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Marsh o'Potamia
Once-vast marshlands being restored in Iraq |
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25 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Marsh o'Potamia Once-vast marshlands being restored in Iraq The marshlands of Iraq, drained nearly dry by Saddam Hussein, are making a surprisingly robust comeback. Seen by some as the inspiration for the biblical Garden of Eden, the lush wetlands once covered nearly 3,600 square miles near the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. Mid-century drainage projects took a toll, but the marshes were primarily destroyed by Hussein ... |
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| Topics: Iraq, news, wetlands (all these topics) |
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Jack Frost Nippon at Your Nose
Japan will encourage office workers to bundle up for the winter |
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24 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Jack Frost Nippon at Your Nose Japan will encourage office workers to bundle up for the winter Japan's summer "Cool Biz" campaign, which encourages office workers to shed their coats and ties and wear lighter clothing so less energy need be spent on air conditioning, has proven such a success that now the nation's Environment Ministry is plotting to follow it up with a "Warm Biz" campaign for fall and winter. Busine ... |
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| Topics: energy, Japan, news (all these topics) |
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Power Play
Northeast states crafting plan to cut CO2 emissions from power plants |
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24 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Power Play Northeast states crafting plan to cut CO2 emissions from power plants The cantankerous Northeast -- last seen suing the U.S. EPA over mercury regulations -- is at it again. Fed up with the feds, nine states in the region have preliminarily agreed to reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions from power plants. The coalition -- organized by New York Gov. George Pataki (R), whose presidential ambitions are no secret -- ... |
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| Topics: climate, energy, news, politics (all these topics) |
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Breed Between the Lines
World population heading rapidly toward 7 billion |
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24 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Breed Between the Lines World population heading rapidly toward 7 billion The global population will reach 7 billion by about 2012 and continue to rise for many decades, according to a new report from the Population Reference Bureau, a private research organization. "Almost 99 percent of population growth today and for the foreseeable future will be in ... developing countries," said Carl Haub, a demographer with the bureau. In c ... |
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| Topics: news, population (all these topics) |
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Go Truck Yourself
Bush admin unveils weak new fuel-economy rules for light trucks |
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24 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Go Truck Yourself Bush admin unveils weak new fuel-economy rules for light trucks The Bush administration surveyed the landscape -- gas prices rising, fears of oil dependence spreading -- and concluded that bold leadership was required. So it invaded an oil-rich country. Heh, well ... on to Plan B! Yesterday, the administration proposed a new set of auto fuel-economy rules. Tightening the standard for passenger cars? Uh, no, th ... |
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| Topics: news, placemaking, politics (all these topics) |
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The Nyet Set
Russian skeptics bet British scientist $10K that earth will cool |
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23 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| The Nyet Set Russian skeptics bet British scientist $10K that earth will cool Guess this counts as putting your money where your mouth is: Two Russian climate-change skeptics have bet a U.K. climate scientist $10,000 that the earth will cool over the next decade. Solar physicists Galina Mashnich and Vladimir Bashkirtsev believe that changes in sunspot activity are a more significant factor in climate shifts than greenhouse-gas emissions. Sinc ... |
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| Topics: climate, news (all these topics) |
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Gloom and Doom Meets the Dismal Science
Economics the next big thing in green activism |
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23 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Gloom and Doom Meets the Dismal Science Economics the next big thing in green activism Green activists are increasingly embracing environmental economics, combining profit-oriented pragmatism with eco-idealism to make powerful cases for saving the environment. Although the field has been evolving for the past 40 or so years, activists really started to take note in the 1990s when a sulfur-dioxide emissions-trading program in the U.S. proved ... |
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| Topics: business, news (all these topics) |
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Thirst-Case Scenarios
Shortages of safe water a growing global problem |
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23 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Thirst-Case Scenarios Shortages of safe water a growing global problem About 1.1 billion people worldwide can't get clean drinking water and 2.4 billion lack access to basic sanitation, the International Herald Tribune reports in a series on the looming global problem of freshwater scarcity. The U.N. wants to halve these numbers by 2015, but current progress suggests that target won't be met -- it would effectively mean hooking up mo ... |
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| Topics: news, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Born to Rewild
Conservationists propose bringing elephants to U.S., bears to U.K. |
