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UCS presents interactive animation about auto lobbyists and fuel economy

From Umbra's heartthrob, the Union of Concerned Scientists, a funny little interactive animated thingamajig making a point about the sway auto lobbyists hold over fuel-economy standards. It compares potential mpg, air pollution, and gas prices. And at the end there are hairy men in a hot tub. Does it get any better than that?

My two cents: I'm in the camp that high gas prices are a good thing, because then people presumably don't drive as much, which is less wearing on the environment than even the most eco-friendly vehicle. Obviously. But I don't currently have a car. If I did, I'm sure that concern for my pocketbook would bring me down off my high-and-mighty hill.

Side note: Isn't "pocketbook" a bit outdated? Who has a pocketbook anymore?

Meet the eco-agents cleaning up after the nation’s latest addiction

Much has been made of the effects of methamphetamine on users, from crumbling teeth to erratic behavior to heart inflammation to death. It’s a painful story that the media has been only too eager to tell, as an estimated 346,000 people in the United States have become part of the meth-addiction “epidemic,” with a million […]

King Coal’s beheading of Appalachia

I keep meaning to say something about this excellent NYT op-ed on mountaintop-removal mining, but I never seem to have time, so ... just go read it.

Marsh Madness

Gloomy prospects for Louisiana’s wetlands, says a new report Louisiana’s coastal marshes are screwed. That’s the cheery news from an expert panel convened last year by the National Academy of Sciences. In a report released yesterday, the panel assessed a 10-year wetlands-restoration plan developed by the Army Corps of Engineers, concluding that the four credible […]

The Great Blight North

Canadians’ bodies polluted with over three dozen toxic chemicals O, Canada: great big land of maple syrup, socialized health care, and … toxic bodies. According to a new report, average Canadians may be packed with more than 40 human-made carcinogens, hormone disruptors, and substances that mess with reproduction and fetal development. Researchers tested 11 volunteers […]

Kabuki

It is amusing to watch Republican senators trapped between their two main constituencies: the oil industry and, uh, their constituents. Voters are pissed about high gas prices and home-heating costs, and they can't help but notice that oil companies are swimming in huge piles of cash. Of course Republicans aren't going to do anything that might offend the oil industry, but they need to look like they're doing something.

What's the answer? A hearing!

So they drag five oil executives to Congress. The results defy parody. Virtually every paragraph of this Reuters story is a masterpiece of black humor. It begins:

Under fire for high fuel prices, five major oil companies on Wednesday warned the U.S. Senate against levying a windfall profits tax and showed little interest in donating money to help poor Americans pay winter heating bills.

Well, that should set voters' minds at ease! But it immediately gets even better:

Courtesy of the Sierra Club

Even though you have haven't visited, you probably know where the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is located. You may be proud of the fact that you can point to area 1002 on the map and trace the migration of the Porcupine caribou herd. But what about your friends, neighbors, and inlaws?

There is still hope for them. You can direct them to the Sierra Club's thoughtfully prepared collection of maps of the Arctic Refuge using Google Earth. They're offering six maps in total:

1. The whole thing
2. Refuge boundaries
3. The "1002" area
4. Native American villages
5. Drilling across Alaska
6. The Porcupine Herd and other wildlife

(Via Boing Boing)

And in other Google Earth news: Fans of the game Risk can play by way of Google maps.

House moderates beat back Arctic Refuge drilling

Plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were dropped from the House budget reconcilation bill tonight. Credit goes to GOP Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire and 24 fellow Republicans who threatened to vote against the bill unless the drilling provisions was dropped.

It's not the end of the battle -- efforts are surely underway already to get the language back in -- but it's a surprising show of strength by refuge defenders. And yet another blow to poor, beleaguered Bush.

Who killed the electric car?

Currently in production is EV Confidential, a documentary "about electric cars, hybrids, hydrogen, and the future of transportation."

Word has it that Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has picked up the North-American/English speaking rights and will release EV Confidential in 2006.

Watch the trailer here.

Divide and conquer?

It strikes me that Wal-Mart and Arnold Schwarzenegger are doing something similar: trying to peel eco-activists off from the larger progressive coalition. And while two data points don't exactly make a trend, it's something greens should be pondering.

Consider: Wal-Mart recently announced some high-profile and fairly substantial sustainability reforms. Meanwhile, as this collection of Alternet coverage amply demonstrates, they continue to screw workers, bust unions, skimp on health care, and drive out local businesses. Somewhere in some boardroom, the calculation was obviously made that the company could afford some sustainability, and that it would help deflect activist attention, but that other reforms would cut too deep into the bottom line.

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, has not been perfect on green issues, but has presided over some remarkably forward-thinking reforms, most notably California's landmark auto-emissions limits. Yet, as Kevin Drum points out, for the most part he's been a "standard issue business-pandering Republican."

Of course, Wal-Mart is getting bashed now more than ever, and Arnold's very expensive slate of state initiatives just got crushed, so the strategy doesn't seem to be working. But still, it's something to think about: If environmentalists get what they want (or at least some of it), should they overlook egregious misconduct in the areas of, say, labor and healthcare? How strongly do greens stand with the progressive coalition?