Topicfire Green News

America’s first climate refugees: “It’s happening now … The village is sinking”

2013-05-18T13:19:22+00:00

This story is part of a Guardian series on climate refugees. Read parts 1, 2, and 3. DCRA / Alaska Department of CommerceOnce the snow melts, people make their way around Newtok on wooden boardwalks set down on the mud. But the melting permafrost no longer provides stable ground for...

Researchers propose evaluating alt fuel efficiency based on energy rather than volume; impact of ethanol on vehicle efficiency and GHGs

2013-05-18T03:33:41+00:00

Relative changes in vehicle energy efficiency (VEE) (km/MJ) on ethanol/gasoline blends over those on gasoline for different blending levels. Credit: ACS, Yan et al. Click to enlarge. In a policy analysis in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology, researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Exeter and Oxford argue that, due...

College Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaigns Heat Up

2013-05-18T00:01:24+00:00

A group of Swarthmore College students wants action. They're willing to interrupt meetings. They're willing to piss off their peers. And, in some cases, they're willing to go to jail. That was the guiding thought behind a protest earlier this month, in which students commandeered a Group of Managers meeting,...

Marine Reunited With Four-Legged Friend

2013-05-17T23:31:29+00:00

DES MOINES, Iowa -- When Marine Sgt. Ross Gundlach served as a dog handler in Afghanistan, he told the yellow lab who was his constant companion that he'd look her up when he returned home. "I promised her if we made it out of alive, I'd do whatever it took to...

How Criminology Might Help Fight Poaching

2013-05-17T23:30:34+00:00

Douglas Main, LiveScience Staff Writer: Newark, N.J. — With no shortage of human-on-human misdeeds, criminologists haven't typically concerned themselves with crimes against wildlife and the environment. But with poaching raging out of control in several areas of the world, that may be changing. "There is a growing sense of urgency about what's...

Anteater Baffles Handlers With Surprise Birth

2013-05-17T23:30:19+00:00

GREENWICH, Conn. (AP) — An anteater has given birth at a Connecticut conservation center, prompting officials there to wonder how the mother conceived. Officials at the LEO Zoological Conservation Center tell the Greenwich Time (http://bit.ly/14wsum4 ) they...

Intel Demonstrates Water Leadership in Semiconductor Industry

2013-05-17T22:51:15+00:00

Intel Corporation has released its 2012 Corporate Responsibility Report, summarizing the chipmaker’s performance across a range of sustainability activities. The report – the company’s 12th – also provides updates on Intel’s progress toward its 2020 environmental goals. “Intel’s annual Corporate Responsibility Report allows us to transparently track our progress and...

Macklemore credits Seattle’s park system with launching his rap career

2013-05-17T21:26:49+00:00

In this video for the Nature Conservancy, rapper Macklemore explains how municipal green space in his home city of Seattle influenced his career: He and his friends didn’t want to kick it at their parents’ houses, so they went and freestyled in parks. (Side note: Do people really still say...

WATCH: Labrador Sings Along To His Favorite Song

2013-05-17T20:47:26+00:00

Sometimes, we can't help but sing along with our favorite song. This crooning Labrador retriever is no different. In a video posted on Youtube Wednesday, the dog howls along to his favorite song, Adele's "Make You Feel My Love." Rev's owner, Wes Reiff, explains that he has been playing and singing the...

DOE authorizes 2nd proposed facility to export LNG; 1.4 Bcf/d for 20 years

2013-05-17T20:38:08+00:00

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has conditionally authorized Freeport LNG Expansion, L.P. and FLNG Liquefaction, LLC (Freeport) to export domestically produced liquefied natural gas (LNG) to countries that do not have a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States from the Freeport LNG Terminal on Quintana Island, Texas....

WATCH: Puffin Lays An Egg!

2013-05-17T20:21:11+00:00

The great puffin census has begun! Every five years, the U.K.'s National Trust conducts a count of every breeding pair of the quirky birds on the Farne Islands, and the organization recently released an incredible video of one puffin laying an egg in her underground burrow. The 10 National Trust rangers living...

Jimmy Carter Flips On Push For Legal Pot

2013-05-17T20:19:56+00:00

Mere months after suggesting he was OK with moves by Colorado and Washington state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, former President Jimmy Carter announced this week that he opposes a broader legalization push. "I do not favor legalization," Carter said at a meeting Friday attended by state legislators and drug...

