Environmental Graffiti

Krafla, Iceland–that’s steam, not fog on the lens. From LoveIceland

Iceland, known for being a hotbed of volcanic activity, has added to their catalog of “places near us that the planet lashes out to try and kill you”: there’s a MASSIVE undersea volcano just offshore, and it’s only recently been detected.

Image from Steve Beger

Oscar the alligator, who died at around this time last year, isn’t quite done terrorizing the populace with his 14-foot frame just yet. Park rangers have determined that to honor the beast, they’re going to have him on display, in skeletal form, in a permanent memorial.

Paso Robales, California, 2003. Image from Hey Paul

Earthquakes are a perfect representation of the age-old riddle: if a tree falls in a forest, and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a noise?

By Spencer Kimball

Image from iips.cz

The Bush Administration has been called a lot of names by a lot of people, but competent has never been one of them.

Image from remainingoceansart

Salmon in the Columbia River near the Oregon-Washington border have been considered endangered for some time, and subject to federal protective orders; this manifested itself in an unexpected way…

Like this, with neoprene. Image from Steven Crane

Pierre, an African penguin at the California Academy of Sciences, was going bald, which posed a significant problem for the 25-year old bird. Penguins rely on their feathers to stay warm, not blubber.

I imagine that our readers in the UK are giggling furiously at the American panic over gas prices this year as we finally begin to think about paying what those of you in the old world have been for years.

It just looks like a place with cheap fuel, doesn’t it? Image from WaynePhotoGuy

Well, then let me drop a number that will make the Americans euphoric, and probably plunge the rest of you into shock: you can fill up your entire tank for five dollars in Utah.

It’s entirely possible that the Earth could have saved herself what some of my more country brethren call “a whole passel of trouble” if she’d only finished the job…

Image from Big Daddy

Man was on the brink of extinction once, and had to break into small bands in order to survive.

Brian Gordon is a Canadian Green Party member and candidate trained by Al Gore to present An Inconvenient Truth.

Though it’s not obvious yet. But we have seen the beginnings. I’m not talking about a technological revolution, but a social one, and the convergence of current technology is providing the means, while millions of people who want a better future are providing the fuel.

Remember the millions who protested U.S. plans to invade Iraq? The U.S. invaded anyway,

When I was in school, I was obsessed with the Guinness Book of World Records.

Not the big glossy one they have now either; the black and white pocket encyclopedia for geeks. As part of my everlasting nerdishness, I was obliged to know the biggest and longest and oldest of as many things as I could. One of these of course, was Victoria Falls: the largest sheet of falling water in the world, which lies on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe.