How energy-efficient is your cell-phone charger? (And why have you never thought to ask?) The world's five biggest cell-phone manufacturers have rated the chargers they sell, from an energy-sucking one star to an eco-friendly five stars. If everyone with a cell phone "switched to a four- or five-star charger," declares Nokia, "this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium-sized power plants."

source: Reuters

In an apparent policy shift, Canada's Conservative government declared Wednesday, "We will work with the provincial governments and our partners to develop and implement a North America-wide cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gases." Prime Minister Stephen Harper has to date favored reductions in greenhouse-gas "intensity" over hard caps on emissions.

source: Reuters

Only cows that have gobbled grass in pasture for at least 120 days per year can produce milk labeled "organic," according to draft rules issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Activists have long criticized a loophole that allowed organic-milk producers to keep their cows in giant feedlots, as long as they were fed organic grain.

source: Associated Press
comment by Dec. 23: National Organic Program (NOP) - Access to Pasture (Livestock)

The U.S. EPA is continuing its push to weaken clean-air rules near national parks before President Bush leaves office, despite the objection of national-park advocates and many of the agency's own administrators, according to The Washington Post. The rule revision would change the way air pollution is measured near national parks, allowing large pollution spikes throughout the year as long as a source's average annual emissions were below a certain threshold.

source: The Washington Post

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate and a recently convicted felon, has officially lost his reelection bid to Democrat Mark Begich. Stevens has long been a thorn in the side to environmentalists, most notably for leading the charge to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

source: Associated Press

Sunflower Electric Power Company has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of Kansas for its landmark denial last year of an air permit the company needed to build two coal-fired power plants in the western part of the state. The permits were originally denied by an official at the state's department of health and environment due to concerns about carbon dioxide emissions.

source: Associated Press

Brita, maker of popular water-purifying pitchers, will launch a recycling program for used water filters beginning in January. The company's announcement comes after months of pressure from citizen activists. Consumers will be able to drop used filters off at selected Whole Foods stores or mail them in; the plastic parts will be turned into recycled toothbrushes and razors, and the activated carbon "will be regenerated for alternative use or converted into energy," according to the company.

source: The Clorox Company
see also, in Grist: Clorox's Green Works line now top-selling green cleaners in U.S.

With lawmakers' final approval on Tuesday, Britain has become the first country in the whole wide world to make a legally binding commitment to cut emissions 80 percent by 2050.

source: Agence France-Presse

Due to escalating violence, Congolese rangers have been run out of the country's Virunga National Park, threatening the safety of some 200 mountain gorillas that live there. "There are documented cases of the gorillas getting caught in the crossfire and getting killed," says a park spokesperson. "It's the chaos of war and they are right in the middle of it." Only about 700 mountain gorillas remain in the wild.

sources: CNN, Agence France-Presse, The New York Times
see also, in Grist: Nations launch new combined effort to save mountain gorillas

Toys marketed to the 12-under-set must either meet new lead standards or be off shelves by Feb. 10 -- but many toy manufacturers and retailers don't wanna comply. Citing the economic downturn, they're pressuring the government to relax the requirement.

source: The Wall Street Journal

Two former Interior Department appointees unpopular with environmentalists have been "burrowed" into senior civil service posts, giving them job security when Barack Obama takes the White House. "It is an attempt by the outgoing administration to limit as much as possible [the incoming administration's] ability to put its policy imprint on the Department of Interior," says an anonymous Interior official. Robert D. Comer, who will widely oversee programs of Interior agencies in his new position, was once accused by Interior's inspector general of using "pressure and intimidation" to secure a grazing agreement; Matthew McKeown, who will help shape mining policy, has been criticized in the past for prioritizing private-property interests.

source: The Washington Post

Cocaine users get no love from Colombian Vice President Francisco Santos Calderon, who speechified to police officers in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Tuesday: "Colombia has lost more than [5 million acres] of rainforest in the last 15 years to plant coca. If you snort a gram of cocaine you are destroying [43 square feet] of pristine rainforest. That rainforest is not just Colombian. It belongs to all of us who live on this planet, so we should all be worried about it."

source: BBC News

Collectively, the 40 industrialized nations that agreed to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol have met their goal of cutting emissions to an average of about 5 percent below 1990 levels, the United Nations reported this week. But some of the biggest reductions were due to economic declines in central and eastern European countries in the 1990s. Between 2000 and 2006, emissions of the 40 nations rose by 2.3 percent, a trend that threatens to wipe out past improvements.

sources: CNN, Associated Press

President-elect Barack Obama will not attend the United Nations climate conference in Poland next month nor send a delegation on his behalf, the U.N. climate chief announced Monday. Many climate activists had high hopes that President Bush's successor would attend the conference as a way to jumpstart the sluggish talks. Explaining his decision, Obama said, "There is one president at a time."

source: Reuters

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlined a new, voluntary plan to encourage taxi-fleet owners to use hybrid vehicles after the city's initial plan to dramatically increase taxi fuel-efficiency was struck down by a federal judge last month.

source: The New York Times

Representatives from some 46 nations are meeting this week in Morocco to try to hash out an agreement on stemming overfishing of imperiled bluefin tuna while still keeping the bluefin fishing industry alive. Experts say the sustainable catch limit in the Mediterranean Sea should be about 15,000 tons a year, but last year fleets caught an estimated 61,000 tons.

source: Agence France-Presse

As wildfires rage in southern California, concerns are burgeoning about the chemical mix that firefolk drop as a fire retardant. It's "fairly well known that it's toxic to aquatic organisms, to fish," says one fire management officer; nonetheless, notes another firefighter, "It's the people whose houses are not on fire that are concerned about it."

source: The New York Times
see also, in Grist: U.S. forest official narrowly escapes being jailed over fish-killing flame retardant

The Bush administration on Monday cleared the way for tens of thousands of acres in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming to be used for oil-shale development, publishing final rules governing how federal land will be leased for extraction of the expensive, pollute-y, only recently un-banned fuel source. Companies tapping into oil shale will have to pay far less in royalties than the going rate for conventional gas and oil. Still, commercial oil-shale leasing is at least five to 10 years off.

sources: The Salt Lake Tribune, Denver Business Journal, Associated Press
see also, in Grist: It's a 1980 flashback, as energy price spikes make oil shale economical once again

A bill that would protect millions of acres of public land is being put on hold until the new year, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Monday. The Omnibus Public Land Management Act passed out of committee with bipartisan support, but Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has threatened to filibuster over concerns that it will stymie oil and gas development. Congress doesn't have the time to deal with Coburn's shenanigans this month, says Reid, but the bill will be top priority next year.

sources: CQ Politics, Casper Star-Tribune, Mail Tribune

It's the 21st century, folks -- text with your hitchhiker's thumb. An iPhone application called Avego will soon be available to hook up drivers with those who need rides, helpfully suggesting a safe place to pull over and calculating the split cost between driver and rider. No word on how it'll go over in Ontario, which recently effectively made ridesharing illegal.

sources: Los Angeles Times, Avego