Currents

The Bush administration is proposing to take yet another wildlife species—the brown pelican—off the federal endangered list based on the bird’s recovery in recent years.

British billionaire adventurer and Virgin Group Founder/CEO Richard Branson proposed the creation of an international "environmental war room" led by the United Nations with the sole purpose of staving off human-induced climate change.

During the last week of January, the University of Vermont became one of more than 1,500 institutions to participate in Focus the Nation (FtN), the largest national teach-in on global warming solutions. Though considered an educational initiative, Focus the Nation was also a mass organized effort of civic engagement, promoting action as well as awareness. There are lots of global warming solutions, but one clear goal: 80 percent cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

As the Forest Service digs deeper into its own pockets to fight forest fires, it’s had to cut into critical programs including habitat restoration and invasive species control.

Desalination has been touted as an affordable clean water fix. But costs to convert salt or brackish water to fresh remain too high to provide the drinking and irrigation water the world needs.

Iceland has made huge strides in geothermal energy and hydroelectric power. They’re adding hydrogen vehicles and fuel cell boats, but some locals say that more hydroelectric plants will mar the frigid landscape.

According to Reuters, some influential Republicans have begun to "drink the Kool-Aid" on global warming.

According to researchers from the Pennsylvania-based nonprofit Environmental Leadership Program (ELP), Americans strongly prefer screen time to nature.

Alexander Cockburn is a long-time firebrand in The Nation magazine, and before that the Village Voice. Lately he’s bent so far left he’s joined the right. In recent months, his column and online writing have attracted a great deal of controversy based on his assertions that the science of global warming is off base.

The Nature Conservancy, the world’s leading international land conservation nonprofit, announced last week that it will be helping the government of China carry out a feasibility study on how to manage flood plain risks downstream from the controversial Three Gorges Dam, a colossal hydro-electric generating facility located on the Yangtze River.