Must Read

Amazon "as we know it would be effectively gone"

The biggest threat to the Amazon rainforest might not be deforestation, but rather global warming.  A study--called a "bombshell" by one scientist in attendance--released at the climate science conference in Copenhagen found that even "best case scenarios...would still see 20-40% of the Amazon die off within 100 years....while a [4 degree Celcius rise] would kill 85%."  [Guardian]

Should Read

Western Water Woes

Reuters is running a knockout series on water woes in the American West. So far they've covered:  the impacts of climate change on the hunt for water; how fast growing cities are trying to cope; the financial costs and politics of a high-tech water future.  

"Even trash has become worthless"

The market for recyclable materials is collapsing.  In China, "the multibillion-dollar recycling industry has gone into a nosedive because of the global economic crisis and a...fall in commodity prices."  Last fall there was a "drop in commodity prices was so rapid that in a matter of weeks last fall container ships carrying used railroad wheels and empty dog food cans arrived in Chinese ports worth far less than they had been when they departed Newark, Rotterdam or Los Angeles."[New York Times]

A Carbon Registry

The EPA will establish a system for reporting greenhouse gas emissions, a massive registry that "would cover about 13,000 facilities that account for 85 to 90 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas output." [Washington Post]

Must Listen

New agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack is "proposing radical changes to farming," including reducing subsidies for industrial farms and finding new sources of income for farmers from energy initiatives.  [NPR]