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Stuff to read

Two interesting pieces up tonight from people who should be in bed.

Makower's got a long and pleasingly wonky post up on Environmental Strategies for Industrial Development, a new report from Alliance to Save Energy that discusses ways industry and government can work together to lower the cost of regulatory compliance. It's partly by simplifying regs and party through benchmarking " common air, water, and waste management functions" and sharing ways to improve them, thereby cutting waste and reducing the need for regs. Hott!

Meanwhile, Cascio hopes peak oil will be like the Y2K bug -- nope, not the way you're thinking. He says Y2K was a real problem that, thanks to shrill and apocalyptic warnings, got solved before it wreaked destruction. So here's to shrill and apocalyptic warnings!

Oh, and one more, from yesterday: An interview with Cory Doctorow (co-proprietor of BoingBoing and advocate for the Electronic Frontier Foundation), also on WC, about "copyfight" and the international struggle for reasonable intellectual property laws. Too many people think of copyright law as a niche concern -- something that only concerns filesharing teenagers -- but it is in fact enormously important. If we want poor countries to develop in a more humane and green way than we did, it's vital they be able to share what Doctorow calls "knowledge goods" -- science, practical techniques, information. Lots of good stuff in here.

Update [2005-8-1 23:21:33 by Dave Roberts]: Here's a layman's intro to copyfight.

Wolcott and me

There is no greater stylist of the English language writing on the World Wide Interwebs today than Vanity Fair's James Wolcott. So to be quoted by him is akin to having Thom Yorke stroll past you on the sidewalk, humming one of your tunes (or, for our older readers, the equivalent of Bruce Springsteen pulling you from the audience to dance awkwardly for a few moments in his video). I don't really go in for the fanboy thing (ok, not much), but if there's one thing I appreciate it is a good turn of phrase, and Wolcott cranks out three or four every time he sets fingers to keyboard, so consider this me screaming and throwing my bra onstage. Um, as it were.

Sadly, he quotes me as "Energy Bulletin," referring to this post, which was reprinted at EB. It all comes in the context of a post about Boy Scouts collapsing in the heat. Check it out.

No one knows much about Bush’s Asia-Pacific treaty, but some folks think it’s genius

I haven't commented yet on the "Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate" (APPCDC?), the new climate-focused tech-sharing agreement Bush signed with Australia, China, India, and South Korea. The details are still under wraps, so nobody knows very much about it. (Of course, that's not stopping people from weighing in; Jeff's got a nice wrap-up of reaction so far.) Frankly, I fear the details will just reinforce the cynicism that's encrusted itself like bitter eye boogers around my once starry, hopeful eyes ever since 9/11 Changed Everything©. Our own Amanda Griscom Little will be writing on the treaty this week; until then I choose to remain ignorant and preserve what remains of my faith in the human spirit.

One thing I can say: I'm fairly suspicious of any analysis that starts like this:

It must be very strange to be President Bush. A man of extraordinary vision and brilliance approaching to genius, he can't get anyone to notice. He is like a great painter or musician who is ahead of his time, and who unveils one masterpiece after another to a reception that, when not bored, is hostile.

Niger is experience famine because it’s people ‘buy (only) local’

According to an article on BBC News, huge flocks of red-beaked quelas have destroyed up to 70% of the crops in northern Nigeria. They have been driven there in a search for food from neighboring Niger, which has just experienced a drought and a plague of locusts. The poor people of Niger have been thrown into yet another famine and children are once again starving.

Highway bill passes the House

Both Gristmill and the nation's editorial boards have been abuzz about the recently passed energy bill, and rightly so. However, another piece of legislation found its way through the House today: the highway bill. Typically described as "pork-laden," the bill passed the House by a wide margin and contains $286.5 billion in pork spending. It's expected to pass the Senate as well.

For sale — on Mars

I'm all for space exploration, but maybe we should get our act together on this planet before we go mucking up others.

(Via Wired)

More on selective libertarianism

I stand by the sentiment expressed here, but acknowledge that Jerry Taylor was entirely the wrong target. (Something I'll acknowledge at greater length in a post I have brewing about libertarianism, energy, and environmental policy. Every time I try to write it it metastasizes to a length more appropriate to epic poetry. Concision, alert readers will have noticed, is not my forte. So ... stay tuned.)

Consider, for instance, the following two responses to the just-passed energy bill.

Wangari on a tightrope

The Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai is walking a tightrope on evictions of poor squatters from Kenya's few remaining forests. Over 50,000 have recently been forced out of the woods, often with little explanation and guns at their backs.

Maathai, who won the peace prize for protecting Kenya's forests from the plundering cronies of then-President Moi, now serves as deputy minister of environment in the very government doing the evicting. Read here where she supports the necessity of the expulsions to save what little remains of Kenya's forests, while condemning the way it is being done.

Grist coverage of her winning the Nobel Peace Prize is here.

Senate passes energy bill

The senate just passed the energy bill 74-26. You'll eventually be able to see the roll call votes here.

Prior to the final vote, Sen. Feingold offered a budget point of order. That failed 71-29.

To modify another biblical verse: Ana wept.

Frist brings science back into the mix

In potentially good news for science fans everywhere, Sen. Bill Frist has stepped up to support stem-cell research. The money quote on this one: "It's not just a matter of faith, it's a matter of science," (Dr.) Frist said.

All hail the new Age of Reason?