There’s no doubt that recent economic instability has sent gold prices soaring. But gold doesn’t grow on trees–would that it did!—and higher prices for the yellow metal has encouraged companies to go to greater lengths to retrieve the precious element, setting up battles with conservationists.
Invasive Species
My magazine story on invasive species and the Asian carp is out today, but you’ll have to go to a magazine newsstand to read it—paywall? (You remember what newsstands look like right? Or perhaps not.) But you can check out a photo essay from Benjamin Lowy on last week’s Redneck Fishing Tournament. I think I convinced him not use the …
Oil Spill: Is the Well Already Killed?
For weeks now, retired Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen has been very clear: BP’s blown well would be considered fully fixed when the relief well was finally completed. “This well will not be killed until we do the bottom kill,” Allen said last week.
But it turns out that might not be true. As we reported yesterday, the final phase of …
A Chinese Artist Confronts His Country’s Pollution
Over in Foreign Policy, Christina Larson has an interview with the New York-based Chinese-American artist Zhang Hongtu. Zhang, who grew up in China under Mao Zedong but moved to the U.S. in 1982, is a dissident painter, but one with a comic touch—see his famous picture of Mao on the Quaker Oats can. While many of his artist peers back …
Extreme Heat Sends Chills Through the World
“2010 is becoming the year of the heatwave, with record temperatures set in 17 countries,” The Guardian newspaper reported today.
For those following the deadly heatwave that has hit eastern Europe in the last 6 weeks, it should comes as no surprise that record highs have been recorded in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. But also Iraq, …
Stephen Hawking’s Ecological Warning [UPDATE]
Update: Big mistake on my part here—I did not give proper credit to Andrew Dermont, the writer from Big Think who originally interviewed Hawking. You can access Dermont’s original post and story on the Hawking interview here, which contains Dermont’s own take on Hawking’s thoughts as well. Complete mistake on my part—the post I’d …
Oil Spill: End of the Endgame, Beginning of the Claims Game
You know, I’m going to miss these almost daily updates of well-capping procedures performed by robots 5,000 ft. under the surface of the Gulf of Mex…
No, I’m not. If I never hear another piece of vaguely violent drilling jargon—top kill, bottom kill, static kill—it will be too soon. It’s gotten to the point where I’m hearing …
What’s Worse Than an Oil Spill?
According to The Onion, the greatest environmental disaster could be oil that actually makes it safely into our cars and planes, gets burnt for fuel and pollutes the atmosphere:
“We’re looking at a crisis of cataclysmic proportions,” said Charles Hartsell, an environmental scientist at Tufts University. “In a matter of days, this oil
…
Climate Change: How Extreme Heat May Affect Your Food
Hot enough for you? If you live in one of the more than 15 states that were suffering under a heat advisory or excessive heat warning on Tuesday, I’m going to guess the answer is yes, God, please make it all stop. The oppressively high temperatures that gripped much of the U.S. during June—the hottest month on record worldwide, …
Robbing Renewable Energy to Pay Teachers
This afternoon, after Speaker Nancy Pelosi called them back from their six-week summer break, members of the House of Representatives passed an emergency $26 billion spending bill to prevent the layoff of 300,000 teachers, police and other civil servants from layoffs due to state cutbacks. The bill passed