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What Is Climate Change? (VIDEO)

Remember the difference between weather and climate? We know what happens when the weather changes—it’s obvious. Climate is another story. Read on. When it rains, you put on a raincoat or take your umbrella when you go out. It snows: time for high boots, a heavier coat, scarf, and warm gloves. And sunny days, well,

National Climate Assessment Pulls No Punches About US Options

(All figures are from the 2014 National Climate Assessment draft.) Later today (Tuesday, May 6), at 8 a.m. EDT, the National Climate Assessment and Development Advisory Committee of experts meets by conference call to approve the final version of the Third National Climate Assessment. The gist of their message, as Suzanne Goldenberg of The Guardian

How Clean Is Your Electricity? Ask The EPA

If you’ve ever wondered about the composition of the electricity delivered to your home (most of us have no clue), there’s one quick and easy way to find out. The EPA’s ‘Power Profiler’ tool has apparently been around for at least 2 years, but I only discovered it recently. Although the data used to generate

The Dutch Invade South Africa Again — Beware the Fracking Hype

  Shell is planning huge new fracking projects in South Africa now. There is historical irony here.   It was the Dutch who, three centuries ago, were the first large-scale commercial European settlers in South Africa.                 Around 1600, the Dutch East India Company began the European settlements

Awesome Graphic on City Density & Gasoline Use per Person

  OK, perhaps I’m still a city planning nerd, but this graphic below on city density and gasoline use per person is totally awesome. Basic point is a simple one: people living in denser cities drive less. However, it also pulls out another interesting point: density aside, some countries (and continents) seem to promote automobile

Oklahoma Gas Drilling Rig Explodes (VIDEO)

Reportedly, an Oklahoma natural gas drilling rig exploded near the town of Watonga last night. The drilling rig has around-the-clock workers and about a dozen workers were working at the time of the explosion, but they were reported to have evacuated right before it. The explosion occurred at about 10:30pm local time.

Russia Helps to Protect Critically Endangered Western Grey Whales (Sort of)

Well, Russia is one key actor threating grey whales with extinction, but it has also taken a step forward in protecting the critically endangered species. “Companies seeking oil extraction rights to a newly available concession off Russia’s Sakhalin Island will not be permitted to conduct activities while Western gray whales are present,” WWF wrote last week.

Big Oil & Gas Not Paying Millions or Even Billions for the Land They Lease

On the anniversary of the BP oil spill, I thought I’d do another piece on some recent oil industry news. While the U.S. is struggling to decrease its debt in the midst of efforts to get the economy rolling string again, it seems there is still millions if not billions of dollars in oil and gas company income owed to the nation that is not being collected. Confused?

A special thanks to Tim DeChristopher

Pollute our air and water, leave SuperFund sites uncleaned, leave brownfields scattered around the country, and greatly contribute to climate change and you’re a billionaire. Try to prevent any of this and it’s 10 years in prison… Thank you, Tim. More on Tim DeChristopher From Planetsave: Tim DeChristopher found guilty, faces 10 years From Grist:

Tim DeChristopher found guilty, faces 10 years

It’s not surprising, since Judge Dee Benson didn’t allow the eco-activist any real defense. But it’s a sad commentary on our country that while the people who trashed our economy by committing one one of the biggest frauds in our nation’s history get off scot-free, Tim DeChristopher has been prosecuted, found guilty, and could go

Limited Nuclear War Could Halt Global Warming, Short Term, NASA Predicts

The scientists used a general circulation model known as ModelE (developed at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York). The model calculates ocean-atmosphere coupling effects in addition to allowing varying aerosol inputs.

The initial input for the simulation was 5 teragrams (megatons) of black carbon particles injected into Earth’s upper troposphere. This is the estimated result of the surface detonation of 100 Hiroshima-size bombs (each equivalent to 15K tons of TNT).

Newest Gulf Report: Oil, Soot and Dead Animals on Sea Floor

Reporting her results from a fifth Gulf of Mexico expedition ending this past December,  University of Georgia marine scientist Samantha Joye has been to the bottom and back, and her findings are anything but optimistic. Her team has found numerous expanses of oil and soot covered sea floor that were “chemically finger-printed” as deriving from

Time to Support Tim DeChristopher

This is a story I think I’ve touched on in the past on here and surely one I will be covering continuously in the next month or so. It also inspires a ton of ideas in my head for where the environmental and climate action movement should be headed and where I think this blog,

Green Living, Activism, and Clean Energy Stories of the Day

Some of the top green living, activism, and clean energy stories from the past day or so: Activism Greenpeace Gives Facebook “Unfriend Coal” Deadline Greenpeace has been pushing Facebook to “unfriend coal” and go the route of clean energy for awhile. Facebook, for the most part, hasn’t listened. Greenpeace is now telling Facebook it should

Environmental, Global Warming, and Animal News

Some of the top climate change and environmental stories of the last day or so: Climate Science Graph of the Day: Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes Good info and graphs on the page above, but thought I’d share the 3 videos from the post here for you to check out just in case you don’t feel

Thorough Analysis Needed Before We Recklessly Drill in Arctic Ocean

The BP oil spill was an accident. There are many things that probably could have prevented it, though. For example, more careful governmental review. Yet, while we are still discovering negative consequences resulting from this tremendous environmental and economic disaster, there are people pushing to streamline oil and gas drilling in the Arctic. The Wilderness

Will Wind and Solar Power the Planet

Continuous research and development could soon see wind and solar dominate energy production, according to Nobel laureate Walter Kohn, Ph.D. Speaking at a symposium at the American Chemical Society’s 240’th National Meeting, Kohn said that he believed that with continuous research and development of alternative energies we could see an era in human history where

Cut Soot and Save the Arctic

A new study says that cutting soot emissions is the best way to save the rapidly melting Arctic. Soot emissions are a result of burning fossil fuel, wood, and dung, amongst other things, and according to a new study by Stanford researcher Mark Z. Jacobson, if we were to cut soot emissions we could drastically

Growing Acid in our Oceans: A Looming Threat to Sea Life

[social_buttons] This picture is a picture of the beautiful Monterey, California coastline. This is where I grew up. It is famous for it’s beautiful sea life. Sea otters, jelly fish, sea lions, kelp forests all populate the Monterey coast.  The Pacific Ocean is the largest ocean in the world. Yet, with all that mass of

The Dems Fold With A New Offshore Drilling Plan

Democrats caved came to a new proposal on Wednesday which would allow offshore drilling 50 miles from the coast if the state approves: federal waters within 50 miles of shore would continue to be protected. Waters off Florida’s Gulf coast also would remain protected at least until 2022 under the plan. The proposal is expected

Oil and Gas Industry Pays Off US Govt. with Sex, Drugs

A new report says that Big Oil enticed U.S. government employees with sex, drugs, and other “improper” gifts. If any doubt was left about the complicit corruption of current U.S. energy policy, a report released earlier today by the Interior Department’s inspector general stated that U.S. government employees received what they politely called “improper gifts”

Expand Offshore Drilling? Three Words for You: Katrina, Rita, Gustav

Why is expanded offshore drilling not the lasting solution to the U.S.’s energy problems? Besides many of the other valid reasons (decades to get to market, potential environmental devastation, oil as a global commodity), Satish Nagarajaiah offers another one: Billions and billions of dollars in potential storm-related losses. A civil and mechanical engineering professor at

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