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Federal court case allows mining “fill” dumped in freshwater

A recent federal court decision (PDF) confirms and seems to expand the validity of the Bush EPA's redefinition of mine waste as "fill," allowing a gold mine to dump millions of tons of the crap into a freshwater lake north of Juneau, Alaska. This could set a truly disturbing precedent. More at Brudaimonia.

(And PS: "Brudaimonia"? That's some quality philoso-blogospheric geekery.)

Update [2006-8-8 13:7:28 by David Roberts]: Ah, I see our very own Corey blogged about the case a year or so ago. Good background.

Global warming is great!

So says National Review editor James S. Robbins.

(via TP)

Print it, email it, digg it, bookmark it, reddit … technologic

All you eagle-eyed Gristmillers might have noticed a small change recently: a toolbar!

Each post now includes the following features:

• A printer-friendly version, which allows you to hide and display comments;
• email a friend, where you can recommend a post to up to 10 people at a time and include a custom message;
• add to digg, which nows has an environment category;
• bookmark to del.icio.us; and
• add to reddit.

Links are the top of each post. Enjoy!

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Ire

War igniting forest fires in northern Israel Like America’s, Israel’s forests and grasslands are suffering an unusual number of fires this season. But the problem isn’t so much a heat […]

Surprise-Side Economics

While cutting back on mercury at home, the U.S. exports it abroad Like Mickey said, it’s a small world after all, and pollution that gets exported can end up coming […]

Tune In to Morro

Enviros buy out trawlers in California bay Attempting to conserve rapidly vanishing bottom-dwelling fish stocks off the central California coast, Environmental Defense and The Nature Conservancy have teamed with bottom-trawling […]

Diamond’s Err Forever

Dioxin-laced Passaic River remains uncleaned by corporations that fouled it For today’s tale of corporate skullduggery and government negligence, we take you to the lovely state of New Jersey. For […]

Rag report

It's de rigeur for Mother Earth News and Plenty to feature sustainable living on their covers, but the past few months have seen major glossies such as Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and Forbes doing the green thing.

Now in a September issue devoted to low impact living, Dwell (for those of you unfamiliar, it's a popular home & design magazine) is joining in. And they've done VF one better, actually printing the issue on post-consumer content recycled (PCR) paper -- a practice they pledge to continue in the future. Very few magazines have yet adopted PCR, even though -- as the Dwell issue demonstrates -- the result is stylish and indistinguishable from a virgin pulp product.

Bad mothers

I ran into this article in Live Science a few weeks ago. Evolution is a high-wire tightrope act. Research has shown that male mantids actively try to avoid being eaten by the female. What were the odds that hypothesis would pan out? However, those that are too successful at avoiding being eaten, are also less successful at mating and are weeded from the gene pool. To make matters worse, the mother-to-be who can successfully eat her mate has a better chance of successfully reproducing because of that one big meal at just the right time. We homo sapiens also walk tightropes, just different ones.

How to tell future generations about nuclear waste

Think of a mummy movie — any mummy movie. Treasure hunters enter a pyramid. The explorers either ignore or can’t read the hieroglyphics warning of the curse that awaits those […]