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Rebuilding: Mississippi renewal

Everything I've heard about the Mississippi Renewal Forum leads me to believe it is (was, I guess, since it ended this week) a really kick-ass example of exactly what's needed in the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort. Time will tell whether local communities take the advice meted out in the many New Urbanist presentations, but it sounds like everybody, including Gov. Haley Barbour, was impressed. Click around the site a bit -- there's a daily journal and tons of pictures and descriptions from the presentations. Great stuff.

Update [2005-10-21 15:18:58 by David Roberts]: More at inhabitat, the NYT, and the radio program Open Source.

Barringer lets one get by

The New York Times' Felicity Barringer gets dinged by Media Matters for credulously passing on a bit of administration propaganda about the Arctic Refuge. C'mon, Ms. B, you gotta be on your guard with these people.

Readers talk back about vegetarianism and soy

  Umbra’s column on the environmental impact of soy vs. that of meat inspired readers of all stripes — OK, mostly the stripes that are anti-soy — to share their opinions. Here’s a sample of the deluge that hit our inbox, and there’s a whole lot more posted in Gristmill, our blog. Dear Editor: What […]

Germany’s environment minister on eschewing nukes

Five years ago, Germany officially decided to shut down all its nuclear plants by 2020. This past May, the second of 19 plants went offline.

Outgoing German environment minister (and member of the Green Party) Jurgen Trittin has a succinct piece on BBC explaining the government's rationale and arguing for seeing the policy through.

Far from being a necessary element in Germany's quest to meet Kyoto targets, he says, "technically speaking, this base-load relic of the past is standing in the way of flexible and intelligent electricity production." Word.

Encyclopedia Brown and the case of the missing map

Not really sure what to make of this. Apparently the government's map of the Arctic Refuge is gone -- poof, vanished. Why on earth, you're wondering, does the government only have one detailed map of the Refuge? I don't know. Why was it sitting behind some file cabinet? You got me. Was it thrown out deliberately or by accident? Nobody knows. Does it matter? Felicity Barringer thinks maybe so:

When It Rainforests, It Pours

Amazon logging damage: now with twice the depressingness You know all that damage logging has done to the Amazon rainforest? It’s not as bad as you thought. It’s twice as bad! Researchers have developed a way to wring far more detail out of satellite photos, a bittersweet accomplishment in light of the results. Turns out […]

Kenya’s president sells out national parks for politics

If pieces of land could speak, that's the question the 155 sq. mile Amboseli National Game Reserve in Kenya might be asking itself. The Game Reserve was, until earlier this month, a National Park -- it was run by national authorities. President Kibaki, breaking half a dozen laws and procedures, degazetted Amboseli. He downgraded it to a Game Reserve, and gave control and management of it to the Maasai people who live in the area. The Maasai have no training or background in wilderness management or infrastructure maintenance.

Makower thinks the retail giant might just be turning over a new leaf

We debated whether to write up this story of Wal-Mart's alleged "going green" in Daily Grist, but at a quick glance it seemed trivial and a bit self-serving. But Joel Makower, who knows as much about these matters as anyone, thinks there may be something to it.

I, for one, am skeptical that the great, great Wal-Mart turnaround is nigh. But I'm also not ready to write off Lee Scott or his company as sustainability poseurs. I believe we'll see a steady stream of new initiatives coming out of the company's Bentonville, Ark., headquarters in coming months.

He even quotes an anonymous colleague tantalizingly saying, "This has the potential to be the fastest turnaround ever on sustainability and the most comprehensive." If that were true it could have potentially epochal consequences. As Joel notes, Wal-Mart may account for as much as 1% of China's entire GDP. That's a lotta skrill.

Of course some folks will say that "green Wal-Mart" is an oxymoron. Activists of virtually every stripe have legitimate beefs with the company. But the thing here is to be dispassionate. The 'Mart has more power than many governments. It is, for good or ill, here, and enormously influential. If even a fraction of its power can be turned to stimulating green markets and establishing green practices, it could be a game changer.

Oil spiel

Now that the Arctic Refuge is one step closer to being despoiled, I am starting to wonder what we are doing wrong (like I am the first). It does not matter if oil comes out of the ground or from palm trees, if the means of production has potential to destroy biodiversity, it should be resisted.

Our population here in the U.S. is growing at a rate that would fill a city the size of Boston every two months, and the world's population is slated to increase 50%. Add to that the growing world economy and anyone with a brain can see that the pressure to develop land is not going to slow down in the foreseeable future. I am not feeling confident that the environmental movement (as it is presently called and organized) is going to be all that effective.

Personal energy conservation in Houston

Why it seems like just yesterday I was harping on the notion that, as long as our public policies yield built environments in which eco-friendly choices are difficult, eco-friendly choices will not be the norm.

Today I find a superb illustration of my pet notion in the Wall Street Journal, in the form of an excellent piece by Jeffrey Ball. I beg of you: go read it. (Of course, you can't unless you subscribe to WSJ, which you don't, so ...)

It's about people trying their best to conserve energy (you might recall that the president wants us to be "better conservers") in Houston, Texas. Long story short: it ain't easy.

Admittedly, one part of the problem is the typical American craving for luxury and comfort: