blognetnews.com
» Environment

James Bruggers

  • Climategate?

    What to make of climategate -- those embarrassing emails from prominent climatologists that were stolen and made public? They certainly make some scientists look like, well, anybody else who finds themselves under attack, as can be detected by coverage in the Washington Post and New York Times.
    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 27, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • Have a good Thanksgiving


    Something like 11 generations ago on my mother's side (the booklet with the details is at home), my relatives Stephen and Elizabeth Hopkins from the Mayflower were observing the first Thanksgiving. That fact has often been a fun point of conversation with friends and relatives [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 26, 2009, 10:00am EST

  • How much gas did you say?


    Good for the St. Pete Times, and its Truth-o-Meter. It took on those ads promoting natural gas -- the ones that say we have more than 100 years of natural gas left. What did the Florida newspaper find:
    So, by one estimate, the natural [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 25, 2009, 7:15am EST

  • A caveman in Utah

    Have you read about the modern day caveman? He lives outside Moab, Utah, and the Denver Post has profiled him. His name is Daniel Suelo, and by all accounts, he's not crazy. Just trying to live without money.

    What's the environmental lesson here? Well, for one, he lives off [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 24, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Minings' toxic legacy


    The photo above shows a piece of one of the nation's largest Superfund cleanup sites -- the Clark Fork River in Western Montana.

    It's a legacy of copper mining and smelting in the Butte and Anaconda communities that managed to taint hundreds of square [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 23, 2009, 6:00pm EST

  • Advice for greening your home


    Want to make your home greener? The US EPA has developed a new website to help. From the EPA:
    Many green building practices and technologies have yet to make a dent in the existing residential market, in part because it is hard for people to [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • Socialist Republic of ?

    The Midwest is following me around.

    Last night, here in Missoula, Oberlin College professor and author David Orr spoke to a crowd at the University of Montana, just down the hall from where I was participating in a meeting to discuss the upcoming Society of Environmental Journalists conference. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:15am EST

  • Adirondacks from space

    What do the hardwood forests of the Northeast look like from space, in the fall? Can you detect the spectacular colors as green leaves change to red, yellow and other autumn shades? The answer is yes. Click on this link to a NASA image, then be sure to click [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:00pm EST

  • White-nose syndrome

    Kudos to the Boston Globe, long known for its science journalism, for its informative story on Sunday about the tragic demise of native bats in the Eastern United States.

    The article, written by Stacey Chase, and found here, includes this nut graph:
    At least 1 million bats in [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • There's no escape

    I'm in Missoula, Mont., for a week of meetings to plan the 2010 Society of Environmental Journalists conference. This was my home for about a decade, and I survived three academic programs at the University of Montana.

    That's the context for why I'm here. More on that later, because [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:48pm EST

  • There

    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 17, 2009, 6:48pm EST

  • Got insomnia? Check out Leonids

    Experts are saying early tomorrow morning will make for good watching of the annual Leonid meteor shower. It's supposed to peak before dawn.

    Because the moon won't be very bright, experts predict better viewing.

    Read more here.' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 16, 2009, 9:00pm EST

  • Abramson on toxic air

    Louisville continues to get some good press for the way it's corralled toxic air. There was, of course, this story that I wrote for a USA Today series. That was last year. Now ABC Channel 4, WTAE in Pittsburgh, made a visit to Louisville to show their viewers how [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 16, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Fore!


    Golf balls apparently take up to 1,000 years to decompose. Look here and here and here.
    Photo credit: C-J files, Bill Luster. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 15, 2009, 10:00am EST

  • Question for you


    Been wondering: What do y'all think of these carbon offset programs -- you know, the ones where you can pay an organization to plant trees or develop renewable energy to mitigate your own fossil fuel energy use?

    I'd be curious to know whether any [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 13, 2009, 11:32am EST

  • Hot ones


    Record high temperatures have been more frequent in the last decade, compared to record lows, researchers in Colorado have found. Experts have been saying we'd be seeing warmer evening temperatures, as a part of climate change. It's also what U of L geography professor [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 13, 2009, 7:23am EST

  • Save the rainforest?

