Climate Change

Flip-flop, tick-tock--the longer oil prices remain above $4 per gallon, the more pressure to drill our way to salvation. Last week, Sen. Obama backed off his complete opposition to offshore drilling, telling the Palm Beach Post that he'd consider including some offshore drilling as part of a more comprehensive energy policy.

Turns out I wasn’t the only one disgusted by EPA administrator Stephen L. Johnson’s refusal to regulate emissons. Though Johnson’s supposed missteps were overshadowed by the allegations of corruption brought against longtime Alaska Senator Ted Stevens (and isn’t the Stephen-Stevens connection a nice touch?), I feel vindicated in knowing that at least three of our Senators are as disgusted with the EPA as I often feel.

The U.S. Geological Survey just released some heartening news for politicians who are chomping at the bit to allow an offshore drilling bonanza in the Arctic, including fragile places such as the Chukchi Sea (see "Polar Distress," May 2008). The results of a 4-year assessment released last week indicate that up to 1/5th of the world's unexplored oil and gas reserves lie north of the Arctic Circle, with most of this offshore.

Did you see today's New York Times? Bill Vlasic writes that "Ford is Betting the Future on Small, Efficient Cars." Apparently, Vlasic got a head's up before Ford makes an official announcement this Thursday. Could it be true?

You know when you were a kid and you left your room as messy as possible for days, until your mother suddenly noticed and made you clean it up? The EPA is that kid. The problem is, the EPA has no mother to make it clean up. In fact, it's supposed to be that mother.

By "Tern" Alexa Schirtzinger--Food metaphor: I adore ice cream. If I could eat it all day without getting indigestion or outgrowing my jeans, I probably would. But in college, morbidly afraid of the "Freshman 15,"
I knew I couldn't eat ice cream every night after dinner. I did, however, discover nonfat frozen yogurt, which I could eat with abandon.

Of course, it probably would've made more sense just to be reasonable and not eat creamy desserts every night. But I liked them!

By "Tern" Jessica Leber--The tuatara, an ancient reptile in New Zealand, may soon become extinct, according to a new study. The culprit is climate change, but the way in which rising temperatures will kill off these creatures is unusually insidious.

The Red List of Threatened Species, published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), is one VIP roster you don't want to be on. This year, however, more than a thousand bird species have unfortunately made the cut, given a boost by climate change.

The melting of the Arctic ice pack due to global warming, scientists say, may cause a hybrid of the polar bear and grizzly bear to become fairly common as their habitats increasingly overlap. Arctic biologist George Divoky has dubbed the brownish-white bruin the "grolar bear.' "Grizzlies are moving north while at the same time the polar bears are forced to be on the beach, Divoky said, "and we've found a number of grizzly-polar bear hybrids." DNA tests on one animal shot in the Northwest Territories confirmed that it was fathered by a male grizzly and a female polar bear.