Adventure in 60 Seconds: The News

A look at last week's headlines, by Tetsuhiko Endo and Keith Rutowski

Last Friday (April 17), the EPA “formally” declared that man-made carbon emissions are the cause of global warming and a threat to public heath. As a result, emissions are now subject to regulation under the terms of the Clean Air Act. Despite years of mounting evidence, the agency has never come right out and stated this. The long-awaited decision came after a Supreme Court-ordered investigation of six gases yielded “overwhelming evidence” linking air pollution and warming (read more in the New York Times). Earlier last week the EPA released its Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report, which found that overall emissions had increased by 17.2 percent from 1990 to 2007. 

Archaeologists think they might have found the tomb of Anthony and Cleopatra. They have narrowed down their search to three sites near the costal city of Alexandria, where they found coins carrying the visage of the famous queen. NG Fellow Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s chief archaeologist, reports that the coins prove that Cleopatra was not “very ugly.” as some scholars have recently suggested (read the BBC article). 

In a move sure to provoke controversy in the climbing world, Italian alpinist Fabrizio Zangrilli has agreed to lead the first ever commercial expedition to the summit of K2, reports Rock and Ice (read the article). 

This year's Earth Day (April 22) is likely to be more visible across print and online media than ever before, thanks, in part, to growing consumer enthusiasm for eco-friendly products. But beware. The Canadian consulting firm TerraChoice Environmental Marketing has just released a study finding that just 2 percent of supposedly green products actually have the credentials to back up their claims. The other 98 percent are guilty of "greenwashing," or exaggerating or inventing the eco-friendly characteristics of a product.