More Verdopolis coverage over at Treehugger. We'll have some of our own up later today. Update [2005-2-10 16:45:41 by Dave Roberts]: Still more, from Will Duggan, who was excited that businesses are finding good reasons to go green, but ends with this: Inspiring two hours, yes, but corrosively depressing that there was no American business leader to match the vision, passion, and humanity on display.

There has been a flurry of stories about wave power recently, and I keep meaning to blog about some of them. Luckily, Jamais Cascio has provided a nice entrée, via discussion of a new report from the Electric Power Research Institute. Conclusion: wave power may yet sneak past wind and solar as the most promising renewable energy source.

Earth Pledge is a very cool organization -- they sponsor the Farm to Table initiative on local, organic food, the Greening Gotham project pushing green roofs, and Verdopolis, a project bringing together cultural, political, and business types to discuss and plan for the "future green city." Verdopolis is throwing a massive bash in New York City, which kicked off yesterday -- here's the agenda. We've got someone there who will be sending us some coverage, and I'll point to coverage elsewhere as I see it. Yesterday was mostly composed of a fashion show, which you can read about on Treehugger. …

Speaking of Chris Mooney, he draws my attention to something that is sure to be hitting the news in a big way tomorrow: The Union of Concerned Scientists, in their words, "distributed a 42-question survey to more than 1,400 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologists, ecologists, botanists and other science professionals working in Ecological Services field offices across the country to obtain their perceptions of scientific integrity within the USFWS, as well as political interference, resources and morale." Despite explicit word from USFWS administrators that they were not permitted to answer, 30 percent of the scientists did. Many reported political …

Readers are well aware that I was not impressed by Crichton's book or his footnotes. In the Boston Globe, Chris Mooney draws attention to another group of unimpressed folks: the very scientists Crichton cites.

Ford recently announced their second hybrid SUV, the Mariner. What I'm saying is, when's the hybrid minivan coming? There's got to be a huge market, no? Take me, for instance. As the patriarch of a growing clan of resource-sucking, overpopulation-contributing children, a minivan looms large in my future. I'd love to be able to show-off my eco-credentials while porting around my clan and their inevitable sports gear, musical instruments, academic awards, etc. My god, I think I lost half my remaining manhood just by writing that sentence. Anyway, if you're curious about the Mariner, the place to find more, as …

The Land Institute runs a program call the Prairie Writer's Circle, which brings together writers who cover sustainability issues in agriculture (and related issues). They distribute their op-eds free of charge. We get them frequently, and I always like them, but we rarely have the space or resources to get them up on the site. However! Thanks the magic of blogitude, I shall start running the ones I like here. To kick it off, here's an essay about how all -- that's right, all -- farming in the U.S. should go organic within 10 years.Anti-GMO ballot measures miss the mark …

Green Car Congress has a good breakdown of energy spending in Bush's budget -- think nuclear and fossil fuels -- and Geoff Hand has more.

Honda joined in the lawsuit against California, trying to stop the state from instituting its own fuel-economy regs. To make it up to enviros, the company just asked the feds to tighten fuel-economy regulations. It doesn't object to regs, it says, just different regs in different states. If fuel-economy regs are really harmful to the economy, harmful to automakers, as the Bush admin. says, Honda's behavior seems awfully peculiar. Why, it's almost like they know something Bush doesn't!

Political junkies (hi) may want to check out this Democracy Corps poll and strategy memo (PDF), called "Toward a Democratic Purpose." There's a lot in there to chew on, but one salient fact for our purposes : The public is very clear on the fact that Democrats are the party that protects the environment. They are also very clear on the fact the Republicans protect the interests of corporations and the rich. What does this mean? Well, for one thing, you're not going to get much electoral traction by pounding on those two facts. People already know. Again, all you …