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And You Thought Clinton Liked Hummers

Feds using terrorism excuse to crack down on eco-activists The U.S. government is using the Patriot Act to go after radical environmental activists — and some unfortunate folks who just happen to look like them — by branding them as “terrorists.” Despite the fact that the Earth Liberation Front has caused no injuries during its […]

Sex and the Single Frog

High rate of frog hermaphroditism linked to pesticides An examination of the sex organs of cricket frogs collected in Illinois between 1852 and 2001 is presumably its own reward. However, in this case it’s also led researchers to a notable conclusion: Heavy use of chemicals such as DDT and PCBs may cause higher rates of […]

A Great Leap Forward, Without All the Famine

China passes its first renewable-energy law The Chinese legislature on Monday passed a bill aimed at increasing the country’s use of renewable energy by mandating that power-grid operators get a portion of their electricity from local renewable sources and by providing financial inducements such as tax incentives, discounted loans, and a national development fund. When […]

Communing with nature

As The Gates exhibit in Central Park closes, another enviro-themed art piece will take its place. The equally ambitious project will feature some 200 large-scale photographs, a theater running an hour-long film on continuous loop, and a "floating library" featuring pages of the artist's writings projected onto screens.

The multimedia exhibition is the work of Canadian photographer Gregory Colbert, whose collection includes images of humans communing, or rather "collaborating" with animals ranging from elephants to cheetahs to whales. "When you collaborate across species and break down those barriers, extraordinary things happen," Colbert says of his work.

Trading fossils for fossil fuels

It may not be as expansive or awe-inspiring as, say, an Alaskan refuge, but a 12-million-year-old snail-fossil bed in Thailand is at risk of being destroyed in the name of insatiable energy consumption. While a state-sponsored firm digs away for coal on 10 of the area's 17 acres, snailhuggers protest that it's a loss to science and history. "But if we conserve the entire site," a representative from the power authority sputtered, "we would lose 265 million tons of coal worth 130 billion baht [about $3 billion]." Still, the company recently suspended operations for two weeks, giving geologists a chance to make their case. Go, rockhound gang.

Might as well jump

To a single individual, a problem like global warming can seem vast and hopeless. One thing we constantly hear from readers is, "What can I do?"

Well, now you have an answer: Jump. The folks at World Jump Day are trying to sign up 600,000,000 people in the Western hemisphere to jump simultaneously on July 20, 2006, at 7:39:13 PM (Pacific time -- you can find your local time on their website).

Why? Well, according to German researcher Hans Niesward and his colleagues at the Department of Gravitationsphysik at ISA/München, if 600 million people jump all at once, the earth could be bumped into a slightly new orbit. The result: Longer daytime hours, a more habitable average global temperature (particularly helpful to developing countries around the equator), and no more global warming!

There's something so hopeful and slightly melancholy about this. If nothing else, I appreciate it aesthetically.

So, for my part, I'm jumping!

African life spans

Not too long ago in Daily Grist we covered the recent population figures released by the U.N. Among the disturbing figures therein was the fact that the lifespan of the average African has declined by some 15 years in the last decade. It boggles the mind. And since it boggles, visual aids help. So go check out this chart on Marginal Revolution, which makes the point visually.

Pollute, two, three four

I'm just going to hazard a guess, here, but it seems like if the Israeli military is a major source of environmental damage, other similar outfits in nations around the world probably are too. Note to all the big guys: war is good for, as they say, absolutely nothing. Good god, y'all.

Limiting CO2 emissions: smart business

Eric beat me to it, but I wanted to point to a WaPo editorial making what should by now be an obvious point: cutting carbon dioxide emissions can be a profitable undertaking. Author Michael Northrop marshals boatloads of evidence, from business...

For example, six companies -- IBM, DuPont, BT (British Telecom), Alcan, NorskeCanada and Bayer -- have each reduced emissions by at least 60 percent since the early 1990s, collectively saving more than $4 billion in the process.

to national government...

British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently told the Economist that between 1990 and 2002 Britain trimmed emissions 15 percent, while boosting its economy 36 percent.

to cities...

Toronto has decreased greenhouse gas releases from municipal facilities by 40 percent and is saving $2.7 million annually through energy efficiency improvements. In addition, the city earns $1.5 million annually by selling electricity generated from methane gas captured at three municipal landfills.

There's more where all that came from. It's all anecdotal, of course, but at a certain point the weight of proof shifts over to the other side.

Why would we think cutting emissions costs too much? Emissions are waste. Pollution signals inefficiency. Attempts to become more efficient, to do (and make) more with less, are the very soul of capitalism. As Northrop says:

Only serious, across-the-board federal and international policies and programs will solve the problem of global warming. Unfortunately, concerted action is unlikely to occur as long as administration officials and some members of Congress continue to use worn-out arguments against limiting carbon dioxide releases, even as hundreds of multinational corporations and smaller businesses are proving them wrong. Meanwhile, these individual initiatives offer valuable insights and lessons for the path ahead.

SHINE

Yesterday I mentioned the upcoming SHINE (Solar High-Impact National Energy) initiative. It's been released, and it's a doozy. I was planning to write a big long post about it, and then I remembered: That's why God invented hyperlinks. So go, immediately, and read Joel Makower's quick roundup of the initiative, its details and its effects. Then go read the summary on Clean Edge. Then, if you're ambitious, read the report itself (PDF). This is a big deal -- Joel, along with Clean Edge and the Solar Catalyst Group, have been working on it for over a year.

Here are the three prongs of the initiative:

• Solar Utilization National Underwriting Plan (SUNUP): a federal block-grant program, providing matching funds to states to implement innovative and cost-effective solar installation programs;
• U.S. Rooftop Initiative for Solar Energy (U.S. RISE): an aggressive, long-term federal commitment to purchase solar systems for government facilities and operations; and
• American Solar Advancement Prize (ASAP): a high-stakes, high-reward competition to develop and deploy new technologies and systems that could dramatically accelerate the reduction in solar’s costs within a decade.

The next time someone tells you solar "isn't ready," send them this document. The SHINE plan would require 5 cents out of every tax dollar already invested in nuclear, coal, and natural gas. The investment would pay itself back in saved energy costs in 10 years, so it would be revenue neutral. By 2025, it would push the cost of solar PV down to 80 cents per installed watt, cost-competitive with coal and natural gas -- oh yeah, and completely clean.

Seriously, go read about it. It's a nice little picture of what positive government action would look like. Remember positive government action?