Blog Profile / Blue Marble
| URL : | http://motherjones.com/blue-marble | |
|---|---|---|
| Filed Under: | Issues & Causes / Environmentalism | |
| Posts on Regator: | 1310 | |
| Posts / Week: | 11.1 | |
| Archived Since: | February 16, 2011 | |
Blog Post Archive
Climate Change Could Mean Seven Times As Many Katrinas
Batten down the hatches, East Coasters: A new study argues that for every one degree Celsius (1.8 degrees F) of global warming, the US Atlantic seaboard could see up to seven times as many Katrina-sized hurricanes. That's the conclusion...Show More Summary
Obama's New New Climate Plan
On Friday, President Obama announced plans for a $2 billion research initiative for clean energy technology. Here's how the White House described it : Over 10 years, the Energy Security Trust will provide $2 billion for critical, cutting-edge research focused on developing cost-effective transportation alternatives. Show More Summary
Will North Carolina Nix Its Renewable Energy Mandate?
In North Carolina, legislators are working to undo the progress their state has made on renewable energy. Back in 2007, it was the first southern state to pass a renewable energy mandate. The law requires investor-owned utilities to draw 12.5 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2021. Show More Summary
Deadly Bat Fungus Now in 22 States
This story first appeared on Scientific American's Extinction Countdown blog. A dead tri-colored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) found at Table Rock State Park in South Carolina has tested positive for Geomyces destructans, the deadly and mysterious fungus that has killed millions of bats since it was first observed in February 2006. Show More Summary
Could Waxman's New Bill Offer New Hope for a Carbon Tax?
It's been a few years now since Representatives Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) led an ambitious but doomed charge to get a carbon-pricing bill through Congress. But in the wake of President Obama's climate-centric State...Show More Summary
The Most Radioactive Man on Earth
This 18-minute video by VICE Japan profile's Naoto Matsumura, a 53-year-old fifth-generation rice farmer who went back into the dead zone around Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant to take care of his cows (and pigs, cats, dogs, and ostriches), and then stayed there. Show More Summary
Climate Change is Biggest Threat, Says Top Navy Commander in Pacific
As I wrote in Full Green Ahead in the current issue of Mother Jones, the US Navy is paying close attention—and giving far more than lip service—to the problems underway from a changing climate. But until now no one's said it quite so...Show More Summary
CHARTS: Not Everyone in the International Conservation Caucus Votes for Conservation
In 2012, Rep. Ander Crenshaw (R-Fla.) and his colleagues in the Republican-led House of Representatives put forward a record number of legislative items that would directly impact the environment for good or ill—but mostly for ill. The...Show More Summary
MAP: Is The Next Fukushima in Your Backyard?
Two years ago today, floodwaters from a massive, deadly earthquake/tsunami combo in Japan knocked out cooling equipment at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, resulting in what experts were quick to deign the second-worst nuclear disaster...Show More Summary
"They All Look Like a Vatican Version of the Tea Party Movement"
"Even on a good day, I get discouraged thinking about the election of a new pope," laments Maureen Fiedler, a nun and blogger at the progressive Catholic newspaper National Catholic Reporter. "They all look like a Vatican version ofShow More Summary
MAP: 42 States Have "Nightmare Bacteria"
The news on antibiotics just keeps getting worse. In the past decade, methicillin-resistant staph aureus—better-known as MRSA—and clostridium difficile ("C. diff" for short) emerged as poster-bugs for antibiotic-resistance. This week,...Show More Summary
Navy Says Biofuels a Priority During Sequester
I reported in the current issue of Mother Jones on the US Navy's aggressive goals to reduce dependence on foreign oil and fossil fuels (My Heart-Stopping Ride Aboard the Navy's Great Green Fleet). These targets include testing and scaling...Show More Summary
The Science Gender Gap in Four Horrifying Charts
Not to put too much of a damper on International Women's Day, but I want to call your attention to Nature's eye-popping new report on the persistent gender gap in the sciences. The short of it: Women scientists have made some gains,Show More Summary
The Scariest Climate Change Graph Just Got Scarier
Average global temperature over the last ~2,000 years. Note the massive uptick on the far right side. Courtesy Science/AAAS
Back in 1999 Penn State climate scientist Michael Mann released the climate change movement's most potent symbol:...Show More Summary
Insurers on Climate Change: Whatevs
Despite record heat and extreme weather disasters in recent years, insurers aren't adequately planning for climate change, according to a report issued Thursday. Only 13 percent of insurance companies have a "specific, comprehensiveShow More Summary
How Climate Change Worsened Violence in Syria
In October 2010, just months before a Tunisian street vendor self-immolated and sparked what would become the Arab Spring, a prolonged drought was turning Syria's verdant farmland into dust. By last month, more than 70,000 Syrians, mostly...Show More Summary
We Are Hot-Boxing Ourselves With Dangerous Gases at a Furious Pace
Global greenhouse gas emissions were way up in 2012, which shows that the world's (admittedly limited) efforts to stop hot-boxing ourselves with dangerous gases aren't going very well. The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 2.67 parts per million last year. Show More Summary
Can This Contraption Make Fracking Greener?
Although natural gas production emits less CO2 than other fossil fuels, it still spits plenty of junk into the atmosphere. But backers of a new gadget released yesterday say they've hit on a way to help frackers clean up their act. Boosters...Show More Summary
We're Scarily Close to the Permafrost Tipping Point
Permafrost—the ground that stays frozen for two or more consecutive years—is a ticking time bomb of climate change. Some 24 percent of Northern Hemisphere land is permafrost. That's 9 million square miles (23 million square kilometers)...Show More Summary
"Promiscuous" Bees and Vanishing Insects Mean Less Food For Us
The foods that make our meals more colorful and delicious—coffee, watermelon, almonds, to name a few—depend on pollinators like bees. In fact, three-quarters of global food crops rely at least partly on pollination by animals. But two...Show More Summary