    They are doing a better job in Brazil, anyway. Or so says the Brazilian government. Note this story from UK's The Guardian.

    But Greenpeace notes that deforestation of the Amazon continues - just not as the same fast rate.' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 12, 2009, 8:45pm EST

  • Butterflies in space


    Students and teachers are being encouraged to follow along with a "butterflies in space" science experiment in the coming months.

    Painted Lady butterfly larvae will fly aboard the the space shuttle Atlantis on Nov. 16 to the International Space Station, where the creatures will [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 11, 2009, 11:00am EST

  • Blech

    As if we didn't really already know ... but, the EPA has made public a large-scale study of fish toxicity, and the findings don't exactly make a person want to get out the fishing pole to catch some dinner.

    A study released today sums up the EPA freshwater [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 10, 2009, 4:02pm EST

  • A little BPA with your soup?


    Consumer Reports has found the chemical Bisphenol A in a variety of prepared foods.

    Oh, yum!

    BPA is one of latest chemicals to get into widespread use, only to have questions raised about after it's gotten into our bodies. The plastics lobby [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 09, 2009, 1:01pm EST

  • A little lead in that salad?


    Here's a risk I may just have to keep taking: putting balsamic vinegar on the fresh greens I grow in my vegetable garden.

    Jane Kay of Environmental Health News reports today, here, that either their production methods or the soil that grapes used' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 09, 2009, 1:30am EST

  • Thinking clean thoughts


    Who needs the Clean Water Act? Why spend all that time and energy on rules that are supposed to limit how much pollution gets in our water ways? I read in Louisville's LEO recently that all we need to do is think about clean water,' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 07, 2009, 9:30am EST

  • Horses' genetic code cracked


    Researchers have plotted the genome of horses.

    That's news that any good Kentuckian should appreciate, given how horses are so central to our economy and ethos.

    The international team of researchers published their findings in Science. And guess what? Like other mammals, it' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 06, 2009, 8:00am EST

  • It's a wild life.

    Botulism, trauma, aspergillosism, parasitism -- all are killing wildlife somewhere in the United States now. And there's a federal government Web page that tracks the outbreaks.

    Sometimes wildlife death is perfectly natural. Sometimes environmental contamination can be blamed. Sometimes wildlife diseases can jump to humans.

    Many' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 05, 2009, 8:10am EST

  • Another investigation

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General has decided to review the appropriateness of the EPA's program to promote "beneficial uses" of coal combustion waste with the industries it regulates.

    That program includes participation from Louisville based E.On US, parent of LG&E and Kentucky Utilities, and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 04, 2009, 6:30pm EST

  • LG&E's Trimble plans


    Want to see what LG&E has in mind for ash handling at its Trimble County plant? Look at the photo, above, that LG&E provided yesterday. The main ash pond is north of the power plant, and a new scrubber sludge pond will be just north [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 04, 2009, 10:00am EST

  • Most, least toxic cities list


    Forbes Magazine has come up with a ranking the country's cities, by toxic attributes. Check it out, here. Louisville isn't on it; they looked only at the 40 largest metro areas. But Cinci and Northern Kentucky is in the middle of the pack.

    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 04, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • Can't we just get along?


    Folks, it's a war out there -- a war on nature. And the world's plants and animals are losing.

    The latest assessment from the International Union for Conservation of Nature -- the world's oldest and largest global environmental network involving 1,000 government' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 03, 2009, 1:01pm EST

  • Photo of the day


    Ever eaten Copper River salmon? It's pretty special, and it comes from a wild part of Alaska.

    Take a look at the photo, above, of glacial dust as seen from space.

    NASA just sent this image out, of the Copper River, showing how' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 03, 2009, 7:00am EST

  • No agreement?

    More trouble for the climate talks next month in Copenhagen. Read this story in Speigel Online International, about the German chancellor. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 02, 2009, 2:00pm EST

  • Government studies coal ash


    Coal ash continues to be a front and center issue in Washington, D.C., following last December's massive slide in Tennessee that will cost TVA ratepayers about $1 billion to clean up.

