TOP STORIES

Big Oil Warms to Ethanol and Biofuel Companies

"For decades, the big oil companies and the farm lobby have been fighting about ethanol, with the farmers pushing to produce more of it and the refiners arguing it was a boondoggle that would do little to solve the country’s energy problems...The erstwhile enemies, it turns out, are gradually learning to get along, as refiners increasingly see a need to get involved in ethanol production."  [Greenwire - New York Times]

Enviro Groups Like What They See in Obama's Justice Pick

"Even though environmental issues have not been a major cog in Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's legal career, environmentalists have joined the chorus of left-leaning advocacy groups that have thrown their support behind President Obama's pick for the high court." [Greenwire - New York Times]

Sea’s Rise May Prove the Greater in Northeast

"If the melting of Greenland’s ice sheets continues to accelerate...sea levels will rise even more in the northeastern United States and Maritime Canada than in other areas around the world...It would alter ocean currents in a way that sends warmer water toward the northeastern and Maritime coasts. Because water expands as it warms, this influx of warmer water would raise sea levels as much as a foot or two more than in other coastal regions by the end of the century." [New York Times]

China Ready to Cooperate with US on Climate Change

"China is ready to strengthen its cooperation with the United States to combat climate change, Premier Wen Jiabao told US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, state media reported. '"China will cement policy dialogue with the United States, take the joint tackling of climate change as an important aspect of cooperation and push for positive results in the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference," Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying.  [AFP - TerraDaily]

LONG FORM

The Sixth Extinction

"Over the past half billion years, there have been at least twenty mass extinctions. Five of these—the so-called Big Five—were so devastating that they're usually put in their own category. The fifth, the end-Cretaceous event, which occurred sixty-five million years ago, exterminated not just the dinosaurs but seventy-five per cent of all species on earth. Once a mass extinction occurs, it takes millions of years for life to recover, and when it does it's generally with a new cast of characters. In this way, mass extinctions have played a determining role in evolution's course. It's now generally agreed among biologists that another mass extinction is under way. If current trends continue, by the end of this century as many as half of earth's species will be gone." [The New Yorker]