Uncategorized

The Tree Police, They Live Inside of My Head

Brazil opens environmental police academy in Amazon The environmental movement in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is arming itself, literally, for the fight against illegal mining, animal and plant piracy, and other crimes against nature. This week, Brazil’s federal government opened Latin America’s largest environmental police academy — 135 square miles of Amazon land devoted to training […]

Nom de Gloom

Do you hate the word “enviros”? At least one Grist reader does. He wrote in this week to reprimand us Gristers for frequent use of the abbreviated moniker: “Don’t you all realize that our avowed adversaries use that term as a pejorative to describe us? It’s their ad hominem dismissal of us as wackos.” As […]

Do you hate the word “enviros”?

Greg Artzner of Takoma Park, Md., does. He wrote in this week to reprimand us Gristers for frequent use of the abbreviated moniker:

Boy, I wish you and all environmentalists would STOP using the term "enviros." Don't you all realize that our avowed adversaries use that term as a pejorative to describe us?  It's their ad hominem dismissal of us as wackos. I have heard it used in personal conversation by Mark Rey, undersecretary for natural resources and environment (known as "Darth Vader" of the forests to those of us working to save the trees). He and many others who stand in direct opposition to what we believe routinely insult us by using that very term. Please stop using it.  

Sincerely,
Greg Artzner, environmentalist

I and my colleagues at various green-focused journalistic enterprises have used the word enviros with frequency over the past decade, with no intent to belittle or demean. Really, I just think it's kinda fun. And it's a damn sight shorter than the overly syllabic environmentalists. As for whether the greenies or the pollutocrats coined the term, I can't say -- anyone care to share their etymological theories? (Oh, wait -- is greenies demeaning too?)

Still, as enviro(nmentalist)s think about (re)framing their message and burnishing their image after this month's election, is it time to give this label a second thought, or even the heave-ho? I'm not yet convinced that it is, but not dead set against it either. A few other perspectives on the matter here.

Cast your vote on whether the word enviro sucks or rocks, in the upper right-hand corner of the Grist homepage, through Monday, Nov. 15.

If loving The Onion is wrong, I don’t wanna be right

Two years ago, a friend challenged me to get through a single day without quoting The
Onion even once. Couldn't do it then; can't do it now.

Here, just in time to celebrate Russia dropping off accession papers on the ratification of Kyoto, comes a sober overview of climate change impacts.

Moving in the Wrong Directional

Bush admin changed rule to facilitate drilling under parks, suit charges Without the required public input, the Bush administration changed a federal rule, making it easier for oil and gas companies to drill for privately owned minerals beneath national parks, according to a lawsuit filed yesterday by the Sierra Club. At issue is “directional drilling,” […]

Kyoto Kicks In

Mark your calendar -- the U.N. has designated February 16, 2005, as the day the Kyoto Protocol comes into force. The Russians gave U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan their official notice of ratification today in Nairobi where the Security Council is meeting.  Read more from BBC or the U.N.

Because he said so

So, this month a panel of 300 scientists put out a report saying that global warming is most definitely underway, and that "human influences, resulting primarily from increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor."

But stop the presses! U.S. Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ala.) says the scientists are wrong. Not that he's read the report.

Scientists who helped put together the report briefed members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday.

Stevens, who is to chair the committee starting in January, agreed that climate change is a serious problem and said he looked forward to reading the report.

But he said he does not accept the conclusion the scientists reached: that the driving force behind warming is people burning coal, oil and natural gas, the fuels that produce greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere.

Stevens must have great confidence in his scientific credentials to cast doubt on the work of 300 climate specialists.  Curious about those credentials, I visited Stevens' bio page. Hm ... a mid-century law degree ... and then in congress since 1964.  Nope.  Nothing about science.

But he does acknowledge that "we need to take some action."  So what's the action?

Stevens' spokeswoman, Courtney Schikora Boone, said the action Stevens is taking is to fund more research about climate change.

UPDATE: Turns out it's not just Stevens; the entire Alaska delegation is demonstrating a heretofore undetected bent for science.

"My biggest concern is that people are going to use this so-called study to try to influence the way and standard of living that occurs within the United States," Young said.

"I don't believe it is our fault. That's an opinion," Young said. "It's as sound as any scientist's."

Young's opinion, you see, is just as valid as any scientist's, regardless of any "so-called study." The mind just boggles, doesn't it?

Whacked by The West Wing

OK, am I the only enviro ticked off that last night's West Wing episode, even while highlighting the need for tighter fuel-economy standards, portrayed renewable-energy advocates as querulous, petty, bickering twits pushing immature and drastically flawed technologies?

Oh, and am I the only enviro who kinda likes the word enviro?

Greens and big biz

"Green movement is big business," declares the headline of a Reuters article this week.  

The concept recalls Mac Chapin's ruckus-causing article in World Watch on conflicts of interest at the three big conservation groups, as mentioned by Geoff last week. (A fascinating read, by the way -- I may never think of the Big Three the same way again.)

Dude, the Powder Is Nuclear Today!

Extreme microbes may aid nuclear waste disposal Researchers with the Department of Energy, hip to the latest trends, have developed genetically manipulated “extreme microbes” that reportedly survive entirely on Red Bull and communicate via appropriated skater slang. Ah, we kid. But there are some pretty bitchin’ microbes out there. Able to survive in earth’s most […]