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U.S. dilutes G8 climate draft, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Let’s Give ‘Em Something to Not Talk About Friday Never Felt So Right Sheddy Mercury Doin’ What Comes Unnaturally So […]

Umbra on graduation gifts

Dear Umbra, The recent question about a senior gift to the school got me wondering: what are some green gift ideas for graduates? Misty Boyd Tahlequah, Okla. Dearest Misty, Cash. […]

Encyclopedia of Life off to a slow start

A couple of emails and an article in the latest issue of Science have roused me to post on the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) website. The site is not functional yet but has a whiz-bang demo (completely fake) put together by a company called AvenueA|Razorfish that is well worth checking out.

However, that was the only thing that impressed me about the site. The article in Science just inflamed my skepticism:

Satellite images reveal scale of destruction

To you, this picture may look like ants marching in a desert, but among ocean experts, it has gone as viral as Britney's shaved head. What you're seeing is an image of shrimp trawlers off the coast of China, taken from space. Those teeny tiny specs are responsible for destroying huge swaths of seafloor, and thanks to these images, which appeared in the prestigious journal Nature yesterday, scientists now have irrefutable visual evidence to prove what they could only conceptualize before.

Limits set on high seas bottom trawling

More than 20 nations recently met in Chile to set up a regulatory body to watch over a huge swath of ocean. The meeting, which was targeted by the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts, and included staff from Oceana's South American office, also netted (no pun intended) a landmark agreement that reels in high seas bottom trawling fleets. New regulations set to take effect next September will severely limit the destructive fishing method in waters from Australia to South America and from the Equator to the Antarctica.

Destructive trawls and dredges used for commercial fishing have bulldozed entire seafloor environments. Today's decision is a major leap in the right direction toward protecting our oceans.

So What’s Plan C?

United Nations report outlines the trouble with biofuels Remember how biofuels were going to save us? That lasted about as long as an ice cream cone on a hot day. […]

Control Your Emissions

British population think tank shames large families Got your 10-foot pole handy? You’ll need it for this story: U.K. think tank Optimum Population Trust published a report yesterday declaring that […]

IPCC says world can afford to fix climate, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Where There’s a Way, There’s a Will You Know the Drill Hi, I’m a Defensive Mac Pep Rally Or They […]

I Believe the Children Are Our Lab Rats

Pesticides could make kids dumb, diesel emissions make them sick You know how we say we shouldn’t wreck the planet for “future generations”? Turns out we’re wrecking them too! A […]

Roller Curby

High seas of South Pacific protected from bottom trawling A landmark agreement between 21 countries will restrict the controversial practice of bottom-trawling in the high seas of the South Pacific. […]