Uncategorized

Friday music blogging: Josh Ritter

It’s been a great year for music. In addition to fantastic new albums from Cloud Cult, Modest Mouse, Okkervil River, and Band of Horses, there’s the latest from everyone’s favorite […]

Walruses, whales and … wave farms?

Illegal acts pervaded the seas, waves were promoted as renewable energy, and Brooklyn got a new resident in a busy week for the oceans. This week in ocean news ...

... The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organisation voted to immediately reduce cod bycatch by 40 percent off Canada's eastern coast at its annual meeting ...

... nine Pacific nations concluded Operation Big Eye, a 10-day, $15 million sting on illegal fishing boats. Patrols boarded 38 vessels ...

... another multinational effort in the north Pacific captured photographic evidence of 10 vessels rigged with driftnets, which are banned by the United Nations ...

World Bank encourages destructive logging in the Congo, says report

The World Bank’s encouragement of industrial forestry as a means of economic recovery in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is counter to the organization’s legal commitment to protecting the […]

EPA not up to par on environmental justice, GAO finds

Charged with the minor task of informing minority and low-income populations about toxic facilities in their neighborhoods, do you think the U.S. EPA has:

a). Done a thorough, admirable job, or

b). Not

For the correct answer, read this new GAO report [PDF].

China relocates Tibetan herders in interest of environment

Ugh: China is ordering 100,000 ethnic Tibetans to give up their traditional nomadic habits and settle in towns because their way of life is threatening the environment, state press reported […]

On Oct. 17, Grist is throwing a bash in Seattle — you’re invited

Our reader parties in San Francisco and Washington, D.C., are the stuff of legend, but they’ve caused our hometown peeps to struggle with some rejection issues. Why all this jet-setting […]

Always offer full-content RSS feeds

Warning: the following post is geeky. It’s about RSS feed options. Read only if you are fascinated by things like RSS feed options. These days, virtually every blog or news […]

Hansen’s response to a claim that he accepted money from George Soros

I don't know how NASA's James Hansen keeps up his pace of writing -- or how he puts up with the steady stream of disinformation launched against him. I am not trying to create a cult of personality around him, but I do feel under some obligation to give his writing as much attention as possible -- as I think he has done more than any other scientist to raise awareness on climate change, and deserves our thanks, not slander.

"The latest swift-boating," Hansen explains in a new post (PDF), "is the whacko claim that I received $720,000.00 from George Soros." Here is a smear from Investors Business Daily, of all places -- I have no idea why investors would be interested in such drivel -- which migrated over to the conservative websight NewsBusters in an article titled, "Is Global Warming Alarmist James Hansen a Shill for George Soros?"

Hansen explains, "Here is the real deal, with the order of things, as well as I can remember without wasting even more time digging into papers and records":

President of Nature Conservancy resigns

The subhead doth not mislead you: The president of the Nature Conservancy, Steven McCormick, has abruptly resigned.

Bluefin tuna population in Mediterranean declining, sushi blamed

The population of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea is plummeting and could be seeing the start of a collapse, warn experts from the International Commission for the Conservation of […]