" Protecting Coral Reefs?

A Gaialike mechanism may be protecting some coral reefs by preventing sea surface temperatures (SSTs) from rising past a certain threshold. The study from the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and the Australian Institute of Marine Science finds evidence of an ocean thermostat regulating SSTs in an extremely biologically diverse region of the western Pacific. Warming sea temperatures in much...

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| Thu Feb. 7, 2008 2:36 PM PST

Hidden Costs of Solar Power

Wondering which solar technology has the smallest environmental footprint? In recent years new photovoltaic technologies have nearly doubled the efficiency of solar cells. Yet production methods, whether from silicon, metal, or other material, raise doubts about their environmental friendliness. For example, purifying and producing silicon uses a lot of water and energy, whereas refining zinc and copper ores to get cadmium, telluride, and...

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| Wed Feb. 6, 2008 2:10 PM PST

Changing Climate Requires Change in Water Planning

Guess what? The past is no longer a reliable base on which to plan the future of water management. So says a prominent group of hydrologists and climatologists writing in Science. The group calls for fundamental changes to the science behind water planning and policy. Managers currently operate on the premise that historical patterns can be counted on to continue. But human-induced changes...

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| Tue Feb. 5, 2008 7:11 PM PST

What's in Bush's $3 Trillion Budget for the Environment?

Bush's FY2009 budget, much criticized for its $3.1 trillion price-tag, has some surprising plans for the nation's environment like the Birds Forever Initiative, and some not-so-surprising endeavors, like the proposal for drilling in the Arctic that Congress previously blocked. Here's a summary of the environmental highlights. The Good —The new Birds Forever Initiative" grants an $8 million increase to Fish and Wildlife Service for...

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| Tue Feb. 5, 2008 10:50 AM PST

Study: Republicans Don't Care About Warming Planet

Maybe this just confirms what you already knew, but a new study by Pew shows that Republicans don't care about global warming. Only 12% of Republicans in the January 2008 poll thought dealing with global warming should be a "top priority," as oppposed to 47% of Democrats and 38% of Independents. In fact, global warming was the issue Republicans cared least about. For a...

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| Thu Jan. 31, 2008 4:56 PM PST

Heat Increases Baby Bottle Chemicals

A University of Cincinnati study has found that the hotter the liquid, the faster polycarbonate plastic bottles release toxins. Currently, reusable water bottles, baby bottles, and many other containers are made out of polycarbonate plastic. (For an easy guide to types of plastics and their dangers, click here.) Researchers found that plastic bottles holding boiling water released bisphenol A, an environmental pollutant, up to...

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| Wed Jan. 30, 2008 3:34 PM PST