    The Government Accountability Office is the latest to weigh in with' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 02, 2009, 7:30am EST

  • We are what we eat


    The annual Healthy Foods, Local Farms conference comes back to Louisville this week, with events beginning on Friday and concluding on Saturday. There are opportunities to see and hear Kentucky farming and literary icon, Wendell Berry, as well as the another one of my favorites, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: November 01, 2009, 8:56am EST

  • More federal goodies


    Only one Kentucky utility, and three projects in Indiana, got "smart grid" stimulus grants that were handed out this past week.

    President Obama said the grants will be awarded to revamp power lines, generators and meters in the century-old power network so that [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 31, 2009, 10:00am EDT

  • Wind power and China

    Shouldn't the U.S. be manufacturing these wind turbines?' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 30, 2009, 1:53pm EDT

  • I vant to suck your electricity!


    BEWARE: Energy Vampires Could Be All Around You!

    That's the message from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Read it below, or for some fun, listen to it here.

    The transcript:
    * Look in the shadows of your home -- there could be' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 30, 2009, 9:27am EDT

  • Coal and UK basketball

    That decision by University of Kentucky to name the basketball team's dorm after the coal industry was mocked earlier this week on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC:

    And Huffington Post blogger Jeff Biggers writes, here, that the PR will continue to be negative.
    But a prominent coal' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 29, 2009, 7:55am EDT

  • Are Republicans thawing to climate change?


    Looks like some Senate Republicans are starting to recognize concerns about global warming, though there's no sign that Kentucky's Mitch McConnell is one of them.

    The Washington Post's Dana Milbank filed this report -- in column form -- from yesterday's kick-off hearing in [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 28, 2009, 2:05pm EDT

  • Global cooling? AP report says 'no.'

    Listening to the political right these days -- and some coal industry advocates -- there's no need to worry about global warming because we're now in a phase of global cooling. This line has even picked up steam in some segments of the media.

    Well, that's not supported' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 27, 2009, 7:22pm EDT

  • What's that number?


    Louisville held one of more than 5,000 events that called for action on global warming -- enough to turn back the clock on climate emissions to a level of 350 parts per million in the atmosphere. We're at 387 now.

    Organizers of the Saturday' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 26, 2009, 1:05pm EDT

  • Gone Fishin'


    See you the week of the 26th. The 'Dog is going on vacation.' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 19, 2009, 9:00am EDT

  • The thing about water


    Many experts worry greatly about water shortages, and there's talk about how water could be the defining natural resources of this century, much like oil was the defining natural resource of the last.

    That was the subject of a panel that I attended recently [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 18, 2009, 8:00am EDT

  • Veterans for climate change legislation

    People pressing for climate change legislation aren't just talking in terms of saving nature.

    This morning in Jeffersonville, a group of veterans touring the country will host a press conference with local residents at 9:30 a.m., at Jeffersonville Outlook, 100 Spring St.

    The tour is sponsored by [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 17, 2009, 6:00am EDT

  • Are you a bioneer?


    Several hundred people are expected to attend a three day environmental conference at the University of Louisville starting today. It features local speakers and entertainment as well as live video of key sessions from the main event in California.

    This is the first time [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 16, 2009, 9:30am EDT

  • Like the Derby, but for college students



    UPDATE: UK took 9th place! Great showing.

    University of Kentucky is in the middle of the pack in a Department of Energy solar decathlon competition on the National Mall in Washington.

    Kudos to the 'Cats for entering.

    For three weeks, 20' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 15, 2009, 7:16pm EDT

  • Gas and go


    Buying a new car? If fuel economy is important to you, for whatever reason -- saving money or saving the planet -- the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy have published online their 2010 Fuel Economy Guide.

    Look here for [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 15, 2009, 2:15pm EDT

  • Thousands rally to support coal


    It got ugly in West Virginia and Pikeville last night, with coal supporters shouting down opponents of mountaintop removal mining at Army Corps of Engineers hearings:
    ... hundreds of coal supporters repeatedly jeered and shouted down mountaintop-removal opponents, drowning out most of the speakers who [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 14, 2009, 1:01pm EDT

  • Look out Portland...

