Your invisible hand, at work: When you create a market-based solution for dealing with greenhouse-gas emissions, don't be shocked when you end up creating an actual market -- and all of that "rational" economic marketplace behavior that goes along with it. That's what's happened, apparently, in the case of HFC-23, a waste gas that's generated as a byproduct in the manufacture of refrigerants and air-conditioners -- and that fetches an extra-high price on the carbon-credits exchange. Now some manufacturers are upping the production of HCFC-22 -- the main gas that creates the valuable byproduct -- in order to destroy the excess waste gas and reap a credit windfall. The problem? HCFC-22 is a greenhouse gas, too, meaning "that United Nations subsidies intended to improve the environment are instead creating their own damage." New York Times
Dry and dark: This summer's drought is a worldwide phenomenon -- and, accordingly, a worldwide source of misery. Could it be implicated in the massive power outage that recently left 600 million people in India without electricity? OnEarth
Home-grown heterodoxy: The debate over locavorism vs. food that's farmed in -- and shipped from -- faraway places rages on. A new study from the Union of Concerned Scientists says that there are plenty of good reasons to buy locally produced food -- but environmental reasons shouldn't be placed too high on the list, since the long-distance shipping of food accounts for only a fraction of carbon emissions. And a new book co-authored by a Canadian geography professor makes similar claims, noting that efficiency measures necessarily taken by agribusiness often mean that they use less energy per item grown, and require less land. USA TODAY
Water woes: Anyone living in drought-ridden areas knows very well how bad things get when there’s no water around. Too bad across the globe we are depleting groundwater reserves faster than they can be replenished, according to a new study. Reuters
Maple leaf drag: The government of Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has been accused over the last year of harrassing environmental groups who've taken stances at odds with his own environmental and energy policies. Now one of those groups -- Tides Canada, which has been especially critical of the Harper government's tar sands gambits -- finds itself under investigation for having violated the country's charity laws by using its funding for certain types of political work. The word "laundering" has been bandied about by the accusers. Will the words "intimidation" or "straitjacketing" be mentioned at all, we wonder? Vancouver Sun
You’re fired!: What do you do when you just have this burning desire to kill a mountain lion, but the species is protected in your state? Go to Idaho, where hunting mountain lions is legal? Wait … this probably isn’t the best move if you're the president of the California Fish and Game Commission. Also not a good move: having a photo of you smiling with a dead cougar posted on the Internet. NBC News
Image: Valerie
Tips: @OnEarthMag (tag it #greenreads)
