September 25, 2009

Eco-News Roundup: Friday September 25


News from Mother Jones and elsewhere you might have missed.

Earth to Conrad: Kent Conrad just figured out other countries have good, universal healthcare.

No Nukes: UN supports US resolution to reduce nuclear arms. [Al Jazeera]

Obama v. Fossil: Obama will go after fossil fuel subsidies at G20.

Better Beets: Beets modified to resist Monsanto pesticide blocked from market. [MSNBC]

The New Guy: The pharma ties of Sen. Kennedy’s replacement, Paul Kirk, may hurt healthcare reform.

EPA Win: Sen. Murkowski’s attempt to keep EPA from regulating GHGs falls flat.

Ante Up: Providing climate financing to poorer countries may headline at G20.

Bitter on Twitter: Sen. Vitter is against the Climate czar, and he’s not afraid to Tweet it.

 

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Headshot of Editor in Chief of Mother Jones, Clara Jeffery

It sure feels that way to me, and here at Mother Jones, we’ve been thinking a lot about what journalism needs to do differently, and how we can have the biggest impact.

We kept coming back to one word: corruption. Democracy and the rule of law being undermined by those with wealth and power for their own gain. So we're launching an ambitious Mother Jones Corruption Project to do deep, time-intensive reporting on systemic corruption, and asking the MoJo community to help crowdfund it.

We aim to hire, build a team, and give them the time and space needed to understand how we got here and how we might get out. We want to dig into the forces and decisions that have allowed massive conflicts of interest, influence peddling, and win-at-all-costs politics to flourish.

It's unlike anything we've done, and we have seed funding to get started, but we're looking to raise $500,000 from readers by July when we'll be making key budgeting decisions—and the more resources we have by then, the deeper we can dig. If our plan sounds good to you, please help kickstart it with a tax-deductible donation today.

Thanks for reading—whether or not you can pitch in today, or ever, I'm glad you're with us.

Signed by Clara Jeffery

Clara Jeffery, Editor-in-Chief

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