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23 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Born to Rewild Conservationists propose bringing elephants to U.S., bears to U.K. Imagine: lions and elephants roaming free across the same Great Plains of the U.S. that their ancestors -- big cats, mastodons, and mammoths -- populated 13,000 years ago. That's the "Pleistocene Park" vision that a group of conservation scientists proposed in the journal Nature last week. Since people are increasingly leav ... |
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| Topics: environmental restoration, news, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Fang, Fang, Fang on the Door, Baby
Judge orders feds to restore Northeastern gray wolves |
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22 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Fang, Fang, Fang on the Door, Baby Judge orders feds to restore Northeastern gray wolves The U.S. government must intensify efforts to restore gray wolves to the Northeast, a federal court ruled on Friday. U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha said the Bush administration's decision to lump the sparse gray wolf population of the Northeast in with healthier populations in the upper Midwest, where restoration efforts have ... |
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| Topics: news, United States, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Light, Fruity, With a Hint of Smog
Winemakers in San Joaquin Valley will soon have to curb emissions |
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22 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Light, Fruity, With a Hint of Smog Winemakers in San Joaquin Valley will soon have to curb emissions The 109 wineries in California's San Joaquin Valley -- home to the worst smog in the U.S. -- emit 788 tons of ethanol and other smog-forming gases a year, according to regulators. Plans are in the works to implement new air-quality rules by the end of 2005 that would mandate emissions controls on wine-f ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, California, news, pollution and waste (all these topics) |
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All The Ooze That's Fit to Print
The Gray Lady discovers peak oil |
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22 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| All The Ooze That's Fit to Print The Gray Lady discovers peak oil The peak-oil phenomenon made a mainstream-media splash this weekend in an extensive New York Times Magazine cover story. Devotees of this once-obscure issue won't find much that's new, but the article effectively summarizes the grim state of affairs. Output at many of the world's biggest oil fields has been declining steadily, and all eyes are now turned to Saudi Arabia, b ... |
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| Topics: energy, news, oil (all these topics) |
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The 0.7 Percent Absolution
Portland retracts claim that its CO2 emissions dropped below 1990 levels |
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19 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| The 0.7 Percent Absolution Portland retracts claim that its CO2 emissions dropped below 1990 levels Breaking the hearts of factoid-citers everywhere, the city of Portland, Ore., has issued a correction to its widely hailed announcement that last year its carbon-dioxide emissions dipped below 1990 levels. Thanks to a subtle data-entry mistake, the figures were miscalculated, and 2004 levels were actually 0.7 percent above 1990 levels ... |
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| Topics: news, Oregon, Portland (all these topics) |
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Tender Is the Nitrogen
Lower summer ozone levels give Eastern lungs a break |
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19 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Tender Is the Nitrogen Lower summer ozone levels give Eastern lungs a break Summer air quality has improved in 19 Eastern states, thanks to a federally mandated cap-and-trade system for nitrogen oxides*. According to a report released yesterday by the U.S. EPA, nitrogen-oxide emissions from power plants and other sources in the region were about 50 percent lower in 2004 than in 2000, leading to a drop in ozone concentrations of about 10 ... |
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| Topics: air pollution, news (all these topics) |
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Ranch Dressing-Down
Rancher wins defamation claim against conservation nonprofit |
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19 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Ranch Dressing-Down Rancher wins defamation claim against conservation nonprofit An Arizona rancher has employed activist tactics to win a lawsuit against a conservation group, and his success may inspire other ranchers to fight back against greens. Jim Chilton took the Center for Biological Diversity to court last year for defamation, after the group posted photos to its website showing destruction on land that Chilton ha ... |
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| Topics: land degradation, news, ranching (all these topics) |
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Royale With Breeze
Northwest burger chain switches to pure wind power |
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18 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Royale With Breeze Northwest burger chain switches to pure wind power Fans of Pacific Northwest fast-food purveyor Burgerville will soon be noshing on burgers and onion rings cooked up with clean energy. The Holland Inc. -- parent company of both the Burgerville and Noodlin' regional chains -- has announced that all of its restaurants will use regionally produced wind power for 100 percent of their electricity needs. Th ... |
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| Topics: business, energy, news, wind power (all these topics) |
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Always Low Standards
Wal-Mart settles with Connecticut over environmental misdeeds |
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18 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Always Low Standards Wal-Mart settles with Connecticut over environmental misdeeds Wal-Mart has agreed to pay Connecticut a $1.15 million fine for a host of environmental violations. State regulators first filed suit against the retail giant in 2001, after discovering that the company had improperly stored pesticides, fertilizers, and other hazardous materials outside, where they washed down storm drains to ... |