Vatican Exhibit A Tribute To Pope Francis' Homeland

2013-05-17T20:19:49+00:00

VATICAN CITY -- If Pope Francis is feeling a bit homesick these days, he need only go downstairs to St. Peter's Square. The Vatican on Friday opened an exhibit on Argentine gauchos, the legendary horsemen of the pampas – a show that's been years in the works and coincidentally opened under...

Hillary Clinton Weighs In On Climate Change

2013-05-17T20:19:09+00:00

"We are in a race against time," former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Wednesday night, in an interview with actor Harrison Ford. "We still live in a state of denial," Clinton suggested, regarding the future impacts of climate change. "We see it, we experience it, but we have a great...

California grocery chain turns food waste into electricity

2013-05-17T20:18:02+00:00

Kroger Co.Wasted food is digested here. One California food company has a novel plan for dealing with food waste and cutting down the power bill: Feed it to bacteria. The Kroger Co. plans to chuck all food gone past its sell-by date into an industrial silo, where microbes will break it...

OFA Talking Points Caution Members On Keystone

2013-05-17T20:16:46+00:00

Talking points being circulated by Organizing for Action, President Barack Obama's former campaign arm that now operates as a nonprofit organization supporting the president's agenda, are warning volunteers over activists working in opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline, according to a copy of the talking points provided to HuffPost. The release...

Take a photo of a glacier — it’ll last longer

2013-05-17T20:16:20+00:00

ShutterstockGlaciers, such as this one in Argentina, are melting and releasing their reserves of water. Farewell, great lakes of ice and frozen rivers. Scientists used satellite images and gravity measurements to peer more closely than ever before at the torturous drip-drip-drip from the world’s glaciers. What they discovered is not really much of...

PHOTO: Alaska Volcano Spews Lava And Ash Clouds

2013-05-17T19:51:28+00:00

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A remote Alaska volcano continues to erupt, spewing lava and ash clouds. The Alaska Volcano Observatory said Thursday a continuous cloud of ash, steam and gas from Pavlof Volcano has been seen 20,000...

WATCH: Kitten Takes On 2 Lizards

2013-05-17T19:30:38+00:00

What happens when you introduce a kitten to two lizards? Everything you could possibly hope for. This week, YouTube user scootbgirl90 uploaded a video of one kitten desperately trying to avoid being labeled "scaredy" as she takes on some scaly nemeses. We'll let you watch for yourself to see the...

'Hatchet hitchhiker' gets handcuffs with his Starbucks

2013-05-17T19:21:10+00:00

Life on the run for the Internet sensation known as Kai the hatchet-wielding hitchhiker ended when he asked for a cup of coffee.

New Fracking Rules Spark Controversy Among State Officials

2013-05-17T19:20:52+00:00

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming officials worry that Interior Department rules for hydraulic fracturing on federal land might unnecessarily duplicate the state's existing regulations for the practice which has revolutionized oil and gas development while facing criticism from some as a potential threat to clean groundwater. ...

LOOK: Adorable Coyote Pup On The Mend After Horrific Encounter With Cactus

2013-05-17T19:20:27+00:00

A coyote puppy suffered what would have been a deadly encounter with a cholla cactus on Tuesday. Thankfully, three good Samaritans came to its rescue and their story is now going viral. Gwen Maxwell of Sun City West, Ariz., discovered the coyote stumbling around her property Tuesday morning, according to...

Harvard researchers, on road to useful discoveries, instead make tiny chemical flowers

2013-05-17T19:15:35+00:00

Wim Noorduin A team of scientists at Harvard have discovered how to make crazy, beautiful, very tightly controlled shapes that are so tiny they’re invisible to the naked eye. Just by making simple changes in the environment in which salt and silicon crystals grow, they’ve made gardens of flower-like structures. Wim Noorduin,...

Cost-Competitive CCS ‘Possible in UK by 2020s’

2013-05-17T18:42:09+00:00

Gas and coal power plants equipped with carbon capture, transport and storage technology have the potential to be cost competitive with other low-carbon power generation in the UK by the early 2020s, according to a government task force report. The CCS Cost Reduction Task Force’s final report says power plants...

Gumball Supercar Rally Now Carbon Neutral, But Hardly Green

2013-05-17T18:18:39+00:00

If you've not heard of the Gumball 3000 before, it's fairly simple to explain. Blend hundreds of well-heeled supercar and sports car owners, a few thousand miles of roads, intersperse with fancy hotels and not-always-entirely-legal driving, and serve to the public. Given those ingredients, you'll forgive us a little skepticism...