Last month’s devastating coal ash spill in Tennessee could have been prevented if warning signs were heeded, according to a former coal engineer.  While the utility company argues the previous leaks were unrelated, an appalling lack of safety oversight or government regulation of the toxic sludge are undeniable hazards of the coal industry.   A number of environmental groups including the Sierra Club are planning to sue the utility on behalf of 40 neighboring families.

According to the New York Times, the Tennessee spill is only one of more than 1.300 unmonitered and unregulated coal ash dumps that have occurred across the United States recently. 

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This afternoon Continental Airlines is testing a fuel made from algae and jatropha, a tropical shrub, in a Boeing 737 for the first ever biofueled, two-engine flight.  Looking for a cheaper fuel alternative and hoping to reduce their carbon footprint, airlines are increasingly turning to alternative fuel sources.  The New York Times reports:

At Pratt & Whitney, the engine manufacturer, Alan H. Epstein, vice president for technology and environment, said, “It’s the first time in the history of jet aviation that the world is seriously considering going to a totally new fuel.”

And while these greener fuels are exciting prospects, especially for those of us who feel uneasy about our airplane-sized carbon footprint, the implementation of the technology still has away to go.  These plant-based fuels spew much less carbon into the atmosphere then their predecessors, and certainly less then coal or natural gas, which some companies are foolishly attempting to use as substitutes.  However, growing plants for biofuels will require land, running the risk of competing with food crops, which has already proved problematic with ethanol production.  Hopefully, researchers can find a plant that requires very little room and minimal fertilization.

takepart by learning how to reduce your carbon footprint when you fly.

Photo:  Beautyredefined’s Flickr Photostream (Creative Commons)

For those of you who think kids these days are only concerned with online profiles and illegal downloads, along comes the story of Generation E from the New York Times about innovative young people committed to solving the climate crisis.  Mark wrote a great post yesterday about ways to motivate much needed innovators, green and otherwise, and these are the kids that need that support.

From rockin’ electric motorcycles to power plants fueled with rice husks, teenagers and young adults are finding brilliant ways of addressing a variety of environmental concerns.  Just check out this video from Alex Loorz, the 14 year old who since learning to present Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth power point went on to found Kids vs Global Warming:

takepart by learning what you can do to help solve the climate crisis and share introduce a young person in your life to Kids-vs-Global Warming.  Although, chances are, they’re way ahead of you.

In another last-minute change of regulations, the outgoing administration has announced that the Interior Department plans to double the rate of logging on federally owned land in Oregon. The area, which is 2.6 million acres, is already receiving harsh criticism from all sorts of people.

The New York Times tells us that in announcing the new regulations, the Interior Department “brushed aside the objections of the governor and two federal agencies charged with guarding the quality of the area’s water and the health of the fish that depend on it.”

Of course, the timber industry is pretty amped about this decision, as it is still hurting from the Northwest Forest Plan, which cut logging back about 80 percent 15 years ago. And, naturally, environmental-type people are fuming.

But environmental groups condemned the decision and gave notice that they would challenge the plan in federal court. The group Earthjustice called the decision a ‘massive giveaway at the expense of salmon spawning streams, healthy old-growth forests and habitat for rare birds such as the northern spotted owl and marbled murrelet.’

I have no idea what a marbeled murrelet is. A bird, I guess? But anyhow, the Interior Department people (hey, remember when the Interior Department did this?) say there will be time for additional review and comment before this plan goes into effect.

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The heat is broken in our house right now, which makes the house rather frigid. The house tends to not retain heat, at all, which made a recent article in the New York Times especially interesting. The article discusses “passive houses,” being built now in Germany, which retain heat extremely well - so well, in fact, the homes don’t even need central heat or a radiator.

The concept of the passive house, pioneered in this city of 140,000 outside Frankfurt, approaches the challenge from a different angle. Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in. That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants’ bodies.

And these houses cost only 5 to 7 percent more to build than a regular house, at least in Germany. These houses were tried a while back, but heat retention meant air retention, which meant stagnant air in the homes, making for uncomfortable living. But that issue has been solved now.