    ... Look out Austin. The 2010 class of Bingham Fellows has a topic to pursue: Positioning Louisville as a Green Leader:
    The Bingham Fellows Class of 2010 has the opportunity to effect social change through the exploration of quality of life from the perspective of greening and ustainability. The Fellows [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 14, 2009, 7:00am EDT

  • Worse than snakes on a plane

    This video from the U.S. Geological Survey shot in Florida gives me enough to make me conclude I don't want to move to the Sunshine state. I'm no fan of snakes.

    A 300-page report made public today has found that five giant non-native snake species would pose high [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 13, 2009, 8:00pm EDT

  • The oldest task


    Kentucky's poet-farmer-thinker Wendell Berry made a return engagement to this year's Society of Environmental Journalists conference in Madison, Wisc. He was on a panel discussing the legacy of Aldo Leopold, who many consider to be the father of wildlife management, as least in its modern [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 13, 2009, 4:45pm EDT

  • Bernheim recognition

    The new visitor center at Bernheim Forest has been honored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It's one of three winners of the EPA's Lifecycle Building Challenge, which recognizes the use of recycled building materials to save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Check out the press release, here.[...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 12, 2009, 11:50am EDT

  • Will there be a new treaty?

    "One way or another, a reduction in emissions is about to be accomplished."
    -- Al Gore.

    Speaking yesterday to the Society of Environmental Journalists in Madison, Wisc., the former vice president said that even if the Senate fails to pass a climate change bill by the time thousands [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 10, 2009, 7:57am EDT

  • Better air


    The EPA has designated the communities that violate the daily federal clean-air standard for fine particles. And Kentuckiana counties are not on the list. It reflects improved air quality over the last few years.

    We're not out of the woods yet, though.' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 09, 2009, 8:15am EDT

  • Proud of their cheese


    It didn't take long for Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle last night to tout his state's famous cheese. But since he was speaking to the Society of Environmental Journalists, he found a decidedly un-culinary angle: energy.

    A byproduct of making cheese -- whey' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 08, 2009, 9:49am EDT

  • Getting Buggy in Kentucky

    I'm in training program today, learning how to use computers to analyze databases. The instructor from Investigative Reporters and Editors found federal data on the number of people who are licensed to use pesticides in each state.

    Guess what? Kentucky apparently ranks third, behind California and Texas: 141,000,' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 07, 2009, 1:43pm EDT

  • Safe cycling

    If you like to ride a bike, or you like to drive a car and not have to worry about bikes, you will want to see a short film about a safe bicycling solution in New York City. It shows before and after images in an area where there is [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 04, 2009, 7:06am EDT

  • Too many people?

    Don't blame climate change for the relatively recent drought conditions and water shortages in the American Southeast (prior to this year's deluge). The culprit: cyclical weather patterns and population growth. That's the conclusion of several scientists who published their findings this week in The Journal of Climate.

    Look [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 03, 2009, 8:56am EDT

  • Chem tales (or tails)

    While we are on the topic of dioxins (see Metro Parks story on new warning signs, here) I read with interest news out of my hometown on a study that measured dioxin in Michigan residents' blood.

    EPA has decided that the study won't help much for [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 02, 2009, 1:00pm EDT

  • Under the media microscope


    Watch CBS News Videos Online
    CBS News asks: If coal ash is safe to spread under a golf course or be used in carpets, why are the residents of Kingston, Tenn., being told to stay out of a river where the material was spilled last December?

    A [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 02, 2009, 8:20am EDT

  • EPA and coal mining

    Read, here, what one prominent environmentalist has to say about yesterday's EPA announcement that 79 coal mining permits will get extra scrutiny. And look here for the EPA's explanation.

    And then, below is some of what Kentucky Coal Association Bill Caylor had to say:
    The Kentucky Coal [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: October 01, 2009, 10:34am EDT

  • What's in a name?

    Couldn't Senate Democrats have come up with a more clever name than: Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act. That becomes CEJAMP. That's a little awkward to say and it doesn't convey a message. What could some others have been?

    EARTH -- Energy for American Renewal, Transformation and Health [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 30, 2009, 8:38am EDT

  • First of its kind solar


    See an entire roof designed to generate electricity from the sun as part of this weekend's solar tour in Louisville. These aren't clunky-looking panels, either.

    The solar tour is a national event, with other Kentucky tours in Berea, Bowling Green, Frankfort, Lexington, and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 29, 2009, 2:01pm EDT

  • Paul Krugman on climate change

    The Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist explains the source of his despair about the future of the planet, in a column published yesterday:
    Responding to climate change with the vigor that the threat deserves would not, contrary to legend, be devastating for the economy as a [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 28, 2009, 6:48am EDT

  • Man proposes, 60 rare sea turtles die.


    Tragic, is all I can say. And senseless. Look here.
    And this:
    It was probably a combination of the luminarias, flashlights and the reflection of the moon on the white bags after the candles were extinguished that disoriented the hatchlings, she said. The turtles [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 26, 2009, 2:00am EDT

  • Breast milk, toxics, and reproductive disorders

    Research findings like these, here, and original press release here, always get me a little angry because none of us directly asked for the many toxic chemicals that are in our bodies. True enough, it could be argued that we "voted" with our checkbooks by demanding a full [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 25, 2009, 9:00am EDT

  • MSD, LG&E and trees


    MSD knows all about sewers, and its staff has a lot of engineering expertise. That's why they call it the Metropolitan Sewer District. Why, then, is it playing the lead role in deciding how and when to replant Louisville's urban forest?

    That's a role [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 24, 2009, 11:00am EDT

  • How not to reduce carbon emissions

    Recession blamed for producing lowest greenhouse gas emissions in decades. Read about it here.

    Once again, all eyes are on President Obama -- this time, climate change is the topic at a big UN meeting. Look here. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 22, 2009, 11:59am EDT

  • All about trees


    So LG&E wants to get the chain saws out, as the C-J reported yesterday morning, and start removing and trimming trees under and near power lines. Can't blame 'em, after our recent wind and ice storms.

    But, it was just a few weeks [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 22, 2009, 7:05am EDT

  • It's climate week in the U.S.


    Meetings in New York and Pittsburgh this week are focusing on what role the U.S. should play in the global response to climate change. With President Obama and Congress in the middle of a major health care debate, we'll be watching this fall' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 21, 2009, 10:00am EDT

  • For the love of a view

    Forty five years of the Wilderness Act -- Wilderness Society celebrates with a slide show. You can see the images if you click here. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 21, 2009, 7:08am EDT

  • New fees


    I keep hearing that Louisville, and Kentucky, environmental regulators have a hard time keeping pace with the demands on their staffs. Budget cuts, lower salaries -- all get cited as reasons for permitting backlogs or slowdowns.

    Well, out yonder in them golden hills of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 20, 2009, 5:00pm EDT

  • History lessons

    There's a new documentary on the history of the environmental movement. But for now, if you live in Louisville, all you can see is the trailer, below.

    The schedule is found here. It's in Indianapolis on Oct. 2.

    A Washington Post writer reviews the documentary, here, [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 20, 2009, 8:00am EDT

  • Native Plant Sale and Fall Fair

    The fall plant sale and fair at the Louisville Nature Center is today, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

    There will be varieties of drought-resistant native wildflowers, shrubs and trees. The fair will also include music, food, crafts, annuals and information booths on green living -- and rain barrels [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 19, 2009, 7:00am EDT

  • Mayor Abramson, Friend of Coal?


    Gov. Beshear is a Friend of Coal. He and Lt. Mongiardo allowed themselves to be photographed earlier this year as such, supporting the new Friends of Coal license plate and, by extension, the Kentucky Coal Association, which has been featuring the photo, at [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 18, 2009, 3:30pm EDT

  • Big Dog Barks

    Air regulators back down -- for now.

    After Ford Motor Co. complained about what it described as tens of thousands of dollars in new air pollution fees, the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District yesterday pulled the proposal that had been slated for board approval. At issue was what [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 17, 2009, 8:15am EDT

  • Trimble ash pond safe, EPA says


    The coal combustion waste pond at LG&E's Trimble County power plant -- the one not far up river from Louisville's water supply -- has apparently passed an EPA inspection.

    An outside engineering firm has found:
    ... the Bottom Ash Pond at Trimble County Station [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 16, 2009, 7:05pm EDT

  • Bringing back the VET?



    The city's Air Pollution Control District chief, Lauren Anderson, had this yesterday at a gathering about 80 people who were learning about industrial pollution and environmental justice:

    "The next frontier will be dealing with emissions from vehicles."

    Wonder if she ran that [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 16, 2009, 3:00pm EDT

  • Cap'n Trade


    Watch industry and enviros discuss climate change legislation on KET's show, Kentucky Tonight. The link to the show, which originally aired in July, can be found by clicking here.

    Guests are: Chris Hermann, senior vice president of energy delivery for E.ON U.S.; Paul [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 15, 2009, 6:30am EDT

  • Butterflies are free to fly (sort of)


    Watch this monarch butterfly emerge from its chrysalis at courier-journal.com. Click here, then click on the life-cycle photo gallery.

    Editors found it in the C-J files. The series of images was shot by David Lutman, a freelance photographer who regularly files for the [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 14, 2009, 1:00pm EDT

  • John King's San Francisco

    UPDATE: SEPT. 16:
    There's a newer map of San Francisco and news coverage of architecture and urban design -- one I did not know of when I wrote the blog item, below. That new map is here.

    The urban environment is very important. Most' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 14, 2009, 10:00am EDT

  • 10 greatest urban parks

    Where's Cherokee?
    Seriously, check out this article and views from space. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 12, 2009, 8:00am EDT

  • Friday roundup -- mountaintop removal, EPA


    My email inbox is choking with all the statements pouring in on the EPA decision to require extra review of some 79 coal mining permits in Appalachia. I've written a story that will be posted online soon, and will be in the dead tree edition' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 11, 2009, 3:40pm EDT

  • Sniff, sniff


    People who live in mobile homes next to the Ralph Ave. landfill are apparently breathing a little easier. There's been no odor complaints all year, even through summer when dumps can bake up a fine smell.

    But the operators of the landfill have just [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 10, 2009, 4:19pm EDT

  • Coal ash ponds: The details

    EPA has posted all utility responses to its coal ash pond survey. Find them here. The C-J previously covered this here, with a summary sheet found here. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 09, 2009, 12:12pm EDT

  • First in nation

    Composting is the law in San Francisco -- or at least it will be shortly. What do you think of this, as reported today in the San Francisco Chronicle, here:
    Starting Oct. 21, every home and business in the city must have three separate color-coded bins for waste: black [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 09, 2009, 8:10am EDT

  • Coal exec: company "un-American"

    Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship told a big political rally and concert in West Virginia yesterday that he spent $1 million organizing the event. Read all about in the Charleston Gazette, here. Speakers and musicians took on federal cap-and-trade legislation, and more:
    Blankenship criticized the political action committee of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 08, 2009, 11:00am EDT

  • Most stressful cities

    Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland and Providence (R.I.)
    Louisville's not on the list.
    Read more here, at the Forbes magazine website. [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 08, 2009, 7:00am EDT

  • Solar roads?

