Uncategorized

Moss Def

Moss gathering worries biologists, few others Valued by florists and craft mavens as basket liner and wreath adornment, moss is a hot commodity, according to several researchers raising concerns about the loosely regulated moss-gathering industry. Moss harvesters roam public and private lands scraping the plant from logs and boulders at an estimated rate of 10 […]

Less Salmon, More Dammin’

Northwest salmon to lose critical habitat; Bush admin to keep dams A double dose of salmon news today: The Bush administration yesterday announced its intention to cut by more than 80 percent the miles of rivers and streams designated as critical habitat for threatened and endangered Northwest runs of salmon and steelhead. The plan, which […]

Mo’ trash

Speaking of trash, Joel Makower has a nice round-up of developments in the turning-waste-into-energy field. Turns out there is such a field, and it's busy as a bee.

Detroit in the rearview mirror

When Scott Kirsner visited General Motors, he found its executives dismissive of Japanese automakers' focus on hybrids.  GM vice chairman of product development Bob Lutz said the decision not to make a hybrid "was a mistake from one aspect, and that's public relations and catering to the environmental movement."

GM believes that hybrids are but a temporary stepping stone on the road to a bright, shiny, World's Fair-esque future of hydrogen-powered cars. Meanwhile, Toyota and Honda get farther and farther ahead in the hybrid market.

Kirsner thinks Detroit is making a mistake, and makes a good case in Salon.com.

Talking trash

Interesting post from occasional Gristmill contributor Alan Durning over on Cascadia Scorecard, about who's responsible for trash. You probably assume "local government," but it turns out there are more eco-friendly alternatives, percolating in British Columbia.

Roundtrippin’ from local to global

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai isn't just sticking to the local environment, development, and security struggles that earned her the 2004 award. Dr. Maathai, the Kenyan environmental activist and deputy environment minister, recently called on African governments to be more aggressive in addressing climate change. She argued for presenting the climate change challenge in "simple terms" with "simple solutions" such as planting trees.  Read more on BBC.

Hydrogen at what cost?

Hydrogen is a clean-burning fuel, but it's difficult to make in quantity. What if we could make "the equivalent of 200,000 gallons of gasoline each day" in hydrogen with a single processing plant? That would be great, eh? What if we had to do it with nuclear power?

Tough call. Green Car Congress has a mind-bendingly technical write-up of the process, if you're interested in the nuts and bolts.

Could enviros embrace nuclear to get this much clean energy? What do you think?

Charismatic carnivores

Tom Engelhardt profiles and presents an essay by Chip Ward, author of Hope's Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land. It's about "charismatic carnivores," the big animals that eat us and that we are slowly and haltingly coming to love -- or at least coexist with in a reasonably non-savage manner. It's good reading.

Injustice for All

On 20th anniversary of Bhopal disaster, justice still eludes victims Thanks to bureaucratic inertia, government corruption, and corporate evasion, the citizens of Bhopal, India — site of a catastrophic 1984 gas leak that killed some 7,000 people immediately and 15,000 since — have yet to see justice, says a new report from Amnesty International, released […]

Frankenforest

Interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor on genetically modified trees that absorb more carbon, grow faster, are pest-resistant, and other such quasi-miraculous qualities. I have mixed feelings about genetic modification, which I suppose makes me an apostate in the enviro movement, wherein one is supposed to be reflexively against any such tampering. But why? This story is a good example -- there's a lot of handwaving about the dangers, but very little empirical evidence, or even reasoned argument, about them.