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Two ships in the night

Despite being joined at the hip, the environment and development communities don't talk much. These Siamese twins -- separated at birth -- speak different languages.

While each community respects the other's gig, they don't play well together -- no one wants to be second fiddle. Some even see the environment and development agendas as opposing forces.

Efforts on the ground can bear that out. When conservationists set up protected areas without considering the people living in them, they seem more interested in "lovable huggables" than struggling locals.

On the other side, people-centered development often treats environmental issues as luxuries that only the idle Northern rich can afford. But the "develop now and worry later" approach ignores how much our health, food, economy, and livelihoods are dependent on a healthy environment and well-managed natural resources.

Despite the bad news, some people get it. While a few projects may be partnerships of convenience, others truly integrate environment and development (I won't go so far as to utter the hopeful words "sustainable development").

Post posting

In a lukewarm endorsement of John Kerry today, The Washington Post makes a fleeting, single-sentence reference to the environment and the candidates' environmental records:

Where Mr. Bush ignored the dangers of climate change and favored industry at the expense of clean air and water, Mr. Kerry is a longtime and thoughtful champion of environmental protection.

Oink, oink

Bush signed the massive corporate tax giveaway yesterday, though his handlers didn't make a big stink over it.  Perhaps they were hoping we little people wouldn't notice that it's an unconscionable $143-million-over-10-years pork smorgasbord for the oh-so-special interests, at a time of record deficits ($413 billion and counting).  Oh, and it's an environmental abomination too.  

Commentator Connie Rice of The Tavis Smiley Show on NPR -- who dubbed the bill the "Corporate Looting and Piracy Act" -- summed up just a few of its most stomach-churning provisions:  

Unlike the Leave No Child Behind bill, this corporate boondoggle is fully funded. ExxonMobil, Home Depot, cruise ships, corn farmers, coffee roasters, and makers of fishing tackle boxes, bows and arrows and ceiling fans all have special tax breaks specially tailored for their needs. And unlike the nation's children, who will be paying down our trillion-dollar deficit their whole lives, 60 percent of these corporations will likely continue to pay zero federal taxes, because their armies of lawyers will figure out how re-open newly closed loopholes that allegedly will pay for this bill. ... And get this: [Congress] also cut the charitable car donation deduction that middle-class people take, cut the child tax credit for the poor, blocked restoration of overtime for millions of workers, cut unemployment benefits, cut and then restored war veterans hospital benefits, and made it harder for regular folk to apply for bankruptcy.

As reported in The Washington Post:

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) dismissed [the corporate tax bill] as "a lobbyist's dream and a middle-class nightmare." Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called it "the worst example of the influence of special interests that I've ever seen."

They’re coming to eat your children!!!

Bush just debuted a new swing-state campaign ad called "Wolves."  You can watch it on his website. It shows a pack of wolves prowling through a dark forest, makes the usual bogus claims about Kerry cutting intelligence budgets (and fails to note that Bush's hand-picked new CIA head Porter Goss actually did propose huge cuts), and concludes that "weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm."  In other words:  A vote for Kerry is a vote for terrorists eating you.

The ironies are rich.  This comes from an administration that has pushed to downlist wolves from the endangered species list. If they see wolves as the terrorists of the wild, I guess it's no surprise. But I wonder where they found the wolves for the ad ... perhaps outsourced to Canadian wolves?  And were any harmed in the making of the ad? Where's Defenders of Wildlife when you need 'em?

UPDATE: Check out this hilarious follow-up from Wolf Packs for Truth.

UPDATE: Gary Wockner of the Colorado Wolf Working Group is not amused by this ad. At all. He says so here.

Kyoto one step closer

The lower house of Russia's parliament approved the Kyoto Protocol today.  All that remains for formal Russian ratification is approval by the upper house and the signature of president Vladimir Putin, both widely considered inevitable formalities.  Once Russia signs on, Kyoto will officially take effect.

Suffice to say, Putin's motivations were not altruistic.  His ratification of Kyoto -- and it is entirely his doing, as he has reduced the democratic checks and balances of Russia's government to almost nothing -- is part of a deal with the European Union.  He gives them this bargaining chip against the U.S., and they give him membership in the World Trade Organization.

Without U.S. participation, Kyoto will achieve nothing.  The hope in what Bush calls "the halls of Europe" is that once world consensus settles on the issue, strict emissions limits are imposed by member governments on industries (many based in the U.S.), and a market in carbon credit trading emerges, the U.S. will have no choice but to hop on the bandwagon.  Think it will work?

Monster slash

I'm not really into these things, but lots of people love them -- witness the popularity of The Meatrix and the JibJab guys -- so if you are so inclined, check out Monster Slash, a Flash animation including a reinterpretation of the old song "Monster Mash," rerecorded by Bobby "Borris" Pickett, the very man who wrote the original.  You can probably figure out what it's about from the picture at left.

Your back yard

The super-wonks over at John Podesta's Center for American Progress have a nifty map on their site -- you can click on your state and find out statistics on environmental, health, and safety issues.  For instance, did you know that 1,160 people die every year due to power plant pollution in Texas?  Me neither!  Go check it out.

Paper beating scissors

For those who despair about the environment, who wonder, say, whether the world will ever take sufficient action to counter climate change, I give you ... the 2004 Boston Red Sox.

Down 3-0 against their arch-nemeses, the New York Yankees, the Sox rallied tonight to win the seven-game series, becoming the first team in the history of Major League Baseball to overcome such a deficit.

To a lifelong Red Sox fan -- someone conditioned from birth to always dream but never achieve -- someone, um, like myself, coated in the scar tissue of the devastating losses of the past -- a victory like tonight's can't help but give one rose-colored glasses. (At least for a night.) Who says we can't tackle climate change? Maybe the solar revolution is upon us. This is the dawning of the age of Green-arius. I'm only partially joking.

As Tyler Kepner wrote in his piece posted on the New York Times website immediately after the Sox win:

It was actually happening. The nerd was kissing the homecoming queen. Paper was beating scissors; scissors were beating rock. Charlie Brown was kicking the football. The Red Sox were beating the Yankees for the American League pennant.

I heart Corby Kummer

The Atlantic Monthly is my favorite magazine -- every month a thick, satisfying helping of high-minded policy-wonk goodness.  I read it cover to cover, which is the equivalent of a longish novella every month.

Anyhoo, one of many reasons to subscribe -- or at least to subscribe to the website -- is the writing of Corby Kummer.

Nader haters

Speaking of former Nader allies jumping ship, a group of the advocates, actors, writers, and politicos who endorsed Ralph in 2000 will be unveiling an initiative on Friday called The Unity Campaign, which will urge Nader supporters to pull their heads out of their asses and "vote strategically, vote Kerry."  The group -- including enviros Wendell Berry, Ben Cohen, Paul Hawken, and Randy Hayes, well as other lefty luminaries like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Barbara Ehrenreich -- plans to run a series of ads in swing states where the Nader contingent could make a difference.  (Some personal Nader bile below the drop.)