It’s been too long in coming, but today Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is repealing a sneak attack on millions of acres of pristine public lands in the West launched by his Bush administration predecessor Gale Norton.  CAPAF’s Tom Kenworthy has the story in this cross-post.

In a lamentable tenure that included corruption and ethics scandals, attacks on scientific integrity, and a campaign to turn federal lands into a playground for the oil and gas industry, Norton’s backroom “no more wilderness” deal with a Utah Governor in 2003 was among her most egregious betrayals of the public trust. In it Norton repudiated the Bureau of Land Management’s long accepted authority to protect public lands possessing characteristics that would qualify them as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.

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One traditional Christmas Eve dinner is fish….

NOAA, Partners: Growing Hypoxic Zones Reduce Habitat for Billfish and Tuna, which could increase vulnerability to fishing

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You may need to reuse your fake Christmas tree 20 times (!) before its climate impact is lower than that of a real tree

Tuesday’s total eclipse of the moon happened to coincide with the 2010 winter solstice. This is a combined rarity that has only happened once in the past 2,000 years. This singular kickoff to winter indubitably merits a certain amount of attention paid to staying green in this year’s season of white. You may think that hanging a Christmas pickle on your tree does the trick, but there are plenty of other more effective ways to stay green this winter season.  Test your knowledge below with these five myth-busting winter wonders in this a CAP cross-post.

Myth #1: Faux-fir trees are immortal and therefore unquestionably green.

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Human-caused global warming is poised to sink anything that happens to be residing on the North Pole into the chilly Arctic deep– see The war on Santa Claus (and Superman)

And that suggests Santa needs to rethink his policy for dealing with naughty children — as Non Sequitor makes clear:
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