Strontia Springs Reservoir, 30 miles south of Denver, Colo., looks like water you'd want to scoop up in your dipper. Sunshine and pine reflect off its aqua-blue surface. But 16 years ago, it looked more like a latte clogged with cinnamon bark. In 1996 and 2002, major forest fires scorched the Upper South Platte River watershed.]]> Diesel fuel has a bad environmental reputation, but the "dirtier" gas may be better for the Earth than unleaded gasoline, at least on some measures.]]> While Japan is now trying to run its economy without nuclear energy for the first time since 1970, the post-Fukushima world's continued dependence on atomic power is probably best illustrated on the other side of Asia.]]> When reporters, politicians, and environmental advocates talk about renewable energy, they talk about wind and solar. This makes sense: Of the newer generation of renewables, wind is contributing the lion's share of electricity generation. California’s wind energy association just announced that 5 percent of California’s power now comes from wind farms. Solar plants still provide only a tiny slice of energy, but last year, with prices dropping, the industry was booming.]]> The poultry industry, just one small part of our factory farm nation, has a massive waste problem. Today, national consumer group Food & Water Watch criticized the plans of poultry processing giant Perdue Agribusiness and Fibrowatt LLC to build a power plant on Maryland’s Eastern Shore that generates electricity from chicken manure.]]> One of the largest labor organizations in the U.S., a leading environmental advocacy group, and one of the top physicians in occupational medicine filed legal papers late Friday aimed at making sure government can alert the American public to the potential dangers of styrene, a chemical used extensively in the manufacture of plastics, as well as boats, cars, bathtubs and products made with rubber, such as tires and conveyer belts. The groups filed a motion to intervene in D.C. District Court, seeking to help defend the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ listing of styrene as “reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen.” The motion is in response to a chemical industry lawsuit attempting to force the agency to withdraw the styrene warning.]]> To understand the promise of renewable energy for the U.S. military, it helps to start as far from Washington, D.C., as possible. (This is true for most forms of understanding.) Start far from the politicians, even from the military brass, far from the rooms where big-money decisions are made, far out on the leading edge of the conflict, with a small company of Marines in Afghanistan’s Sangin River Valley.]]> The inky shadows of solar eclipses can alter local weather on small scales, according to new analysis of a 1999 total eclipse.]]> The progressive left likes to use the term “zombie lies” to refer to untruths that are repeatedly debunked and yet remain endlessly parroted by the media. The phrase may or may not have been coined by blogger Duncan Black (aka atrios), who quipped, “No matter how hard we try to kill them, they keep coming back to eat our brains.”]]> We all know sugary diets can sabotage a waistline. Now it turns out they might make brains flabby too. Sweet drinks scrambled the memories and stunted learning in lab rats in a new study—leading to "thigh concern" over what sugary diets may do to people, according to neuroscientist Fernando Gomez-Pinilla. (Read more about memory from National Geographic magazine.)]]> The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently deciding whether or not to approve an application by Dow Chemical for its controversial genetically engineered (GE) corn crop that is resistant to the highly toxic herbicide 2,4-D, one of the main ingredients in Agent Orange.]]> What to do when adults persist in believing that the burning of fossil fuels is causing climate change? You know, on account of that pesky overwhelming scientific evidence and stuff? Simple. Target kids instead, and try to convince them, as early as possible, that it's all a crock - or at least that it's highly controversial.]]> Reddit is the internet in microcosm — it showcases a lot of gross boneheaded stuff, gives space and succor to every flavor of perversion and bigotry, and is simultaneously full of interesting information, funny quips, and the occasional moment of grace. This story is one of those.]]> The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has quarantined a second California farm as part of its ongoing investigation into a confirmed incidence of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE), first reported on April 24. USDA quarantined the second farm because it is operated in close association with the dairy that housed the BSE-infected cow before its condition was detected. Additionally, USDA is investigating the ranch where the BSE-infected cow was raised 10 years ago. USDA also announced that of the two progeny known to have been born to the BSE-infected cow in the past two years, one was stillborn and the second, after being humanely euthanized, tested negative for BSE.]]> New research finds that wind farms actually warm up the surface of the land underneath them during the night, a phenomena that could put a damper on efforts to expand wind energy as a green energy solution.]]> Not so long ago, American energy policy might have included carbon-busting endeavors like cap-and-trade. But now, politicians’ focus has turned to clean energy, which Congress isn’t exactly rushing to support.]]> On March 21, the Chilean Transparency Council stood with its citizenry against Monsanto and other global seed corporations to protect Chileans’ right to know about genetically engineered (GE) crops.]]> As if the disaster of RoundUp resistant superweeds sweeping our farmland weren’t enough, Monsanto is now preparing to launch an even greater disaster—a new soybean engineered to be resistant to the older, more toxic weedkiller, dicamba. The seed—which Monsanto plans to market in 2014 if approved—will also come stacked with the company’s RoundUp Ready gene, and is designed to be used with Monsanto’s proprietary herbicide “premix” of dicamba and glyphosate.]]> A Montrose-based coalition of organic farmers has lost its lawsuit against Monsanto and its genetically modified organisms (GMOs).]]> On March 12, Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe Executive Director Wenonah Hauter declined an invitation to debate World Water Forum participants on the merits of public versus private involvement in the water sector, encouraging them to involve a Philippine water activist who could testify to the disaster that privatization brought to her community in the Philippines. Council of Canadians Chair Maude Barlow had also previously declined the invitation.]]>