Have you been keep up to date with our confrontation of the Japanese whaling fleet? It is amazing. Our activists are in the inflatables, dodging chunks of ice, and getting in between the whales and the harpoon guns. Nathan has got an update today about how he has rigged one of our boats, the Billy Greene, to hose the whalers.

Read on. 

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is upset that the FBI has gathered more than 100 pages of data on the group's activities.  Big deal!  We racked up over 2,000 pages worth of wasted tax dollars.  What's most surprising about this story, is that the Bush administration has no qualms about spying on peaceful organizations - or American citizens.

Read the full NY Times story.

For 25 years, there has been a bitter debate about opening the Arctic Refuge to development. The oil industry may have finally gotten its way, not because it's the right thing to do, but because it backed drilling opponents into a corner.

The House of Representatives passed a bill allowing drilling in the refuge, but the bill also contained money for hurricane relief and bird flu preventive measures. Don't you just love politics?

Read more on the decision.

Norwegian scientists have found that orcas - aka killer whales - have become the most contaminated mammals in the Arctic.  Because they are at the top of the food chain, these whales ingest all the chemicals that have already polluted the animals they eat.  If these whales are "accidentally" killed, or hunted for "scientific research," their whalemeat may end up on supermarket shelves and ultimately the dinner table.  This delicacy comes fortified with pesticides, flame retardants and PCBs.  Yum!

Read the full article.

Last February, Sister Dorothy Stang was assassinated in the Amazon. She was an advocate of land rights for rural peasants and spoke out repeatedly against the ecological cost and social injustices involved in Amazonian deforestation. Today the two men accused of killing her are on trial.

Read more about the life and death of Sister Dorothy.

When our activists need a break from chasing whalers on the high seas, you can usually find them climbing dirty power plants. For two days, 20 of our German activists have been atop the most polluting coal plant in all of Europe. The owner of the plant is planning 10 new brown-coal power units, one of which together with the plant we've occupied will emit more carbon dioxide than the entire nation of New Zealand.

The dramatic action brings back memories of a similar action in Pennsylvania last year. Six of our activists scaled a 700-foot smokestack that Bush's own researchers admit is responsible for the premature deaths of 237 resident PER YEAR.

Read more on the "Smokestack Six."

Hawaii has long-been a hotspot for sun-seeking vacationers and lovey-dovey newlyweds. But the "Aloha State" could quickly lose its popularity if the coastline disappears (except with the scuba divers, of course).  Earlier this week, 44 acres of coastline collapsed into the ocean, setting loose a glowing stream of lava that shot out from the newly exposed cliffside 45 feet above the water. Tourists may soon favor Florida or California for their getaways - until their coastlines disappear due to global warming.

Read more on Hawaii's new landscape.

Tonight the Sci-Fi channel is airing "The Triangle" - a thrilling new mini-series featuring an unlikely crew battling the mysteries of the infamous Bermuda Triangle.  An engineer, a meteorologist, a psychic and a tabloid reporter hired to uncover the secrets of the infamous ocean expanse, soon cross paths with a survivor of a Greenpeace vessel that was swallowed by the triangle.  The Greenpeace activist is played by "La Bamba" hunk, Lou Diamond Phillips.  Be sure to tune in tonight at 9/8C, or whenever you want if you have that TiVo thing...

More on "The Triangle."

Check TV Guide for your local listings. 

Seems our friends to north have found a new way fuel your car: animal waste.

"We're using animal waste to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said marketing director Ron Wardrop of Rothsay, which runs the plant. 

At full capacity, the Rothsay plant will produce 35 million liters (9.2 million U.S. gallons) of biodiesel a year, the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 16,000 light trucks or 22,000 cars from the roads"

More info at Yahoo!

 

Researchers at the University of Arkansas say they have developed a way to convert chicken fat into a biodiesel fuel. The chicken-fat fuels are better for the environment and the machines, but it's too early to tell if making biodiesel fuel from chicken fat is economically feasible. Dr. Emmett Brown shrugged off the announcement, saying "Big deal. My Delorean's been running on trash for 20 years...and it flies."

Read more.

P.S. - The answer to yesterday's Brain Teaser is:

They didn't have belly buttons.

A new study reveals that there is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point during the last 650,000 years. Since scientists haven't figured out a way to time travel yet (any day now...), they had to rely on tiny air bubbles preserved in Antarctic ice for their comparison. This research demonstrates that our behavior is dramatically influencing the buildup of greenhouse gases and fueling global warming.

Check out more on the study.

Brain Teaser

The scientists also discovered the bodies of a man and a woman preserved in the ice. They determined the pair to be Adam and Eve. How did they know it was the Biblical duo? Answer tomorrow...