News Roundup & Action Opportunities!

Some more green news of the week:

1. The Weekly Standard Does Horrible Job Covering “Climategate 2”. The full post The Weekly Standard apart over on Media Matters is worth a read, but here are the key points from the piece (note: Hayward is the author):

  1. Hayward Cites Email About Page Limits To Claim That “Politics Drives The Process.”
  2. “Political Spin” Email Actually Showed How Critiques Among Scientists Improved IPCC Report.
  3. Hayward Quotes Emails Of Scientists Criticizing Activists’ Exaggerations Of The Evidence.
  4. Hayward Claims IPCC Process Is “Explicitly Political” Because It Includes A Diversity Of Authors.
  5. IPCC Has Openly Discussed Uncertainty About Regional Climate Models.
  6. Hayward Misrepresents UK’s Weather Generator Project.
  7. Results of CERN Study Do Not Support Hayward’s Conclusion.
  8. Hayward Crops Email To Imply That IPCC’s “Conclusions [Were] Driving The Findings.”
  9. Emails Do Not Suggest “The Cause” Is Political Activism.

Check out the full post!

2. Tell Google to Stand Up for the Climate (Do No Evil) and Quit U.S. Chamber of Commerce! “Right now we have a huge opportunity to deal a serious blow to one of Washington’s most powerful lobbies, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,” Corporate Accountability International writes. “At Google headquarters, employees are intensely debating whether Google should quit the Chamber in the next few weeks. Google quitting would be a huge blow to the Chamber’s power in Washington.” Push Google to do the right thing by signing this petition!

3. Tell Sketchers to Ditch Horrible Greyhound Racing Ad. From PETA:

PETA recently learned that Skechers filmed an advertisement at a greyhound racetrack. The ad, which will air during the Super Bowl in February, features greyhound dogs in racing jackets and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks.

We immediately contacted the company to provide information on how greyhounds suffer when used in the racing industry, and asked Skechers not to air the ad. The company has not been responsive and is moving forward with its plans to air the ad.

Greyhound racing is an industry fraught with cruelty. Greyhounds used as racers typically live their entire lives in cramped cages and are kept muzzled by their trainers at all times. These gentle dogs are extremely sensitive, yet they rarely know the comfort of a kind word or a gentle touch. When too old, injured, or tired to continue racing, the dogs are often discarded like garbage. Since 2001, more than half of American greyhound-racing tracks have closed because of the public outcry against the cruelty inflicted upon dogs. The remaining tracks have seen a decrease in ticket sales.

Push Sketchers to ditch the ad via this petition!

4. Chinese Grassroots Activists Creating Green Change. From Xinhua:

Zhou Bide, a 65-year-old retired engineer, saw a new way to tackle pressing environmental issues when the local government pledged to clean a polluted lake in response to online appeals.

In an online forum at Rednet.cn, a local news website in central Hunan province, environmental activists like Zhou have been exposing “environmentally unfriendly” events in the province’s Xiangtan city throughout 2011.

In this manner, the activists hope to push the local government to curb severe pollution, and Yijia Lake was the target of their latest online campaign.

5. Big Oil & Canada Thwarted U.S. Carbon Standards. Think our neighbor upstairs doesn’t have much power? Think again! Teaming up with Big Oil, it seems Canada was a large reason why the U.S. has been so inactive when it comes to cutting carbon emissions. “In a must-read piece co-published today by Salon.com and The TyeeGeoff Dembicki exposes the dark underbelly of the public relations and lobbying industry, revealing the interconnectedness between Alberta tar sands movers and shakers in Alberta and their oily compatriots in Washington,” Steve Horn of DeSmog Blog wrote yesterday.

6. Farm Boy on Being a Hypocrite. OK, this isn’t ‘news’, but it’s an excellent piece on sister site Eat Drink Better about the food we eat.. and being a hypocrite.

Greyhound photo via shutterstock

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