Why America's Favorite Seafood Is a Health and Environmental Nightmare The environmental impact of shrimp can be horrific. But most Americans don't know where their shrimp comes from or what's in it. Americans love their shrimp. It's the most popular seafood in the country, but unfortunately much of the shrimp we eat are a cocktail of chemicals, harvested at the expense of one of the world's productive ecosystems.

The insight that nature provides services to mankind is not a new one. In 360BC Plato remarked on the helpful role that forests play in preserving fertile soil; in their absence, he noted, the land was turned into desert, like the bones of a wasted body. The idea that the value provided by such "ecosystem services" can be represented by ecologists in a way that economists can get to grips with, though, is rather newer. A number of the thinkers who have made it a hot topic in the past decade gathered at a meeting on biodiversity and ecosystem services held by the Royal Society, in London, on January 13th and 14th. They looked at the progress and prospects of their attempts to argue for the preservation of nature by better capturing the value of the things - such as pollination, air quality and carbon storage - that it seemingly does for free.

I have immense respect for Robert F Kennedy Jr, and have been frequently moved by his outstanding speeches on big-picture environmental topics. I'm not alone, however, in continuing to be surprised and baffled at the Kennedy tradition of steadfastly opposing the Cape Wind turbine project, the first major offshore wind energy project in the US, slated for Nantucket Sound in Massachusetts. But this post isn’t about the Kennedy family opposition, it's about another surprising and confusing source of opposition to the project. According to the New York Times, a Native American group has now raised its voice over the potential project on the grounds that the massive turbine farm "would thwart their spiritual ritual of greeting the sunrise, which requires unobstructed views across the sound, and disturb ancestral burial grounds".

Energy involves many complex issues, from how it is sourced to where it is used. Crafting intelligent energy policy also means understanding how cultural, social, and political issues come into play. Dr. Michael Guan is one of the well versed experts in this area. With qualifications from Harvard and Yale, a 20+ year career in as an engineer and consultant, his latest work is with Energy Studies Institute and Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. He also does research and development for the U.S. Army around energy technologies.

What does the Copenhagen Communique mean to an entrepreneur? Am I being too blunt to suggest the answer is "nothing"? Entrepreneurs are focused upon their customers as the source of inspiration and profits. Laws passed by politicians receive entrepreneurial attention only when they impact their customers' ability to buy or their cost of operations. The Copenhagen Communique is a non-event to entrepreneurs except that it creates uncertainty on what rules governments might change in the future.

Is Mr. Squiggles the toy hamster on your child's holiday wish list this year? Then you may have been concerned by the reports that came out over the weekend about the poor safety ratings that Mr. Squiggles recently received from The Good Guide, a consumer group that claims to "find safe, healthy, and green products." Normally, I would lend my full support to an organization that's highlighting toxicity in children's toys. But this time, I think The Good Guide got it wrong.

On eve of the global warming summit in Copenhagen, Denmark, an informal global survey shows that public interest in the issue is waning. But many people are taking individual steps to curb global warming.