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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.

How is environment going to play on Tuesday?

In mid-October, three headlines from around the country on the same day gave a clue. While the Chicago Tribune reported that the environment wasn't figuring at the national level, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the Detroit Free Press reported that in New Mexico and Michigan, environmental issues could tip the balance. Similar coverage has come from Nevada, Maine, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. While Maine doesn't appear to be in play, the other states all are, for a total of 42 electoral votes.

At least in this electoral cycle, all environmental politics are local, but they may add up to significant national impact.

Where to go with this?  Every day, 7 days a week, 365/6 days a year, newspapers are covering stories around the country about how environment is affecting people's health. Little stories, big stories. Local. National. Human interest. Scientific revelations. Corporate misbehavior. Scandalous coverup. Bureaucratic shenanigans.

Stories about times and places where the steps needed -- and eminently feasible -- to protect people's health just aren't being taken. And also, examples (albeit fewer) of when the right thing was done, problems were eliminated or avoided.

These stories aren't about far-off places (although there are those, too ...). They're about what your family is breathing and your neighbors are drinking. The nasty ingredients in cosmetics that aren't disclosed. The unintended consequences of making consumer goods out of plastics that contain biologically-active molecules, turning on genes when they should be shut off, or preventing them from making proteins you need to resist disease.

About how all this is making people sick ... or worse.

So here we are, at the end of an electoral cycle in which in at least a few places, environmental issues, particularly related to health, may have affected the results.

It's the end of this one. Wednesday begins the next.  If the hints we have now prove true, then the stage is set for environmental health to emerge as a much bigger issue in 2008.

[For more coverage of this cycle, go here.]

Overpowering

Utilities seek to build power plants near national parks Visibility in many U.S. national parks is declining and demand for electricity is rising — two trends that are set to collide. Since 2000, the number of applications to build power plants within 62 miles of park boundaries has quadrupled, relative to the previous five years. […]