EcocentricOil
Well, there’s one thing you should take away from the Interior Department’s decision yesterday to conditionally allow the oil company Shell to begin drilling exploratory wells in the Arctic Ocean: the Obama Administration is not anti-energy. Despite constant complaining from the energy industry and Republicans in Congress that the White …
EcocentricFood
As I write this, Somalia is suffering its worst drought in 60 years. The lack of rain—combined with civil unrest and political interference from the al-Qaeda linked al-Shabab group—has produced catastrophic results. Yesterday Nancy Linborg, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told a …
EcocentricOil
Nigeria is one of the world’s biggest oil producers, pumping 2.6 million barrels a day—a little less than half what the far larger U.S. produces. But Nigeria is also one of the world’s dirtiest oil producers, a place where spills and sabotage are common, and where the money generated by the lucrative oil business hasn’t really …
EcocentricSpace
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter beams back images that suggest rivulets of water, flowing in spring and summer, then evaporating
EcocentricEcocentric
As an environment writer, I’m constantly sent pitches highlighting companies that are going green, getting more efficient, shrinking their carbon footprint—and few industries talk a bigger game than the airlines. Companies like American Airlines hype their new, more fuel-efficient fleets, while other corporations like to talk about …
EcocentricUncategorized
In many ways, it looks like daily life in Fukushima is slipping back into its familiar routines. In Koriyama, a town south of Fukushima City, a group of taiko drummers set up in front of the train station to perform in an annual summer festival. Girls cruise by on bicycles in their plaid skirts and white socks in the unusually mild …
EcocentricFood
If a disease infected 1.4 million Americans and killed more than 400 of us every year, you’d think we’d hear about it pretty often. You might imagine there would be ribbons we could wear to show our solidarity against the disease, or maybe a nice benefit concertto raise money for a cure.
Yet the bacteria salmonella—which causes …
EcocentricEnergy
It all seems virtual, but the Internet really does have a physical home in the thousands and thousands of computer data centers operated by IT companies around the world. And those data centers require electricity—potentially, lots of it, with a thirst that will likely only grow as our lives become more digital. In 2007, a report by …
EcocentricOceans
Hypoxia sounds like a treatment that pop stars would use to keep from aging, but it’s actually one of the most serious—if underreported and invisible—environmental threats in the world. Hypoxia occurs when coastal waters become overloaded with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus—often from sewage or fertilizer running off …
