The originally published version of this story incorrectly stated that a joint Finnish-Russian forest conservation project in Russia includes a Russian NGO with five employees who have a combined salary of 300,000 euro a month. In fact, each employee earns around 300 euro a month.
Can Google Earth empower citizens to protect the
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Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson finally got to use her parking space on Capitol Hill this morning. Jackson was the star witness at the newly Republican-run House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearings on the proposed “Energy Tax Prevention Act.”
What’s that? You …
It’s the sort of news that would spoil an oil executive’s breakfast. Last night the Guardian reported that a cache of WikiLeaks cables from American diplomats in Saudi Arabia indicated that the Mideast country’s oil reserves could be overstated by as much as 40%. If true, that would have major implications for oil prices because the …
Vice President Joe Biden earned the nickname “Amtrak Joe” not because he used to hop the rails hobo-style in his youth—that would be the Onion version of the Veep—but because he made over 7,900 commuting trips on Amtrak between Washington and his home in Wilmington during his 26-year career in the Senate. Logically, the White …
Over on Healthland I have a post on a new online mapping project that will gather together reports of animal disease outbreaks from around the world. That data matters, and not just for vets—75% of the new, emerging and reemerging diseases affecting human beings at the start of the 21st century originated in human beings, including …
The story of the world’s forests is usually a depressing one. Tropical rain forests are under pressure in South America, Asia and Africa, threatening habitat for countless species and adding billions of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere every year. But while the headlines can be scary, the reality is that the world may be close …
The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released a report this week that food prices reached an all-time high in January. The Food Price Index rose 3.4% in January to 231, surpassing June 2008 levels that sparked food riots and hoarding from Haiti to the Philippines. Prices of all commodity groups except meat — cereals, …
The cyclone that thrashed a still-soggy Queensland yesterday has re-energized an ongoing debate Down Under over what Australia can expect from a warmer planet and what the nation – the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide per capita – should do about it.
Front and center in the fray is Ross Garnaut, the government’s …
A neat press release popped into my inbox this week announcing the development of a solar power technology capable of generating electricity on see-thru glass.
Today kicks off the UN International Year of Forests. (I know, it feels like International Polar Year just ended—probably because it was actually two years.) The event is meant to focus global attention on the plight of the world’s forests, which provide carbon sequestration, climate regulation and are host to an astounding variety …