EcocentricPolitics
So there seems to be an election coming up tomorrow—or at least that’s what I can tell from all of the writers and editors scurrying around TIME HQ this morning, trying to make sure John Boehner’s deep orange tint doesn’t throw off the visual balance of the next issue. The sad truth for environmentalists—or “climate hawks,” or …
EcocentricPolitics
Over on the Time.com mainpage, I have a Going Green column about the Prop 23 battle in California. The ballot initiative would all but repeal California’s landmark global warming law, but during an election cycle where fossil-fuel interests have dominated the money game, green forces have a distinct cash advantage in California. Check …
EcocentricWildlife
Bucking the trend of global environmental summits over-promising and under-delivering, representatives from nearly 190 nations came together in Nagoya at the end of the two week-long Convention on Biological Diversity and signed an important deal that aims to greatly expand the portions of the planet that are under protection and …
EcocentricWildlife
As every writer knows—even those who’d prefer they didn’t—Oprah Winfrey possess an unmatched ability to drive American consumers. If Oprah identifies a product as one of her Favorite Things, the masses—or at least a large chunk of them—will follow, as if tugged by the inescapable force of gravity.
It was that tremendous power …
EcocentricWater
You remember water fountains, right? If your grade school experience was anything like mine (Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Class of ’93!), you’ll recall getting your water not from a plastic Evian bottle, but straight from the ceramic fountain—usually kid-sized. The same went for parks, museums and public buildings—water fountains were …
EcocentricInvasive Species
Sometime after World War II, the Boiga irregularis, or the brown tree snake, is believed to have hitched a ride on a cargo ship and landed on the Pacifc island of Guam. For the snake, Guam was paradise, home to a large number of prey and no natural predators. By 1970, the snake had colonized the entire island, pushing several bird
…
EcocentricOil
[Update 10/29/10: Halliburton has responded to the commission’s report—and unsurprisingly, the company deflects the blame and places the responsibility back on BP’s shoulders. Halliburton questioned the commission’s tests, arguing that the panel’s investigators used a different cement mixture than the one that eventually went into the …
EcocentricHealth
I have a new environmental health post over at TIME’s Healthland on chemical safety. Check it out here
EcocentricGreen Products
The Spokane river had a soap scum problem. Over the years the runoff of nutrients like phosphorous into the eastern Washington state waterway has encouraged the growth of algae, leading to green, icky waters in a process science teachers would call eutrophication and swimmers would call icky. As the algae proliferates and then dies, …
EcocentricGeoengineering
As it becomes increasingly clear that legislating carbon emission cuts will be almost impossible in the immediate future—while counting on research for new energy solutions is an inevitable gamble—the possibility of geoengineering is going from a pipe dream to a last-ditch weapon. Most geoengineering schemes would involve trying to …
