LarsonsWorld -- just another persons /dev/null

Since this happens in downtown Denver, I actually take the day off and ride down for all the festivities.

We Just Passed the Climate's "Grim Milestone" -- MotherJones

Over the last couple of weeks, scientists and environmentalists have been keeping a particularly close eye on the Hawaii-based monitoring station that tracks how much carbon dioxide is in the atmosphere as the count tiptoed closer to a record-smashing 400 parts per million.

Last week, we finally got there: The daily mean concentration was higher than at any time in human history, NOAA reported. So what does that mean for life on Earth?

Read on ...

On Wednesday, the Bureau of Land Management is planning to lease 400 acres of taxpayer-owned land to a dirty coal company for a dirt cheap price -- ripping off taxpayers and fueling climate change just to give the coal industry a big handout.

Colorado residents are already seeing the impacts of climate change locally, with devastating wildfires and record droughts inflicting a heavy toll. The last thing we should be doing is accelerating climate change by basically giving away our publicly owned dirty coal.

In advance of Wednesday's lease sale, let's make sure the Bureau of Land Management knows that Coloradans are strongly opposed to this deeply misguided policy.

Tell Interior Secretary Ken Salazar: Stop expanding coal mining in Colorado and subsidizing climate change.

Last month, for the second time, the EPA refused to intervene to stop the use of the pesticide clothianidin, which scientists believe is at least partially to blame for the alarming rise in bee colony collapse -- the sudden bee-die off which has claimed about 30% of the U.S. honey bee population each year since 2006.

If we don't convince the EPA to reconsider, it is not scheduled to review clothianidin again until 2018. By then it could be too late for the bees, and the one third of our food crops bees play a crucial role in pollinating.

The EPA is currently accepting public comments on its latest decision not to to declare bee die offs an emeegency situation. Now is a crucial moment to make our voices heard for the bees.

Tell the EPA: Stop stalling.

The Obama administration has proposed new standards that would for the first time ever limit the industrial carbon pollution from power plants that contributes to global warming.
The EPA’s new clean air safeguards will help improve the quality of our air and protect our children’s health, while also helping to spark new innovations in clean energy technologies.
But before the EPA can finalize these new standards, they are accepting comments from the general public.
Will you take a minute to express your strong support for these historic new clean air standards?

Take action here.

Remember, this is really not about saving planet earth but keeping the climate unchanged for us. The earth will be here for a very long time to come. It ain't going nowhere. But, if the climate changes to much, we, the human race, are doomed.

Be sure to check out a developing collection of what I feel are great Earth Day cartoons.

Does Using Paper Take CO2 Out of the Environment? -- Mother Jones

There's a pretty good case to be made that using paper is good for the environment. Trees take in carbon dioxide, breaking it down in photosynthesis to produce energy and releasing oxygen as a waste product. The trees hold on to this carbon, even after they are cut down and made into paper. So long as the tree and products made from the tree haven’t decomposed or been burned (at which point the carbon joins with two oxygen, becoming carbon dioxide again) the carbon stays trapped inside it, serving as a carbon sink.

So let's get this straight: Trees sequester carbon dioxide, and paper is made from trees. So shouldn't you use as much paper as possible to stop climate change?

Find out here

Should Corporations Bankroll National Parks? -- Mother Jones

I love national parks—from the regal slopes of Yellowstone to the mind-bending vastness of the Grand Canyon. Like everyone else, I go to parks to get away from the bells and whistles of everyday life. So I can completely understand why a lot of people are creeped out by the mere prospect of private companies playing a role in the National Park Service.

And yet, our parks are strapped for cash. A few bucks from a big business could go a long way toward better trails, nicer facilities, and more ranger programs. So should companies fund the parks, or are these natural spaces best left free of corporate interference? The question has been debated over the years, with flare-ups around the time the Bush administration attempted to privatize parts of the park service back in 2003 and last fall when there was concern that Coca-Cola had interfered in a plan to stop selling disposable plastic water bottles in the parks.

Read on ...

Science education group decides it's time to tackle climate change -- Ars Technica

The National Center for Science Education has been defending the teaching of evolution since before Edwards vs. Aguillard, the 1987 Supreme Court decision that declared the teaching of creationism an unconstitutional promotion of religion. Although its primary focus is on supporting teachers and students by helping them handle public controversies caused by science education, the organization played a critical role in the Dover case, which blocked the teaching of creationism's descendent, intelligent design.

Read on ...

What's the Deal With Methyl Iodide and Strawberries? -- Mother Jones

Pesticides usually do their bug killing away from public view. But one such poison, a fumigant called methyl iodide, has been making headlines. So what makes this pesticide so evil? MoJo food and ag blogger Tom Philpott explains.

Read on ...