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Porous pavements potentially prevent problems

NPR's Living on Earth ran an interesting story this Saturday about porous pavements such as Ecocreto. In places where a good deal of the land surface area is made of impervious materials like regular concrete or pavement, rainwater can sometimes go unused, be discharged to the sea (think Los Angeles or Mexico City), and contribute to flash floods along the way. By absorbing the water and slowly releasing it, permeable concrete is designed to alleviate these issues.

Also available on their website is an interview [mp3] with Bruce K. Ferguson, director of the School of Enivironmental Design at the University of Georgia, on the same subject.

Environmentalism should look in the mirror to find the source of its troubles.

Hi ... my name is Jeremy Carl, and I'll be guest-blogging here for the next couple of weeks.

I'm currently a Visiting Fellow in resource and development economics at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in New Delhi, India. I spent several years in the private sector and then a few more working with various environmental organizations in the states before moving here, where I spend my time researching and writing about various aspects of the enormous environment/development conundrum in India and China. In the fall, I'm leaving India to head off to Stanford to do a doctorate, continuing the work I have begun here.

For now, I'm going to use my bully pulpit to talk a little bit about my frustrations with our movement, where I think we are going wrong, and hopefully, what we can do to get back on the right track. I imagine I may tread on some toes -- but I hope we can have a spirited and respectful discussion.

I think modern American environmentalism commits two deadly sins: First, we are way too focused on domestic problems (thinking only locally and acting only locally). And second, I think environmentalism is far too monolithically liberal, which both hurts us politically and also impedes our ability to come up with good policy solutions. I'll focus on the first problem today and the second in a follow-up tomorrow.

Cooney resigns

Well I'll be damned. Philip Cooney, the White House operative at the center of the recent hullabaloo over editing government climate-change reports, has resigned.

Why, you ask?

Wait for it ...

wait for it ...

To spend time with his family!

Anybody wanna lay bets on how long it takes Cooney to find another lucrative lobbying job for the Fossil Faction?

Nanotech protestors get naked.

I'm not sure what to think of these boob-and-butt-baring environmental protests against nanotechnology by the creatively named THONG: Topless Humans Organized for Natural Genetics. I know very little about nanotech -- nor, I suspect, do the protesters, who as far as I can tell are from a reflexively luddite wing of the green movement that I don't have much brief for. I'm not entirely sold on the "precautionary principle" either. But I am fond of these sorts of flashy, media-baiting direct actions. So color me ambivalent.

I'll tell you one thing, though. I love the word "nanopants."

Friday link dump

I hate these link-dump posts. Really I do. But I only get to spend about half my time working on the blog, and so much good stuff rushes past ... whaddya gonna do? I don't want my faithful reader(s?) to miss any of it. So here goes:

• Moving Ideas (from The American Prospect) has set up a site on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (which they lamentably call ANWR), including tons of info and links to action. Check it out.
• From -- no kidding -- Cheese Market News, word that demand for organic milk is outstripping supply -- of course, I can't link directly to the story, because the site uses frames. Who still does that? But you can read the piece here. (via Jeff)
• A fascinating BBC story about the rise and fall of ethanol in Brazil in the 70s serves as a great lesson on how vulnerable green energy initiatives are to (among other things) the fluctuating price of oil. (via Mike)
• The Oil Drum briefly summarizes a radio interview with James Kunstler.
• Biomimicry is one of the things I'm fascinated by that, for whatever reason, I never get around to writing about here. The Economist has a nice, brief description of the phenomenon and some of its successes. (via TH)
• From Treehugger, word that Patagonia and Merrell are teaming up for a line of shoes (speaking of Patagonia, don't miss our interview with Yvon Chouinard, the company's founder), and an interesting piece on guilt-free biodiesel.
• Alex Steffen links to the video of a townhall discussion involving him, Andrew Light (who was once our InterActivist), Terry Tempest Williams (who once wrote us a series of Dispatches), Stuart Cowan, and David Conrad. Very interesting.
• And finally, a Yale poll reveals that the public overwhelmingly supports an energy policy that moves us toward energy independence.

Meta coverage gap

As Lisa noted, at the 25th anniversary celebration for CNN, Ted Turner said this:

I would like to see us return to a little more international coverage on the domestic feed and a little more environmental coverage, and maybe a little less pervert of the day.

Every issue of Newsweek has a page with cartoons and quotes from the week. This week, one of them is this:

"I would like to see us return to a little more international coverage ... And maybe a little less pervert of the day."

CNN founder Ted Turner, on what he'd change about the channel now, if he could

They won't even cover him lamenting the lack of environmental coverage!

Businesses join the chorus on climate change

Dozens of mega-corporations, including Ford, BP, British Airways, and Toyota, are calling on the G8 to set up a system of emissions trading, which they view as "inevitable," at the Gleneagles summit. Representatives from the companies met with British PM Tony Blair yesterday. This is the second group that's called out the G8 regarding climate change; the national science academies of eleven countries threw in their two cents [PDF] earlier this week.

While Tony Blair is indeed the host for the summit, I think the corporations may have picked the wrong world leader with whichto discuss the issue. Hopefully a meeting with Bush will follow.

God and oil

John Brown thinks there's oil in Israel -- the Bible told him so.

Raised Roman Catholic, Brown was a tool-company executive in Michigan and an alcoholic when he became a born-again Christian in 1981. A trip to Israel two years later convinced him that he had a mission: to help Israel counter Arab domination in oil markets by developing its own supply. Brown formed Zion Oil in 2000 and bought rights from the Israeli government to explore a 100,000-acre plot in northern Israel. After raising $7 million, mostly from other evangelicals eager to support the Jewish state, he chose a spot near Kibbutz Maanit to begin the 4,500-yard drill based on his reading of the Old Testament.

...

Brown says God won't let him fail. If no oil is found at Maanit by the time he reaches bottom later this month, Brown has plans to drill at least three more holes. That will require more money, which he says evangelical Christians will gladly provide. "Finding oil will give Israel a huge strategic advantage" over its Arab enemies, he says. "It will change the political and economic structure of the region overnight."

Newsweek tells the story.

Ahem.

The week in scandal

Having trouble keeping track of the oughtta-be-but-not-quite scandals of the Republican party this week? Carpetbagger is here to help.

(Via KD.)

Pryor confirmed

William H. Pryor Jr., implacable foe of any and all environmental regulation, was confirmed today by the Senate. That means all three of the wingnut controversial judges protected by the recent filibuster deal -- Owen, Brown, and Pryor -- have been confirmed.

Stay tuned for the coming battle over Bush's Supreme Court nominee. It could get ugly.