Climate Climate & Energy

A Bridger-Teton Over Troubled Water

Chalk up a win for Wyoming wildlands Here’s a rare victory for the wilderness crowd: The U.S. Forest Service announced this week that it will suspend plans to open 157,000 acres of Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest — much of it roadless — to oil and gas drilling. Enviros say the forest is one of the […]

Umbra on installing solar panels

Dear Umbra, My husband and I have decided to install a solar electric system. We live in the high desert and enjoy sun 360 or more days a year. We have been surfing to find information and are increasingly befuddled. Nanosys will have new technology out, but I don’t know when. Should we wait a […]

Igloom and Doom

Arctic Feeling the Heat From Climate Change Global warming is messing with the Arctic more and faster than any other part of the world, to the detriment of the indigenous peoples and animals who call the region their home. Inuit living around the Arctic Circle have seen their ecosystems transformed. Shrinking ice cover means the […]

He Said, She Said — Except He’s Right

Study Shows Systematic Deficiency in Climate-Change Reporting An analysis of climate-change coverage in four major U.S. newspapers from 1988 to 2002 confirms what many enviros have long charged: Media coverage of global warming is woefully deficient. A growing chorus of media critics says that the journalistic convention of “balance,” which dictates that in order to […]

I Hope You Like Dammin’, Too

Bush Administration Won’t Remove Northwest Dams to Save Salmon The Bush administration announced yesterday that it will not remove dams from the Columbia and Snake rivers in the Northwest as part of its efforts to save endangered salmon runs. According to Bob Lohn of the National Marine Fisheries Service, “Our work shows that you can […]

Don’t Ask, Don’t Shell

Nigeria Hits Shell With $1.5 Billion Pollution Claim The Nigerian parliament has hit Shell with a $1.5 billion claim after the Ijaw tribe of the Niger Delta demanded compensation for health and economic hardship caused by the company’s polluting operations. The oil giant admits to 262 oil spill incidents in Nigeria in 2002, and that […]

Good-Bye, Cool World

Scientist Warns That Decreasing Air Pollution Means Increased Warming Jeez, we really can’t catch a break, can we? A German scientist now warns that air pollution is masking the true extent of global warming — and as air pollution is reduced, warming may accelerate. Addressing the 13th World Clean Air and Environmental Protection Congress in […]

Clime Against Humanity

Report Warns Europe Particularly Vulnerable to Climate Change Europe will suffer worse, and sooner, than other parts of the world from climate change, according to a new report from the European Environment Agency. The report “pulls together a wealth of evidence that climate change is already happening and having widespread impacts, many of them with […]

The Inuit Word for Bikini

The Price Isn’t Right

Gas Prices Not At Record High — and Proposed Solutions Wouldn’t Lower Them Gasoline prices have become a political hot potato in this election season, but most analysts agree there is very little substance behind the sound and fury. Current gas prices, hovering around $2 per gallon, do not constitute a “record high.” Adjusted for […]