Friday, 27 Jan 2006

Chances are you didn't spend your Wednesday night at a swanky bar in Manhattan, rubbing elbows with a fashion model in a bustier. (But if you did, omigod, we totally did too!) And chances are you're thinking, hey, what does this have to do with the environment? Well, a new green scene was on display this week at the purported first-ever gathering of "New York's eco-conscious elite," positively oozing style, sustainability, socializing ... and satin bustiers. Emily Gertz sends a dispatch from the high life.

Re-Spent, Ye Sinners

Bush admin plans to fund new dawn for nuclear power

Like an atomic Dr. Frankenstein determined to reanimate the corpse of the civilian nuclear-power industry, the Bush administration intends to allot $250 million in fiscal year 2007 to researching new ways to reprocess spent nuclear fuel -- technology largely abandoned in the 1970s as too dangerous. The funding is seen as a down payment on billions in future federal spending for nuclear power, with the nuclear industry in position to reap millions of dollars in profits as a result. The fuel-reprocessing scheme is part of a larger Bush plan -- thus far cheerily termed the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership -- that would allow the industry to sell smallish reactors and fuel to developing nations as long as they send their spent fuel back to the U.S. for reprocessing. The administration quietly sent two senior officials to Japan, Russia, and other countries last week to sell the initiative, and Bush may mention it in next week's State of the Union address.


Since descending from the branches of the ancient redwood where she tree-sat for two years, Julia Butterfly Hill has dedicated herself to inspiring others and helping them find their own "tree." As InterActivist this week, Hill chats with readers about an upcoming film on her life, coping with celebrity, refusing to pay taxes, her decision not to procreate, and more.

Kernel Ganders

Ethanol decent on efficiency but not on greenhouse gases, study finds

The heated debate over biofuels took another sharp turn this week: New research in the journal Science claims that replacing fossil fuels with corn-based ethanol is energy-efficient (contrary to some previous studies), but doesn't do much to cut greenhouse-gas pollution. Researchers from UC-Berkeley determined that ethanol results in a net energy gain of about 20 percent, but that the pollution generated in processing the corn offsets most of ethanol's gains in greenhouse-gas emissions. Cornell University scientist David Pimentel -- author of several studies questioning ethanol's energy efficiency -- disagrees with the findings, saying they failed to factor in farm machinery and overestimated the value of corn byproducts. But all agree that the future of ethanol is not corn, but higher-cellulose plants like switchgrass and willow trees -- news the powerful agribusiness and corn lobbies will no doubt try to play down.

I Get the Nic Out of You

California deems secondhand smoke a toxic air pollutant

Californians may soon breathe a little easier than the rest of us, now that the state has become the first in the nation to classify secondhand tobacco smoke as a toxic air pollutant. In a 6-0 vote on Thursday, the state Air Resources Board put secondhand smoke in the same category as diesel exhaust and arsenic, citing a report published last September that found a sharply higher risk of breast cancer in young women passively exposed to the fumes, as well as linking it to other cancers, asthma, heart disease, and health problems in children. Oh, the humanity. The immediate effect of the board's vote will be an investigation into the places where Californians most often encounter secondhand haze, and how to reduce them. Highly contentious public hearings on new rules and legislation are likely to follow.