Given it's Earth Day/Week (depending on who you talk to), I thought I'd pick out a few of the best articles I've found on Climate Progress that might be of interest.

NY Times Magazine -- ... is full of junk. Don't bother reading it, and by the way those little articles about global warming you see occasionally? Try to avoid those, too. What relatively little journalism remains at this point is focused entirely on Obama's "bitter" comments. This is a good article for those who believe everything they read.

Future Cars -- One new car gets up to 300 miles per gallon, and guess what? It's already a hot commodity in California, where it's raked up 1,400+ pre-orders. Also, the article looks at a Nova story with more information about newer cars.

Carbon-Saving Ideas -- I particularly enjoyed this piece, because it shows just how much a few small, bright ideas can add up when it comes to cutting Co2. California has a lot on its plate, attempting to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent, but it's finding that the easiest way to do it is to rely on a variety of smaller initiatives that aren't costly and easy to implement. Good to think about, given Wisconsin will probably have something like this soon (only it'll be 10 percent, most likely). 

For those of you who think this environmental disaster was old news, guess what -- Exxon is still fighting to keep every penny out of the hands of people and communities damaged by its incompetence. Remember when Exxon went in front of the cameras and promised to compensate everyone and everything was going to be okay and *insert-typical-corporation-speech-here*? Well, that hasn't panned out, exactly.

So what happened on that fateful night, anyway? I'm sure you remember, as I do, that some captain was drunk and hit a reef, right? I mean, that's what I picked up from the news reports and stored in my memory. But what if I told you that the ship's radar system--a radar specifically used to locate underwater reefs--was turned off that night? What if I told you that, in order to cut costs, Exxon stopped maintaining and using their radar system? Would that be enough to outrage you? What if I told you that Exxon wasn't even supposed to  have a ship in the water that night? According to investigative journalist Greg Palast:

"On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez was not even supposed to leave harbor. Here’s why. Tankers are not allowed to sail unless unless a spill containment barge is operating nearby. That night, the barge was in dry-dock, locked under ice. Exxon kept that fact hidden, concealing the truth even after the tanker grounded. An Exxon official radioed the emergency crew, “Barge is on its way.” It wasn’t.
Had the barge been in operation, it would have surrounded the leaking ship with rubber skirts - and Paul’s home, and Alaska’s coast, would have been saved. But Exxon couldn’t wait for its oil."

Click here to read Greg Palast's entire article about the TRUTH regarding the Exxon-Valdez oil spill, and the connections to John McCain. 

So now Exxon is fighting all the way to Supreme Court, probably because it knows that the Supreme Court has been stacked with corporate cronies like John Roberts. Case in point: John Roberts is obviously dismayed that Exxon could be forced to actually pay for its incompetence, and he's made it absolutely clear that he's not going to vote in favor of the plantiffs suing Exxon-Mobil to clean up the mess and restore the ecosystem along the coastline. Here's an excerpt from an article by Dana Milbank from inside the Supreme Court:

"So what can a corporation do to protect itself against punitive-damages awards such as this?" Roberts asked in court.

The lawyer arguing for the Alaska fishermen affected by the spill, Jeffrey Fisher, had an idea. "Well," he said, "it can hire fit and competent people."

The rare sound of laughter rippled through the august chamber. The chief justice did not look amused.

The plantiffs in this case--thousands of fishermen and natives of the area--have not received a dime yet in punitive damages. Exxon-Mobile's strategy is simple: fight it till they're all dead.

I hope this upsets you.