    It's Labor Day weekend. A lot of people are going to be driving. What if all the roads doubled as solar collectors? Seems pie in the sky, but apparently one man has secured a grant to look into it.
    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 04, 2009, 6:32am EDT

  • Cleaner air


    A big Rubbertown chemical plant in Louisville continues to keep its emissions of a cancer-causing chemical far below what they were at the start of the decade. One of the big differences is the new burner, shown here -- it's the one that's thicker and [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 03, 2009, 8:16am EDT

  • Hold the eggs, please


    Seen the video of baby chicks being ground up alive at the hatchery that's gone viral on the Internet? An animal welfare group went undercover in Iowa to shoot the video, and the result was a story by the Associated Press. See, the male chicks [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 02, 2009, 6:31am EDT

  • Here are rankings


    Good for the EPA for releasing the results of its survey of electric utilities' handling of coal combustion wastes. The C-J covered the issue in today's newspaper, found here. Please also look at the survey summary, which goes into some detail about these ash' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 01, 2009, 10:17am EDT

  • "Flyrock" photo, MTR update


    Picture's worth 1,000 words. The Sierra Club-Cumberland Chapter just posted the photo, above, at its Facebook site. It's from a strip mining accident in the mountains of Floyd County, Ky. Nobody was in the house when this boulder flew off the mining property in [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: September 01, 2009, 12:01am EDT

  • Mining blast sends rock into home

    Good thing nobody was in the Floyd County house at the time.
    WYMT and Associated Press are reporting the rock came from a Fraser Creek Mining Co. operation. From the AP:
    Residents were asked to leave two nearby homes because of concerns that more debris would fall down [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 31, 2009, 7:42am EDT

  • Disgusting


    Our swirling trash zone far out into the Pacific Ocean is apparently worse than scientists thought. Now back from a voyage to document the problem, researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography report a depressing scene, as illustrated by the photo above. News coverage out of [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 29, 2009, 8:30am EDT

  • Astroturf

    Faces of Coal apparently can't find photos of the faces of coal. This "astroturf" group got its face pictures from a clip service, according to Appalachian Voices and other blog sources. Look here. Rachel Maddow covered this story last night, too, on MSNBC.' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 28, 2009, 6:10am EDT

  • A Kentucky chemical arsenal


    So just what do these deadly poison filled munitions at the Blue Grass Army Depot look like? The military doesn't keep it a secret.

    I saw photos and diagrams when I was at the public outreach office of the military's chemical weapons disposal project [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 27, 2009, 6:15pm EDT

  • Inspired by Julia Butterfly Hill?

    Mountaintop removal protesters have scaled trees in West Virginia, unfurling banners to protest strip mining. This news broke while I was focused on some 100,000 poison-filled munitions, stored in Kentucky, that will cost some $3.8 billion to destroy, which explains why the 'Dog is a little slow on the' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 26, 2009, 12:30pm EDT

  • Losing out?


    Look what Red China is doing with solar power: Outshining, the United States:
    WUXI, China -- President Obama wants to make the United States "the world's leading exporter of renewable energy," but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 25, 2009, 7:00am EDT

  • Almost 7 billion

    Who agrees with me that population is the major underlying environmental problem?
    And how about this stat:
    About half the world lives in poverty. Nearly 50 percent of world population lives on less than the equivalent of $2 per day. Hundreds of millions of people live barely above that level.
    [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 24, 2009, 7:00am EDT

  • She's frustrated

    Watch Diane Sawyer's head explode over the mercury in fish question. The Louisville native is frustrated about a new USGS study that found mercury in freshwater fish in all 191 streams it tested. Guest on Good Morning America downplays that finding, essentially saying, "don't worry, those aren't the fish" [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 23, 2009, 7:45am EDT

  • Tern, tern, tern: There is a season


    Watch this Kentucky Afield report on Interior least terns, an endangered species important to Kentucky and Indiana.

    The report explains the mating portion of the birds' life cycle, on sand bars of the Ohio River, including why people need to just leave these birds alone when they are' [...]
     | Rate | Archive
    Posted: August 22, 2009, 7:00am EDT
← The Greenpeace weblog OneAtlantic →

Blog Info:
James Bruggers

» 

Categories

BNN Traffic Index

Alexa: No data
0

Compete: No data
0

Quantcast: No data
0

BNN Traffic Index: No data

BNN Authority Index

Technorati: 0

Google: 105,352,044

BNN Authority Index: 52,676,022.0

» Subscribe to the James Bruggers feed