Lawyers for environmental activist Tim DeChristopher appeared in a federal court in Denver on Thursday to appeal his two-year jail sentence for disrupting a 2008 federal oil-lease auction. In July, a federal judge ordered DeChristopher to serve two years in prison and rejected his argument that his actions were valid civil disobedience. DeChristopher was not released from prison in California to attend the hearing, although he expects to be transferred to a Littleton, Colorado, facility late... Read More
Italian car-maker Ferrari has apologized for an advertising stunt in Nanjing, China, this week that left tire marks on a 600-year-old wall. Ferrari had rented a section of the ancient wall to showcase a limited-edition 458 Italia worth $954,000. As the car was driven into place for the publicity event, the driver was filmed gunning the engine and spinning the rear wheels, leaving dark tread marks. In a statement, the Italian-based company insisted they had a deep respect for "the protection of... Read More
A new Russian passenger plane carrying 46 people is missing after departing on a trial flight from West Java, in Indonesia, on Wednesday. The aircraft, known as Superjet, was on only its second test flight and was carrying a mix of Indonesian and Russian businesspeople. It is the first commercial plane produced in Russia since the end of the Cold War and represents a major effort to revive the country's domestic aviation industry. A search operation is expected to begin Thursday morning.
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A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that ammonia emissions from Southern California dairy cattle are a significant source of smog in Los Angeles. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gathered data on fly-overs in the Southern California air basin in May and June 2010, resulting in estimates ranging from 33 tons to 176 tons of cow ammonia per day, compared to 62 tons from car emissions. The calculations are based on the 298,000 head of cattle in the re... Read More
On Monday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar switched on the first-ever utility-scale solar facility on U.S. public land, delivering energy to about 10,000 homes in Nevada. The Enbridge facility, located 40 miles south of Las Vegas in the Mojave desert, marks the opening of 16 solar energy plants approved for construction on public lands as part of a 2009 sustainable energy package. “This is a landmark for America, a landmark for the solar industry and a landmark for how we use publi... Read More
