Apocalypse how? Representative Chris Stewart of Utah is the new chair of the House's Subcommittee on the Environment, which oversees matters concerning climate change. Unfortunately, he’s not so sure about climate change being real, or bad, or anything -- which is kind of an ironic stand for someone who likes to write novels about the end of the world. Salt Lake Tribune
Open sore: Is it just us, or are sinkholes just popping up er ... falling down everywhere now? But before that poor guy in Florida and that golfer in Illinois fell through the earth, there was a massive sinkhole that suddenly swallowed 9 acres near Bayou Corne, Louisiana (above). For seven months the sinkhole has been leaking oil and gas, and nobody seems to have any good solutions -- including the salt mining company whose abandoned mine helped caused the whole ordeal. All Things Considered
Evacuation algorithm: Some systems analysts say they can now predict when residents of coastal zones that are threatened by sea-level rise will throw in the beach towel and permanently flee their oceanside homes -- proving that in this age of Big Data, researchers can model pretty much anything. Their computers don’t spit out an exact moving day, or even year, but the models are giving some Jersey Shore barrier islands about 50 years before they become sandy ghost towns. Discover Magazine
LEDs under the spotlight: LED bulbs are starting to look and act pretty much like the incandescents we grew up with. And they're getting cheaper to boot! New York Times
Crying over spilt oil: Poor, poor Enbridge -- the company responsible for the massive tar sands crude spill in Michigan’s Kalamazoo River (which we’ve covered extensively). It's whining that new dredging ordered by the EPA is pushing cleanup costs toward a full $1 billion. Some companies just can't catch a break ... unless that break is in its neglected, degraded pipeline. The Globe and Mail
Out of darkness comes light: Brace yourself for another story of a massive solar company falling flat. Suntech Power, the Chinese company that was once the largest PV panel producer in the world, just went bankrupt. But before everyone starts shoveling dirt on solar, read why Suntech's fall is actually a really great thing for the industry. Earth2Tech
Tips: @OnEarthMag (tag it #greenreads)
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