Eco-News Roundup: Wednesday, August 26

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A Wednesday morning question for gardeners and garden fans alike: Are heirloom tomatoes overrated? Novella Carpenter’s piece on the subject will help you decide whether to ditch your old seeds. After you’ve got that one figured out, peruse environment, health, and science news from our other blogs and around the web:

Starring Fiji water: Will Lindsay Lohan, Diddy, Paris Hilton, and President Obama still have a taste for Fiji Water after they see this video?

Does torture work? Dick Cheney said the documents released Monday would prove that enhanced interrogation techniques were effective. Here’s why he was wrong.

Cash for Clunkers, I hardly knew ye: Don’t let the door hit you on your way out.

A farewell to phone books: The tomes of old are a waste of paper, energy, and space. And no one uses them. So why do we still get them?

Great creatures now small: Why polar bears are shrinking along with the ice they live on.

 A climate change Dow Jones: How an index could help us get climate under control.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

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So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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