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How overfishing and pollution are changing our eating habits

I love fish as much as the next guy. Broiled, baked, fried, it doesn't matter -- as long as it's swimming in butter (no pun intended). But being an expert in the plight of our oceans precludes me from rewarding my palate at every opportunity. As the New York Times reports, "many [fish] varieties are nearly depleted and many have been tainted by industrial pollution."

So I constantly consult my pocket seafood guide (PDF) to remember which is the "good" fish and which is the "bad." It's a shame that our short-sighted, destructive practices have forced us to rely on such guides, but they are an essential resource. Hopefully they'll catch on more than Richard Simmons's deal-a-meal did.

Google maps go green

Check out Have a Green Summer, a collaboration between the Earth Day Network and Google that helps you find eco-friendly vacation destinations. Very cool.

Virtual ecosystem

Want to learn about the interconnectedness and dependencies of an ecosystem? Build one yourself.

In Second Life, a virtual world where people reinvent themselves, buy real estate, create and sell products, have sex, host charity events, film movies, etc., Laukosargas Svarog has created her own ecosystem on the virtual island of Svarga:

The result of a year's work, Laukosargas Svarog's island of Svarga ... is a fully-functioning ecosystem, adding life or something like it to the verdant-looking but arid pallette Linden Lab offers with its world. It begins with her artificial clouds, which are pushed along by Linden's internal wind system.

"If I was to turn off the clouds the whole system would die in about six hours," she tells me. "Turn off the bees and [the plants stop] growing, because nothing gets pollinated. And it's the transfer of pollen that signals the plants to drop seeds. The seeds blow in the wind, and if they land on good ground according to different rules for each species, they grow when they receive rain water from the clouds. It's all interdependent."

Cool!

(Via BB)

A Bid for a Whale, and It’s About to Set Sail

Japan may have enough votes to set stage for repeal of whaling ban The end of the 20-year-old global commercial-whaling ban is a looming possibility, as pro-whaling Japan may have […]

Americans and Climate Change: Incentives: Business and financial leaders

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Why aren't people in the business world -- corporate leaders, financial analysts, etc. -- more hip to climate change? Find out below!

The Vandals Took the Handles

Water privatization brings a flood of problems in U.S. cities As of 2003, some 1,100 U.S. municipalities had privatized their drinking-water systems, hoping that mismanaged public systems could be made […]

The Freak-Out Before the Storm

Officials try to scare Americans into preparing for hurricane season As hurricane season approaches, officials in storm-prone states are determined to scare residents into being ready to take care of […]

Smogalot

Well, the dog haze of summer is upon us here in Toronto, Ontario. We're in to several days of smog, with several more to come, and 30+ celsius weather. Bleah.

This all makes the recent news that Ontario might not be able to shut down its coal plants as promised disheartening, to say the least.

Great, white north!

It looks as if Canada is poised to ban flame retardants known as PBDEs, which are have been linked with learning deficits and behavioral abnormalities in lab animals, and are found at high levels in some people.

That's the good news. The bad news is that some tests are finding alarmingly high levels of the compounds in kids. You win some, you lose some.

The Onion

Still funny.