New passive houses use an ingenious central ventilation system. The warm air going out passes side by side with clean, cold air coming in, exchanging heat with 90 percent efficiency.

I have no idea how that actually works. All I know is that if we had this going on in our house right now, it wouldn’t be hovering around 50 degrees indoors here at the moment.

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I’ve always loved crafts and I know that I had more free time I’d probably be crafting a lot more often.  It seems though that most folks don’t need time to get crafting, the simply need less money.  According to the New York Times:

Craft stores, from giant chains like Michaels Stores to small scrapbook supply shops, are reporting that sales are higher compared with the last holiday season, and online marketplaces for handmade goods, like Etsy, are seeing a boom in listings and transactions.

This is actually really exciting - because so often you can make something for yourself for much cheaper than what stores try to sell it to you for.  And of course making things is usually more sustainable than buying, and that is always exciting. Not to mention that things like Etsy are great because they promote artists and other people who want to go into business for themselves.  Yay!

takepart to check out craftzine for ideas on cool things you can make. And in the spirit of all things “craft” reminisce with the trailer below:

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has joined Conservation International in helping to protect tropical forests and curb climate change.  Check out their latest video where Tom explains “Global Weirding”, how everyone is affected by the climate crisis, and what you can do to help:

takepart by joining Tom and Conservation International in taking a step towards a greener future.

In yet another appalling, and seemingly antithetical move, the Environmental Protection Agency has ruled that applications to build new coal power plants don’t need to consider their greenhouse gas output.  Excuse me?  Shouldn’t that be the first thing the polluters should have to do?  This will undoubtedly pave the way for the last-minute approval of coal plants before Bush leaves office, ensuring that he leaves the White House as dirty as possible.  And it gets better; according to the New York Times, EPA administrator Stephen Johnson ludicrously argues:

carbon dioxide is not a pollutant to be regulated when approving power plants. He cited “sound policy considerations.

The current concerns over global climate change should not drive E.P.A. into adopting an unworkable policy of requiring emission controls” in these cases.

No, I’m pretty sure that concerns over climate change should be encouraging the EPA to help control carbon emissions.

takepart by learning what you can do to help solve the climate crisis, since it seems the EPA are falling down on the job.

Related: Inconvenient Truth of the Day

Photo: davipt’s flickr photostream (Creative Commons)

There’s been a lot of talk about Obama’s choices for his upcoming administration, but some of the most heated (sorry, climate change pun) debate may come from his picks for the energy and environment teams.  There will also be much discussion about what will be the best and most appropriate action to take on combating climate change.   According to Andrew Revkin of The New York Times, conflicts may arise between proponents of regulation versus advocates for technological approaches to reducing our carbon footprint.  My hope is that both perspectives will be pursued fully.  To understand the different rationals, Revkin has proposed three questions to experts and readers alike:

There will undoubtedly be tension within the Obama team between those seeing the climate-energy challenge mainly as a technology problem (putting a price on pollution, pushing efficiency, but also rebuilding the innovation pipeline) and those seeing it still as an old-style pollution problem (regulate or price the pollution and the technology will come to take it away).

1) Do you see the climate-energy challenge, at its root, as primarily a “technology problem” or “pollution problem” (presuming you believe there is an energy-climate challenge, of course)?

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I loved Nicholas Kristof’s blog post on the New York Times today about Caroline Kennedy, who is vying for the New York Stat Senate seat soon-to-be-vacated by Hillary Clinton.

He’s right: it would be totally ridiculous for Gov. Paterson to appoint a member of the Kennedy dynasty to fill Clinton’s seat, as she is unqualified for the position. Such an appointment would be disrespectful to other, more seasoned NY state politicians, like Carolyn Maloney.

Kristof fingers sexism as part of the problem:

Isn’t it sexist to rush to support a woman because of her father, while ignoring other women who have earned their own substantial credentials in their own careers in Congress?

He very well may have a point. Call it the Sarah Palin problem: an unqualified woman with “star power” shoots to the front of the line, hurtling over women who worked twice as hard as the men did to get to the same place. That sends the message that glitz and glamour matters more than intellect, that something that would feel good emotionally trumps years pounding the pavement handing out fliers and wooing voters one by one.

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