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| Topics: business, Connecticut, health, news, Wal-Mart (all these topics) |
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Miser Permanente
Americans get creative at saving gas as price per gallon soars |
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18 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Miser Permanente Americans get creative at saving gas as price per gallon soars Ever since dinosaurs walked the earth, died, and decayed under high subterranean pressures to become the fossil fuels we so depend upon today, Americans have carried on a brontosauric love affair with gasoline. But with prices climbing toward $3 a gallon, that may change. Well, at least a little. More folks seem to be telecommuting and participating i ... |
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| Topics: energy, news, placemaking (all these topics) |
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I Fjord Your Pain
McCain, Clinton, other senators take global-warming tour in Alaska |
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18 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| I Fjord Your Pain McCain, Clinton, other senators take global-warming tour in Alaska Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), and two other Lower-48 colleagues are touring Alaska this week to see for themselves the destructive impacts of climate change. They've flown over Yukon forests devastated by spruce bark beetles -- believed to be thriving thanks to unusually high temperatures -- and e ... |
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| Topics: Alaska, climate, Hillary Clinton, news, politics (all these topics) |
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Trade to Black
U.K. market leads the pack in lucrative carbon-emissions trading |
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17 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Trade to Black U.K. market leads the pack in lucrative carbon-emissions trading Newfangled carbon trading has become quite lucrative in the Old World, where the European Union's fledgling carbon market has taken off. Many doubted that the emissions-trading scheme (part of E.U. plans to meet Kyoto emissions-reduction targets) would prosper, especially since the U.S. -- world leader ... |
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| Topics: business, climate, energy, European Union, London, news, United Kingdom (all these topics) |
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Call Me Fishmeal
Cape Cod's namesake may not rebound unless fishing is further curtailed |
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17 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Call Me Fishmeal Cape Cod's namesake may not rebound unless fishing is further curtailed Cod off the Massachusetts coast have declined almost 25 percent since 2001, and some fear the once-abundant fish may never bounce back unless fishing is further restricted. Many marine scientists worry that the overall cod population may be well below what's needed for survival and recovery. Georges Bank cod were long a mainstay of New England's fishe ... |
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| Topics: marine life, news (all these topics) |
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The Expiration Superhighway
Sales of endangered critters rampant on the web |
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17 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| The Expiration Superhighway Sales of endangered critters rampant on the web What do deviant porn and endangered elephants have in common? No, not that, you twisted perv! The answer: Both are easy to find in the anonymous wilds of the world wide web. The International Fund for Animal Welfare found that in just one week, nearly 9,000 wildlife products were for sale on English-language websites alone (including eBay), with at l ... |
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| Topics: animal welfare, news, wildlife (all these topics) |
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Diary of a Mad Black River
Millions of gallons of liquid cow manure flow into N.Y. river |
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16 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Diary of a Mad Black River Millions of gallons of liquid cow manure flow into N.Y. river At some point last week -- nobody's quite sure when -- one wall of an earthen reservoir on one of New York state's biggest dairy farms collapsed, releasing some 3 million gallons of liquid cow manure into the Black River. "That stinks," noted observant 15-year-old New Yorker Dustan Wisner. But the s ... |
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| Topics: New York, news, pollution and waste, rivers and watersheds (all these topics) |
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Smokey and Mirrors
Feds cut estimated economic worth of recreation in national forests |
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16 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| Smokey and Mirrors Feds cut estimated economic worth of recreation in national forests During the Clinton administration, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that by the year 2000, recreation in national forests would contribute about $111 billion a year to the American economy. Now the Bush administration has slashed that estimate by a whopping $100 billion for 2002, down to $11 billion. According to agency offici ... |
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| Topics: national forests, news, outdoor recreation (all these topics) |
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A No Life on Lease
Court ruling blocks new oil drilling off California coast |
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16 Aug 2005 |
Daily Grist |
| A No Life on Lease Court ruling blocks new oil drilling off California coast New oil and gas drilling off the California coast has been effectively thwarted, thanks to a federal court ruling last Friday. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered federal officials not to extend leases to energy companies on 36 central-coast tracts until environmental risks have been more fully assessed, a process that's likely to take ... |
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| Topics: California, mining and drilling, news (all these topics) |
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