D'oh!: Sea Shepherd, the marine conservation group whose Ahab-like diligence has made it the bane of Japan's only marginally legal whaling fleet, has just majorly punk'd the country it's been tormenting on the open seas for years. Behold the organization's newest anti-whaling vessel: the Sam Simon, named for the co-creator of "The Simpsons" (who also happens to be a prominent animal-rights advocate) and stealthily purchased for $2 million from ... wait for it ... yes! The Japanese government! Sea Shepherd even got the Japanese to deliver the boat right to their door. Guardian
Copy that: In Part 2,694 of "Sounds Like a Great Idea! What Could Go Wrong?", our ongoing series on facile solutions to tricky environmental problems, we take a look at Brazil's proposal to tackle the extinction of certain endangered animal species by cloning them, using genetic material retrieved from roadkill. Global Post, Salon
Win-win: There's something poetic about the idea of turning contaminated brownfields into much-needed community health centers in poor urban areas, "in essence taking a potential source of health problems for a community and turning it into a place for health care." More than half a dozen cities have seen the wisdom behind creatively repurposing burned-out buildings -- often with the aid of government grants and tax credits earmarked for cleanup efforts -- and turning them into real community assets. New York Times
Coal ash for Christmas: So here's our favorite lede of the day: "A congressional effort to rein in federal regulation of coal ash could result in little or no regulation at all, a new report from the Congressional Research Service warns." Apparently, a pair of bills just passed the House that "would set up a plan for states to regulate coal ash like landfill waste -- pre-empting an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to designate the often toxic combustion byproducts as hazardous waste. But the proposals’ vague language would make it difficult to tell if states are correctly implementing their own programs." Way to go, small-government crowd! You've scored a big victory for those who believe that the states have a sovereign right to poison their citizens without Uncle Sam sticking his nose into their business. Politico
The family business: Half a century ago, Ralph Keeling's dad made the discovery at the heart of the modern science of climate change: that carbon dioxide levels are rising, and with them, global temperatures. Today, Ralph -- building on the same methodology that his father perfected -- has made some startling discoveries of his own. OnEarth
Say It: "Don't Spray It": "How quickly we forget," writes Mark Bittman of our "whatever" attitude regarding pesticides, a mere 50 years after Silent Spring author Rachel Carson warned us about the multiple threats they pose to the health of the planet. They're increasingly being linked to different types of cancer, neurological disorders, and even obesity; they're being applied more rather than less, thanks to pesticide-resistant superweeds; and they drift like crazy when you spray them on crops, meaning that they're found on pretty much everything. New York Times
The not-so-raging debate: Hey, you know how climate-change skeptics like to defend their head-in-the-sand ignorance of the most pressing global issue of our time by citing the supposedly robust "scientific debate" over its very existence? Yeah, so the next time one of them does that? Show them this. Slate
Tips: @OnEarthMag (tag it #greenreads)
Image: Flickr/wietse?
