NASA: It’s a thousandth of a degree, people.

NASA points out that their recent acknowledgment that their global temperature data was 0.001°F off has no effect whatsoever on climate change models. I love the graphs. I spent a few minutes trying to find the lines indicating the old data before I realized that they were covered up by the lines indicating the new …

Australia’s test case for measuring climatological change.

Those who believe that humans cannot possibly affect the environment would do well to read about the stunning climatological differences caused by Australia’s rabbit proof fence. (They’d also do well to be aware of the Dust Bowl, with half a million homeless resulting from removing grasses from the Great Plains.) Republicans are going to kick …

Galactic wobble causes extinctions?

Here’s a fascinating new hypothesis: the reasons there are big die-offs every 62M years is because the solar system wobbles too far up in the orbital plane of the galaxy, exposing Earth to nasty radiation. Biodiversity drops by 10% like clockwork, and has for the last half-billion years. A cluster of galaxies nearby emit muons, …

Eating beef is as environmentally harmful as driving.

“Producing 2.2lb of beef generates as much greenhouse gas as driving a car non-stop for three hours.” I don’t doubt that for a minute. Feed-grade corn is bathed in petroleum, as fertilizer, and then the corn has to be hauled to the feedlots, and then the beef has to be shipped to you. You’re burning …

Wal-Mart’s environmental efforts are paying off.

AP: Wal-Mart has made their fleet of semis 15% more fuel efficient as part of their enormous new environmental commitment. The company runs the nation’s largest trucking fleet, with 7,200 tractor-trailers. They intend to make them 25% more efficient by next year and 100% more efficient by 2015. Yet the pathetic American auto industry insists …

Ford throws up hands, admits defeat by Japan.

Those looking for evidence of how utterly pathetic that the American auto industry has become need look no further than this Reuters headline: “Ford sees plug-in hybrids in 5-10 years.” A great many Prius owners have managed to convert their cars to be plugged in and charged at night, using off the shelf parts, but …

Remaking the way we make things.

There are three books that I’ve read in the past year that have fundamentally changed how I think about the world: Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” (I reviewed it last year), Bill McKibben’s “Deep Economy,” and Bill McDonough & Michael Braungart’s “Cradle to Cradle.” The latter, in particular, turned on its head how I think …