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You forgot Colorado!

Reader (and Colorado resident) Gary Wockner writes to remind us that not all the news is bad:

Un-bear-able

Last known indigenous female brown bear in Pyrenees shot and killed The last known reproducing female brown bear in the Pyrenees along the French-Spanish border — known as Cannelle, French for “cinnamon” — has been shot and killed by hunters. The whereabouts of her 10-month-old cub, which fled after seeing his mother shot, are unknown. […]

Making environmentalism palatable to social conservatives

There is much food for thought in the discussion here.

Reader Keith F. Saylor, an avowed conservative and Bush voter (no, Keith, that doesn't disqualify your comments -- you are welcome here, please hang around) left this comment, which got me thinking. He says environmentalism "is crippled by its marriage with the Democratic Party and its policies."  (Da silva, who I assume is not a Bush voter, agrees here.) Further downthread, Tina Rhea, an avowed atheist (yup, you're welcome here too, Tina -- Grist is all about the big tent!) says environmentalists "could do more to reach out and make common cause" with Christians. These two suggestions are related, and I think they both have merit.

Now, here are two premises I assume are not controversial:

Bogus “balance” in science reporting

Many environmental issues rest crucially on science, so it's unfortunate that so much mainstream scientific journalism sucks.  It sucks for much the same reason that so much mainstream political journalism sucks: the quest for "balance," regardless of where the truth lies.  Chris Mooney, the go-to guy for writing on the overlap of science and policy, has a longish piece in Columbia Journalism Review on just this issue, and it's a must-read.

Vote

At this point, nothing remains to be said.  The arguments have been made.  The evidence has been presented.  Just go vote.

If the environment matters to you, and you're still not sure, well heck, you might stop by here or here for some spin.  Just don't bother going here.  If you want to read fairy tales, try your local library.

Who knew David Brooks was a greenie?

Caught me offguard that in his ambivalent Election Day nonendorsement (New York Times policy) endorsement of George Bush for reelection, conservative columnist David Brooks cites the president's environmental record as a primary reason to be frustrated with the current administration:

[Bush] came to power with good ideas on how to move the G.O.P. beyond the Gingrich stall. But time and again, he abandoned his reformist strategy to give spoils to the G.O.P. donor base.

To take one small example: on environmental policy, he showed interest in moving to a flexible, market-based system that would have cleaned the environment better than the current system. But too often rules were written to please key industries. Voters who could have been turned on by new, effective approaches were instead appalled at unseemly self-dealing.

The Now House

I have a long-standing love affair with modern modular homes, particularly those built with eco-friendly materials and techniques (which is most of them, these days).  I also have a long-standing love affair with the "digital home" movement, wherein everything is wired to everything else and everything is online and the refrigerator knows when it's out of milk and all that.  So I am all agog at the unveiling of the Now House, a modern, modular, sustainable, digital-to-the-hilt exhibition home built using a system designed by Clever Homes, packed with products chosen by CNET Digital Living, and presented by the non-profit Affordable Green Development Corporation (what?  no website?).  

Me want.

The stylish modern, high-tech home is designed from safe advanced green and sustainable materials in a highly integrated manner. It also features the best digital accoutrements, including an intelligent digital network, extensive security monitoring and a consumer electronics system comprised of the "Editor's Choice" award selections provided by CNET Digital Living.

"The NowHouse was conceived to give consumers and builders alike a fully functional example of the advances that have taken place in home construction," said Scott Redmond, project director. "This innovative structure was built using a proprietary panelized construction system featuring patent-pending technologies, construction tools, and processes in over 300,000 square feet of robotic factories which are online and ready to build as of today, at a fraction of the cost and time of traditional home building."

The NowHouse project brings the "best-of-breed" architects, agencies, engineers, state-of-the-art products, technologies and systems together with the public to solve the missing link in modern digitally integrated green, sustainable, efficient systems- built, value-based homes for the progressive world.

The Now House has been built in an SBC Park Parking lot in San Francisco, Calif., and is open to the public through December 20.  If you live in that neck of the woods, you should check it out.

For all those remaining undecideds …

Judd Legum and The Nation have pithily summarized nine of Bush's most egregious environmental offenses (as well as 91 non-environmental ones):

Kathryn Fuller, president of WWF, answers questions

Kathryn Fuller. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? World Wildlife Fund. I’m the president and CEO. What does your organization do? What, in a perfect world, would constitute “mission accomplished”? Our mission is the conservation of nature. We seek through our network of offices in about 100 countries around the world to save the […]

Frog findings jump into public eye in Minnesota

There's been a flurry of activity in the Minnesota press about atrazine, frogs, and skullduggery. As reported initially by Tom Meersman of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, a well-known UC Berkeley biologist, Dr. Tyrone Hayes, was first invited, and then disinvited, to give the keynote speech at a conference organized by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Emails obtained by the Star-Tribune between Hayes and a member of the Pollution Control Agency staff indicate that pressure was brought by the state Department of Agriculture to block the talk.  Hayes has demonstrated that when tadpoles are exposed to atrazine at levels widely found in Minnesota drinking water, they grow up hermaphroditic, something no self-respecting frog -- or at least one interested in reproducing successfully -- would want to be.