Lost on Earth Day

By KIMBERLY ANDERSON
On Earth Day 1990, I took a class trip to Washington, D.C., with my high school history and civics instructor. Not everyone went—just those who could afford it and those really interested in the environmental movement. I fell more in the former group. At 16, I jumped at the chance to get… »

Leery or Weary of Earth Day?

5 reasons to celebrate, and 5 ways to do it
EARTH DAY

By BOBBI BUCHANAN

Maybe you’re a global warming skeptic. Or you don’t like the face of the environmental movement. Not an Al Gore fan? Had your fill of Michael Pollan? That’s okay. You don’t have to be a liberal or buy expensive organic… »

Solar in Kentucky? 1970s house shows it works

By TOM EBLEN
Lexington Herald-Leader
Richard Levine has heard all of the arguments about why solar energy won’t work in Kentucky. And he has been defying them for three decades.
Levine, a University of Kentucky architecture professor, designed and built one of the nation’s first solar homes on 32 acres he bought in 1974 near Raven Run Nature… »

Saving Mountains

Movement to end MTR gains momentum
By JASON HOWARD
Opponents of mountaintop removal mining have been wary of looking up for even a moment to savor the hard-won victories of the past year. They have stayed busy, fearful of losing ground in the fight to end this form of coal mining, which has destroyed 470 mountains in… »

The Way of the Eco-Warrior

By D. CAMERON LAWRENCE

Growing up in southern New England in the 1960s and ’70s—pre-sprawl—I had what many children today do not have: a birthright of outdoor adventure. We opened our doors to a huge, undivided landscape of green fields, tumbling brooks, hummocked marshes and quiet woods. My little brother and I roamed the outdoors like… »

Going Brown

While the rich go green, the rest of us can jump on this bandwagon
By MICHAEL VAN HALL

I’m looking for people who live in low-cost to no-cost housing, by choice, to feature in my next book, titled Shacking Up. When I asked blog readers to send me leads, I was disappointed with their responses.
I did not… »

Obama walks a fine line over mining

Environmentalists feel betrayed by the EPA’s decision not to block new mountaintop mining projects
By TOM HAMBURGER and PETER WALLSTEN
Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON — With the election of President Obama, environmentalists had expected to see the end of the “Appalachian apocalypse,” their name for exposing coal deposits by blowing the tops off whole mountains.
But in recent… »

EPA failed to disclose coal ash-related health risks

Newly-released report shows increased risk of cancer for those living near coal ash disposal sites
By JASON HANCOCK
The Iowa Independent
People who live near near sites used to store ash or sludge from coal-fired power plants have a one in 50 chance of developing cancer, according to a just released government report kept from the public for… »

Offshore wind power could meet United States’ electricity demand

From Mother Earth News

Excellent wind resources off the coast of the lower 48 states could generate enough power to exceed the electricity demand in the United States, according to U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).
The NREL findings are included in a report released April 2 by the U.S. Department of the Interior, which… »

Tell the Pesticide Peddlers: We support Michelle Obama’s organic garden

From credoaction.com

The Mid America CropLife Association (MACA) has a bone to pick with Michelle Obama.
MACA represents chemical companies that produce pesticides, and they are angry that - wait for it - Michelle Obama isn’t using chemicals in her organic garden at the White House.
We are not making this up.
In an email they forwarded to their… »