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When fruitloops attack

Steven Milloy, proprietor of junkscience.com, resident at the regulation-hatin' Cato Institute, and true-blue wingnut, has a hilarious article running on FoxNews.com.  Pay no attention to those who criticize Bush's environmental policies, he says, they are but "left-leaning environmental activists and their supporters in academia."  He lauds Bush for avoiding the "dance of death" that is the Kyoto Protocol, but saves his highest praise for the dysfunctional regulatory process the administration has produced.  "Short of dismantling the EPA in favor of a more rational approach to the environment -- the preferred solution," he says, "the president has done the next best thing by bollixing up the EPA rulemaking process."  Woot!

We’re More Partial to Vasco da Gama

Daily Grist takes break to lament Columbus Day Monday is Columbus Day, on which we celebrate the man who precipitated what may have been one of history’s most egregious and far-reaching periods of ecological destruction (not to mention genocide). Here at Grist, we’ll be too busy crying in our coffee to put out Daily Grist. […]

What “Hard Work” Really Looks Like

Iraqi environment minister faces armed attack, underfunding Mishkat Al Moumin, head of Iraq’s Ministry of Environment since June, has an unenviable job. In August, an attack on her convoy left four of her bodyguards dead. Security concerns lead her to avoid having her picture taken or discussing her family. In a land ravaged by wars […]

Kenyan eco-activist Wangari Maathai wins Nobel Peace Prize

Wangari Maathai with good reason to smile. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. It is a small room for such a momentous decision. And it’s made even smaller by the impressive portraits of past winners lining the walls, listening in on the secret deliberations of the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Amidst the daily drumbeat of war stories, […]

Trees for peace

Wangari Maathai, Kenyan woman and founder of the Green Belt Movement, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a year dominated by the grisly war in Iraq, this is a welcome reminder that disorder and destruction, not just war, are the opposite of peace. See this story for details on the awarding of the 2004 prize.

The Green Belt Movement that Maathai founded has organized rural Kenyan women to plant and maintain twenty million trees; it has also inspired similar movements in other East African countries. Maathai drew world attention to the fact that rural African women, who spend hours each day gathering fuel wood, are disproportionately affected by deforestation. Her Green Belt Movement has been credited with creating job opportunities for thousands of rural women, as well as countering Kenya's alarming rates of deforestation. For a good summary of the Green Belt Movement's work, see this article, written by a Kenyan woman.

What eco-questions would you pose at Friday’s debate?

The Sierra Club has crafted eight queries it would like to see Bush and Kerry hit with during Friday's town-hall-style debate, and it's asking you to vote on the best.  Currently top in the running:  "The Russian government recently announced that it will put the international global-warming treaty into effect by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. The current administration has pulled the United States out of the agreement, even though this country accounts for 25 percent of the world's global warming pollution. How will the United States do their part to curb global warming and stabilize the global climate?"

Meanwhile, a whole gaggle of earth-loving folks -- from reverends and union types to bigwig scientists and a former head of the CIA -- are petitioning [PDF] the Commission on Presidential Debates and the moderators of the two upcoming debates to "include questions about the candidates' plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting clean energy and clean vehicle technologies as urgent matters of both domestic and foreign policy."

Poo-Poo Power

Wastewater has lots of energy potential The wastewater that courses down drains and into municipal water-treatment plants around the world contains a substantial amount of organic material, or “biosolids,” or, well, “poop” and such. When this organic matter breaks down, it generates “biogas,” a methane-rich fuel that some plants use to heat the water and […]

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Deep-Sea Brawling

Coalition calls for ban on deep-sea trawling A coalition of enviro groups is sounding the alarm over deep-sea bottom trawling, petitioning the U.N. to ban a practice they say is rapidly destroying fragile marine ecosystems, including cold-water corals. Bottom trawling consists of dragging a heavy net across the bottom of the ocean, attempting to snag […]

Rout of Africa

Environmental degradation fuels violence in Africa Environmental problems like water shortages, deforestation, and overgrazing — all exacerbated by global warming — are tightly linked to violent conflict in parts of Africa, according to a new U.N. report. “The link could go in either or both directions,” says the report, “conflict creates conditions promoting ecosystem degradation, […]