Photo via NY Daily News
It's beyond well-known by now that crucial mistakes and shoddy cost-cutting measures were instrumental in bringing about the tragedy at the Deepwater Horizon drill site. But it's still rather alarming to look at them back-to-back-to-back -- New Orleans Times...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo via MSNBC's Cosmic Blog
It's an interesting question for followers of both politics and climate issues: How would things have turned out if Obama had thrown his weight behind clean energy legislation instead of health care reform? Would we now be looking at a freshly passed law designed to map out the future of the American energy economy and to stimulate job growth in sustainable sectors -- while curbing greenhouse gas pollution and ramping up renewables? Would Democrats have benefited from focusing on the economy i...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo: Flickr, CC
Might Expand to Other Countries
Speaking of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle", IKEA Sweden wants to make it easier for owners of old IKEA furniture to give it a second life. Against their own commercial interest, the company is offering a free online platform where sellers and buyers can find themselves, and they aren't even taking a cut of the transactions. Read on for more details....Read the full story on TreeHugger
image via Gasland
I lived in Wyoming for 8 years and it breaks my heart that the state's landscape is being so significantly altered by the oil, coal and gas industry. I never visited the town of Pavillion when I was in Wyoming, and now I don't have much of a desire to go there after federal officials told locals to avoid drinking their tap water and to make sure they have ventilation when showering. Pavillion is located close to several natural gas drilling sites. ...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit: Conservative Home
I've always found the assertion that all environmentalists are socialist a little hard to swallow. I know plenty of conservatives who love the natural world and abhor waste. And I know plenty of radical greens whose anti-authoritarian, DIY streak puts them in direct conflict with any "big government" solutions from the traditional left. This very debate is flourishing right now over in the UK, with the Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit:Colorado Trout Unlimited.
Colorado Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes seems to have a habit of hitting the xenophia-flavored cool aid. April's recent post covered his ranting about how promoting bike riding is part of a world government conspiracy designed to steal personal freedoms. At the time I thought 'well...it might win him some Tea Party-style votes and he won't lose too many bike riders who otherwise would have supported him.Read the full story on TreeHugger
photo via Nike
In an attempt to honor the 29 coal miners who tragically died last year at the Upper Big Branch coal mine, the West Virginia University Mountaineers have teamed up with Nike to create new football uniforms that have the mark of coal. The uniforms are white, but have coal dust on the pants and shoulders. The yellow strip on the hemet is said to represent a miner's headlamp. In the photo featuring the new uniform a player appears to be emerging from a strip mine, leav...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Taylorville Illinois Energy Center, a proposed "clean coal" power plant. Image credit:Illinois Times
Southern Illinois has vast, easily accessible coal reserves. That coal may be sulfurous and wet and salty; but ,Southern Illinois also has good geologic features for CO2 sequestration, plus Presidential root tendrils are there. These aspects explain, in a last-year kind of way, why Obama's Energy Department supports this $3.5 billion fantasy. (Several major conceptual design changes have been made since the Bush Ad...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo: Banksy.co.uk
Poor Dolphin
World-famous guerilla artist Banksy has made many environmental statements in the past, but we think this one is particularly clever, especially with the events of the past few months. Check out the video after the jump to see the coin-operated kiddie ride in action....Read the full story on TreeHugger
Image credit: After Gutenberg
When I posted a video of a mainstream farmer trying to green his operations, commenter Adam suggested that he was just doing it for economic reasons. That's an observation that gets bandied about a lot here at TreeHugger—that this company, or that individual, is not really interested in true sustainability. They are just in it for themselves.
I guess the big question is this—does it matter?...Read the full story on TreeHugger
