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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?

Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story

With the depressing news about the Arctic Refuge, I wanted to point to the inspirational story of Mardy Murie, mother of the American conservation movement, who played a central role in establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Act in 1960 and the Alaska Lands Act in 1980.

Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story is "a collaborative effort by a group of passionate filmmakers, writers, musicians, and biologists to produce the definitive film biography of this exceptional woman. Directed by Bonnie Kreps and written by Charlie Craighead, the documentary is both an intimate portrait of a well-loved national figure and a poignant historical document."

You can learn more and watch a preview at the documentary's website.

(Via Greener Magazine)

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Will Waters Never Cease?

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Cabal and Chain

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Seattle’s waste dump is an example of how not to do things

Because I live so close to it, I take an interest in how well Seattle's north-end waste transfer/recycling station is run (as if that is not obvious by now, this being my third and, thankfully, last post on the subject). The Wallingford neighborhood in which it is located is known for its tolerant, liberal-minded denizens, which explains why, in addition to the waste transfer station, the city has also placed numerous mental halfway houses and drug rehab centers there.

Kansas School Board redefines science

The Kansas Board of Education has hit on an innovative way to stop the abuse of science: They just passed new science-curriculum standards that "rewrite the definition of science, holding that it no longer is limited to searching for natural explanations for natural phenomena."