The always interesting TomDispatch is reprinting an interview with Michael Pollan, author of the widely hailed Botany of Desire. It's good reading.

The environmental movement's opposition to genetically modified foods has always struck me as rather sloppy and knee jerk. While there are certainly evil corporations involved and real harmful effects possible, the issue seems to call for pragmatic approach, concerned with technique rather than good and evil. Perhaps the problem with GMO crops is not inherent in the very notion of genetic manipulation, but rather in the way they are developed, who owns the results, and who profits. (The same might be said of any number of technologies that enviros have typically recoiled from.) For instance, I'm a big fan of …

One often hears from opponents of renewable energy that wind, solar, biodiesel, etc. are not ready to compete in the market. Let us never forget, then, that the energy market is woefully rigged in a thousand different ways. What renewables lack is not economic potential but political patronage. For a particularly galling vignette from that rigged market, read this NYT story on Enron.

Interesting.  J.D. Power and Associates has released a report saying that the market for hybrids will top out at a 3% share in 2010, primarily due to the three or four thousand dollar premium consumers have to pay above a comparably non-hybrid.  Green Car Congress has some reflections.

OK, I really shouldn't be giving Crichton this much attention for writing a dumb book, but just two more items. First, I forgot to draw attention to a great article by Seth Borenstein (whom I heart) on scientists' reactions to State of Fear. As usual, Borenstein doesn't pussyfoot around. Second, just one last observation about the book. It starts with a series of vignettes in which nefarious characters -- a beautiful, raven-haired European woman, a broad-shouldered man in glasses, etc. -- buy, steal, and occasionally kill for the equipment they need to engineer huge natural disasters. You're reading this, wondering …

Advice guru Umbra Fisk seeks your suggestions on good green-themed dead-tree publications. A New Zealander wrote in saying her kids won't listen to anything she says about the internet -- that would be like wearing clothes she picked out! They will, however, read print (yeah, we had to look it up too) magazines that she leaves lying around. So she asks Umbra about good print magazines on environmental and social issues.  Umbra's print experience is limited to the weighty reference volumes in her basement stacks, so she's turning to you, readers. Submit your recommendations as comments. Tell Umbra and other …

I just watched Monday's Daily Show, which covered the Iraqi elections (it was more optimistic, and thus less funny, than usual). The super-brainy Fareed Zakaria was the guest (you can watch the interview here). The last question Jon Stewart asked was, "Why did God put our fuel under there?" Ha ha, yeah, funny, and all Zakaria could really do is make a lame joke in response. Here's what he should have said, "The point is not that our fuel ended up under an unstable area, it's that the world's reliance on a non-renewable resource means that areas where it's highly …

A joint Congressional committee has recommended reducing or eliminating tax breaks for conservation easements. The policy details around this stuff are somewhat technical, but it's very big -- and very bad -- news in the world of land trusts, and should be of concern to any enviro. Over at Nature Noted, your one-stop-shopping location for all matters land trust related, Pat Burns is all over it. Start with his January archive and just keep scrolling. Update [2005-2-4 12:44:40 by Dave Roberts]:More from Jon Christensen.

The CEO of Nissan made some disparaging comments about hybrids today. Wonder if he'd see this news: Supported by ongoing demand and additional models, combined US sales of hybrids in January 2005 almost doubled from levels in January 2004, rising 98.8% to 8,455 units from 4,252 units the prior year.

Can you guess who said this? We've talked about Kyoto a lot. That's been out there. It's the big boogie man in the last few years. Kyoto is dead. Kyoto is absolutely dead. It's not going to happen. We're taking steps right now to reverse every piece of paper that EPA has put together where they could call CO2 a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. That's going to be nailed down in the next few months ... Now, having said that, mercury, in my opinion, is very Kyoto-like in its potential impacts. Mercury to me is the issue that …