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Vote for your favorite Science Idol

The finalists are in. Vote for your favorite at Science Idol: The Scientific Integrity Editorial Cartoon Contest, sponsored by the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Thawing permafrost, oh my.

One of the truly horrific unfolding disasters of the climate crisis is the thawing of Siberian permafrost, which has the potential to dwarf human emissions of CO2 and methane. And it looks like it's getting started. But don't worry, I'm sure those crazy alarmist scientists use words like "ticking time bomb" all the time, right?

Mother Jones highlights the work of two eco-activists

Just a quick post to point to Mother Jones' 13th annual roundup of campus activism. Highlights below the fold:

Fascinating

Noted investigative journalist and author Edwin Black has a new book out: Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives. It's about the transition from electric cars (and public transit), which were widespread in the late 19th century, to internal-combustion cars. Suffice to say, the "free market" played very little role.

There's a great interview with Black over on Reform Judaism Magazine. Here's a taste:

Six easy steps!

Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, I meant to link to this U.S. PIRG report: "Rising to the Challenge: Six Steps to Cut Global Warming Pollution in the United States." So I'm doing it now.

The six steps are:

Would you shoot your spouse for them?

Don't mess with a woman's chicken:

A woman was charged Tuesday for shooting her husband in the back after he shot her pet chicken, the Lane County Sheriff's Office said.

Mary Kay Gray, 58, was arraigned Tuesday in Lane County Circuit Court on a charge of felony assault. She was being held in the Lane County Jail.

Her husband, Stanley Edward Gray, 43, was recovering from a single gunshot wound to the shoulder. The chicken died at the scene.

(hat tip: reader PW)

Get set for a new wave of small, distributed power generation projects

One of the most positive and interesting developments in sustainability is the spread of distributed power generation -- small, locally rooted projects built and maintained by the communities they serve.

According to Ted Bernhard at Clean Edge, this stuff is just on the verge of taking off:

A mini-spiel on global warming

Here's Al Gore's short appearance at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards:

Republican dollars go to Green candidate in PA senate race

Rick Santorum's campaign is funneling Republican dollars to the Green Party candidate in the (extremely tight) Pennsylvania Senate race. Why?

A commitment to open and fair debate, of course.

Or perhaps Republicans are just tired of the lesser of two evils, and they want to bust up the system, maaan.

Zero emissions vehicle symposium coming up in Sacramento

Everyone who is anyone in the zero-emissions-vehicle world will be at the Zero Emissions Vehicle symposium in Sacramento, Calif., Sept 25-27.

Ben Ovshinsky on ECD-Ovonic's hydrogen work.

Martin Eberhard on the latest from Tesla.

And Wednesday is all plug-in hybrids, all the time.

I can't freakin' wait.

On the subject, CalCars recently announced its intention to start a for-profit PHEV company.

And with PG&E taking the unprecedented step of including a bill insert asking its 5.5 million customers to join the plug-in partners campaign, plug-ins are getting some serious momentum.