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The Polar Distress

Grizzly bears encroaching on polar bear habitat Polar bears have been having a rough time of it lately, what with global warming melting their habitat and PCBs tainting their food sources. Now they’ve got a new problem to worry about: Grizzly bears have been spotted as far north as Canada’s Melville Island, 600 miles inside […]

Pitch Perfect

Vote on the best elevator pitch for environmentalism We asked you, dear readers, to give us a pithy summary of what environmentalism stands for — one that could be delivered during a short elevator ride — and you answered our call with more than 150 suggestions. We’ve culled those into a 10-pitch poll, and we […]

Supply Chain of Fools

U.S. opposes international plan to curb illegal logging, memo reveals The U.S. is working to undermine a British-led effort to curb illegal logging in threatened rainforests, according to a leaked U.S. State Department memo. Indonesian leaders recently declared that they don’t have the capacity to control the criminal gangs that are plundering the nation’s tropical […]

Response to “Death”: Part III

Today comes Part III of Ken Ward's response to "The Death of Environmentalism," in which Ken argues that environmentalists should resist efforts to make environmental justice the core tenant of the movement and instead refocus on the most successful weapon in their arsenal: protest.

Don't forget to read Part I, Part II, Part IV, and Part V.

Elevator Pitch Contest finalists — vote!

Our Elevator Pitch Contest brought in over 150 entries -- a number I'll happily refer to as "whopping." I know I said I was going to pick a winner, but ... it's just too dang hard.

Instead, Grist's crack staff of elevator pitch evaluators combed through the entries and picked out their 10 favorites. Now it's up to you, dear readers, to pick the winner, who will receive a VFOGT (Very First Official Grist T-shirt).

Click "link and discuss" below to vote!

(You need to be signed up for an account to vote -- if you haven't, you can do so here.)

Arctic Refuge vote

The vote on the Senate budget resolution -- which contains a provision for drilling in the Arctic Refuge -- and the Cantwell amendment -- which would strip it out -- takes place in about a half hour. Things are looking bad for the refuge.

Update [2005-3-16 11:2:7 by Dave Roberts]: The Cantwell amendment was just voted down, 51-49. The refuge will stay in the budget.

Babes in EV-land

Last night on NPR (she sayeth, firmly establishing her nerd credentials), I heard a story about protests intended to save GM's electric car, the EV-1. About 80 of the cars have been sitting on GM's lot, destined for the scrap heap. The highlight of the civil unrest yesterday seems to have been the arrest of "Baywatch" actress Alexandra Paul, who intoned in that screechy celebrity way, "This is about clean air."

Apparently these protests have been going on for a couple of months. But the GM flak made a reasonable-sounding claim: there wasn't all that much demand for EVs, and the industry is putting its energy into more promising technologies like hydrogen.

I'm all in favor of clean cars. But without knowing all the intricacies of EV history, I'm wondering if GM might have a point. Sometimes prototypes just suck.

Green chic

Looks like Newsweek has caught on to green fashion. Nothing groundbreaking in the story, but it's nice to know the trend has grown enough to cross big media's radar. Also see this story on Edun, the new socially conscious fashion line being started by U2 singer Bono and his wife.

Looks like hippies are on the outs, and the smartly-dressed green is in. Sorry hippies! Feel free to protest your own obsolescence in comments.

Peak oil

A nice "Peak Oil" primer on Treehugger.

See also this collection of oily links from Dave Pollard.

Take action — well, okay, write a letter to your Congressfolk — about the Arctic Refuge

Tomorrow the Senate will likely vote on the budget resolution and the Cantwell amendment, which would keep ANWR Arctic Refuge drilling out of it. Via the Wilderness Society, you can urge your senator to vote against it, and your representative to keep the House budget resolution free of such nonsense.

Related stuff over on Cascadia -- particularly an interesting bit on the Trans-Alaska pipeline.