Must-See TV

I'm quite excited that Sea Shepherd, the anti-whaling direct action group (based up the road and a ferry ride away, in Friday Harbor, WA), is the subject of "Whale Wars," a new seven-part series on Animal Planet. Tune in starting this Friday.

Now go out and vote (Americans)!

An opportunity for cleaner water AND walkability

A victory for Puget Sound environmentalists contains possibilities for far-reaching changes in controlling stormwater, one of the main sources of Puget Sound water pollution, as well as improving conditions for pedestrians in Seattle.


The victory is a recent ruling by Washington's Pollution Control Hearings Board, regarding a suit by environmentalists on the inadequacy of the National Pollutant Discharge Emission System. Among other things, NPDES regulates municipal and industrial stormwater discharges.

Washington is one of the states which has received federal permission to self-administer NPDES.

Bye Bye, Black(faced) Sheep

Restoring the natural environment around a landmark means foodie sacrifice

Mont Saint Michel -- St. Michael's Mount in anglais -- is one of the coolest places in the world, a medieval abbey that to the eye seems to grow from a rock that juts out of the sand on the coast of France.

Solar energy - Storage breakthrough at MIT?

Ever wonder how we can make solar energy available at night? Batteries are too expensive and inefficient, so until now people have been proposing beaming power down from collectors in orbit, where the sun always shines. Also expensive.

So it's exciting to read about a potential breakthrough at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the project leader says it's easy and cheap:

Requiring nothing but abundant, non-toxic natural materials, this discovery could unlock the most potent, carbon-free energy source of all: the sun. "This is the nirvana of what we've been talking about for years," said MIT's Daniel Nocera, the Henry Dreyfus Professor of Energy at MIT and senior author of a paper describing the work in the July 31 issue of Science.

Plastic oh no ban, industry says

Don't celebrate the Seattle 20¢ plastic bag fee/styrofoam ban just yet, canvassers are gathering signatures on a petition that would put a bag fee repeal on the November ballot.

Who could possibly want a repeal of the fee? Why, the plastics industry. Of course, they call it a tax: