The Last Frost

Hooray for Global Warming! - [Why Nature Matters]

"Ten Things You Can Do to Help Save the Earth" -[Howstuffworks]

Scientists predict Southwest mega-drought - [MSNBC.com]

40% Efficient Solar Cells: They Are Being Used Back On Earth - [TreeHugger]

A Green Hummer? It Runs On Biofuels - [TreeHugger]

Bleakest climate report approved - [Chron.com - Houston Chronicle]

Organic Solar Cell Breakthrough - [Go Sun Solutions]

 This past Monday, the US Supreme Court ruled that the EPA does in fact have the authority to regulate auto emissions that contribute to climate change such as carbon dioxide. It was a close vote, but in the end they did the right thing voting 5-4 in favor. Unfortunately those 4 votes stemmed from the 4 justices you would expect to vote against the ruling, all Bush appointees. 

 This ruling may have widespread impacts across the automotive industry as States and the EPA are now able to set mandatory emissions standards.  

Court rules against Bush in global warming case - [Reuters]

El Hierro island, part of the Spanish Canary Island's just off the coast of Morroco, is claiming to be the world's first island to be powered by purely renewable energy. The primary source being hydroelectric power and the secondary source coming from wind turbines. 

No El Hierro doesn't mean 'the hero' in Spanish either, I checked and it appears to translate to 'the iron' but I took French in school so what do I know?

Interestingly you might have heard of this island before. I remember seeing a Discovery channel documentary about potential future natural disasters a couple years ago, and this island was featured in one of them. Apparently the island has the potential to break in two, with one half sliding into the Atlantic Ocean. It's said to have the potential to cause a devastating Tsunami capable of wiping out the East coast of the United States. Let's hope they're doing this whole renewable energy thing to appease the gods, because being over here in NY, I don't want to wake up to their wake anytime soon.

Island powered solely by Renewables - [Development Crossing]

The US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has held hearings on the accusations that the White House has been "asserting it's will" on climate science. What they've found is that it's true, there are documented cases of so called 'editing' by White House aides. The goal of this editing process is to filter the information from the scientists in order to align it with the policies of the Bush administration before the information reaches the public. 

One of the defenders of the practice, Phil Cooney who was the chief of staff at the White House's Council on Environmental Quality and now conveniently works for ExxonMobile. So what were the specifics? In 10 years, 181 edits to highlight scientific uncertainties, 113 edits to diminish the role of humans in climate change.

Here's an example from the New Scientist article (which I encourage everyone to read):

For example, Cooney replaced "will" with "may" in the sentence: "Warming temperatures will also affect Arctic land areas." He also deleted this sentence: "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment." [New Scientist Environment, 2007]

Is this the way America conducts scientific research now? It's certainly not the behavior of the America I was raised to love.  

US fudging of climate science - details revealed - [New Scientist Environment]