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About 250 million years ago, the world suffered through an extinction event that makes the death of the dinosaurs look like a minor hiccup by comparison. And now we have our best understanding yet of what caused the Great Dying. More »
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Photographer Jim Lo Scalzo has captured the scorched earth beauty of America's coal country. In the photo montage "Ghosts in the Hollow," Scalzo navigates through fog, Centralia fumes, and old coal sluices. No wonder The Road was filmed out there. More »
]]> http://io9.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=5633286&view=rss&microfeed=true One of the most well-respected climatologists in the world, James Hansen was pissed off about global warming way before it was cool to be 'green' — like, 1988. He's such a baddass that in 2006 he took on his employer, NASA, and the Bush Administration, publicly accusing them of supressing his research, which provided damning evidence that humans were causing global warming. But he's far from finished. Today marks the 20th anniversary of his climate crusading, and in a speech before Congress today he's planning to ask lawmakers to send the CEOs of oil companies to jail for spreading lies about climate change. More »
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Though the EU has been clamoring to reduce carbon emissions, Germany is in the process of building 26 new coal-burning power plants. Here you can see a gigantic excavator machine mining brown coal near the Boxberg power plant yesterday. Consider this a "before" picture. Want to see what happens after the excavation? More »
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You can tell this coal plant is eco-friendly, because it has cool-looking curved surfaces and clean transparent lines. The $1.8 billion FutureGen project just chose Mattoon, IL for its new clean coal plant, which turns coal into gas and separates out the harmful CO2. The plant will bury the CO2 underground, and planners swear it will never get out. We've heard that one before, plus we're bracing for giant mutant groundhogs in a few years. [Chicago Tribune] More »
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