Daily Archives: March 9, 2010
Finding the Key to Subsidizing Solar Power
Photo via International Rivers
The International Herald Tribune has an interesting (if embarrassingly headlined–in the print edition, they went all-out for an Icarus reference) look at the boom and bust of the Spanish solar industry today. Basically, in a rush to jumpstart a pioneering solar industry, the Spanish gov offered far too sweet a feed-in tariff for solar investors–a whopping 58 U…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Who Will Lead The U.N. On Climate Change?
photo via Climate Changer
A few weeks ago, UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer stepped down from his post as the United Nations Climate Change Secretariat. Who replaces him figures to be a signal of where the UN is going on climate change. Developing countries have had a hard road to climb in the UN process and three are stepping up to nominate a replacement for Boer. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Pre-Dinosaur Era Plant Specimens Brazenly Stolen
This photo, via The Telegraph, shows just how difficult it is to move one of the large, primitive cycads.
Important specimens from one of the world´s oldest and rarest species of plant were stolen last weekend, covert ops style, from a botanical garden in South Africa. The species, cycads, is so old, in fact, that their broad …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Nitrogen’s Impact on Public Health
Image credit: Grist
Imagine a hot summer day in a town surrounded by glistening pools of water. Now imagine that no one is swimming—that they can’t because the water has been contaminated with a potentially dangerous, yet common, pollutant. For many, this terrible thought is a reality and the culprit is nitrate….Read the full story on TreeHugger
A Good Climate Bill Will Be Strong, Not Easy
Image credit: Good
Passing a strong climate bill, Good tells us in a recent editorial, is a necessity. Such a bill, they write, must be defined by what is good for the country, not what is easy for the Senate to agree upon….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Life on the Endangered Species Waiting List
The greater sage-grouse was deemed to be “warranted but precluded” by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
Though it “warrants” protection under the Endangered Species Act, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, the greater sage-grouse will not be added to the list at this time. Instead, it would join nearly 300 other species that have been “precluded”—essentially placed on a waiting list—while other priority species are considered.
While the ruling was by no means a total loss for the grouse, it falls far …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Let’s Not Forget: Even Without CO2, Coal Would Still Be Very Dirty
“Orthographic aerial photograph of Kingston Fossil Plant coal fly ash slurry spill, in Kingston, Tennessee, taken the day after the event.” Photo: Public domain
CO2 is Important, But Not the Only Thing
David Roberts over at Grist has a great rebuttal of Thom Friedman’s latest column in which he and investor…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Today on Planet 100: Fallujah Birth Defects (Video)
<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9/59348474001?isVid=1&isUI=1&publishe…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Seal Is On The Menu in Canada’s Parliamentary Restaurant
During last year’s seal hunt Brian posted about Canada’s Governor General gutting a seal and eating its heart. Canada’s Minister of Defence helped himself to a seal banquet as well. When it comes to seal, Solidarity Forever.
But now they don’t have to go to the Arctic for a traditional Inuit feast; they can just pop over to the Parliamentary Restaurant, where seal is the chic thing, the hot ticket item for those who want to show support for the seal hunt.
…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Crunching the Numbers ($$$) on Bike Commuting
Photo: CarFree.us
“I knew I was benefiting myself and the environment by commuting without a car, but to see the real impact is very amazing.”
If you want to get around faster than your feet can take you while doing as little harm as possible, the bicycle is your best option. An unnamed author has recently started documenting his experience with becoming a bicycle commuter, and the results are interesting (and hopefully encouraging enough that others will do the same!). In a recent post, he does a little math to see how much money his new green commuting habits are saving h…Read the full story on TreeHugger
