ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS PICKS

AIR POLLUTION: Beijing Olympics: China to celebrate week of ‘fresh air’: China’s Olympic organisers are hoping to celebrate a week of “clean” skies tomorrow after recording another day when Beijing’s notoriously poor air quality was officially judged good enough for the Games

APICULTURE: Commercially raised bees spreading disease

AQUACULTURE: The salmon business: Can marine farming ever be eco friendly?: Every day, a million Britons tuck into salmon, and demand is rising fast. Marine farming is the supermarkets’ answer – but can it ever be eco-friendly? Martin Hickman reports

ARCTIC MELTING: Stuck polar bears eating birds, Canadian ice shelf loses 7-square-mile section

BIOFUELS: McDonalds to power Manila’s police cars

BIG OIL: BP 2Q profits soar

CONSERVATION: Ancient tree needs help: environmentalists: The founder of National Tree Day wants the Federal Government to help save a rare Tasmanian tree

CRONYISM, LIES, COVER-UPS AND INDICTMENTS: Senate Democrats call on EPA administrator Stephen Johnson to resign, want DOJ investigation

ECO-DRIVING: You can tell Google Maps that you want walking directions to supplement your driving directions, which can save you gas in high density areas, and google will find known routes that are direct, flat, and that use pedestrian pathways

ENERGY: U.S. Motorists May Drive Less for 1st Time Since 1980, Energy conservation: Starting at home

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: A look at the ‘tough’ Montana judge in the gray wolves case

EXPOSURE TO CHEMICALS AND TOXINS: Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins

FOOD: L.A. blocks new fast-food outlets from poor areas, In New Orleans, a fried chicken institution revived, Every bite you take: How Sysco came to monopolize most of what you eat

FUEL EFFICIENCY STANDARDS: 180mpg hatch by 2050

GREEN GRAFFITI: Anti-Bush graffiti: 25 countries, six continents

GROSS IN APPROPRIATE USE OF RESOURCES: Airbus superjumbo lands at New York’s JFK

HIV/AIDS: U.S. blacks, if a nation, would rank high on AIDS, Number of new HIV infections in US much higher than government reported, study finds

HUMANITY: US House of Representatives set to apologise to black Americans for ‘enslavement and racial segregation’

INVASIVE SPECIES: Underwater, a disturbing new world: A Tribune team follows researchers to the bottom of Lake Michigan as they try to explain the rapidly shifting ecosystem

OFFSHORE DRILLING: Obama shifts, says he may back offshore drilling, GOP continues full-court press on oil drilling

OIL: Bush wants lower royalties levied on oil shale: Department of Interior says move would be an incentive

PLASTIC: Congress weighs ban Of chemical used in plastics

RECYCLING: Houston resists recycling, and independent streak is cited

REDUCE, REUSE, AND RECYCLE: How to carry groceries with a square of cloth

SCIENCE: Personalized stem cells one step closer to reality: Researchers create disease-specific, individualized human stem cells, Exercise pill: Drug burns fat, boosts endurance without moving a muscle, Ice on Mars confirmed by Phoenix Lander

SHARK: Rare shark stolen from tank, Great white shark filmed breaching at night: A first

TIDAL POWER: France plans groundbreaking tidal power experiment

TRAFFIC: Solo drivers would be able to a pay a toll for the privilege of using carpool lanes to speed their commutes on a dozen highways from the South Bay to Sonoma and east under a plan approved Wednesday by Bay Area transportation officials

WASTE: Within the Sonoran Desert National Monument, Arizona, is one of the largest stockpiles of discarded vehicle tyres1 in the US – perhaps as many as 10 million individual tyres

WIND POWER: Japan owes its energy efficiency in part to wind farms, Wind-powered tall ships are once again important as oil prices hurt trade, World’s largest wind farm planned in Oregon

GREEN GRAFFITI: One less 4WD

I hate being bullied from drivers when walking to school or anywhere else in the city of Grand Rapids. I am saving fuel for these drivers by not driving. I should be worshiped with praise! My feelings are stronger when SUVs are involved. AS IF!

Additionally, I am reducing emissions or my carbon footprint by walking or riding my bike. I am essentially fighting the war on global warming one step at a time, saving these morons from sea level rise (well maybe not in Michigan), and rising gas prices by cutting consumption.

All I want is the right-of-way when crossing the street and not to be hurried along. Why is everyone in such a hurry? Everyone is in a rush but realistically there is nowhere to go. It is sad. I agree with SOLIDSTATE_ on Flickr:

Please understand: If you drive a 4WD and get pissy at the anti-yourcar sentiments, remember this: I have to huff your fumes. I’m a good guy: pedestrians are the good guy. We’re the salt of the earth, and we, for something as inoffensive and useful as walking, we get a lungful of Kuwait’s finest. And because of that, because I have to effectively second-hand smoke your car’s asshole, you know…zip it.


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