Uncategorized

A review

For a few days after reading The Upside of Down, I annoyed most of my friends and family by reciting chunks of Homer-Dixon's work back to them -- I couldn't get it out of my head. I do this a lot to people, but not usually for days and days on end after reading a book.

The Upside of Down isn't an environmental book, exactly, though it does deal with environmental and energy issues. While it shares some themes with more explicitly environmental books (like Jared Diamond's Collapse), the core of the book is more political and sociological. Homer-Dixon is asking why societies collapse -- what are the pressures our society faces today, and what, if any, are the positive results from the kind of collapse he's talking about?

Old MacDonald Had a Harm

Feds to review endangered-species decisions made by departed official Remember Julie MacDonald? The Bush appointee’s oversight of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ended with her abrupt resignation in May, after she was accused of overriding scientists’ recommendations in order to make decisions beneficial to industry and detrimental to endangered species. Now the Department of […]

Good Things Come to Those Who Relate

Greens should play up the optimism, says Peter Madden It’s a dilemma faced by every green: We know it’s more effective to focus on the positive when talking about environmental crises, but we consistently find ourselves stressing sacrifice and impending chaos instead. (Grist, with its “gloom and doom with a sense of humor” tagline, is […]

Regarding Badlands National Park

Last week, our InterActivist was Jarid Manos of the Great Plains Restoration Council. We received a letter today from the U.S. Department of the Interior, regarding a comment made by Manos. It’s below the fold. (Note: Manos is not actually Grist’s CEO, but the CEO of GPRC.) Dear Editor, I would like to clarify a […]

Harry Potter greens the publishing biz, Japan nuke plant shut after quake, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Deader Than Ever Use the Task Force, Dick Whose Fault Is It, Anyway? Welcome Back, Potter Pretty Please, With Cuomo On Top Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Whole Market Foods? You Look Radiant Frigi-Dare

Friday music blogging: Wilco

A coworker who shall remain nameless is fond of mocking me for my love of Wilco. Her theory is that Wilco’s fan base is overwhelmingly dominated by “whiny white guys in their early 30s.” I’m afraid I fall squarely in that demographic, and though Wilco does have broad appeal … the theory is not entirely […]

US gov’t siding with foreign shipping companies on protections

The Bush administration is holding up new regs approved a year ago that'd make ships go more slowly in order to protect North Atlantic right whales. (The White House Council of Economic Advisors is now reviewing causes of right whale deaths, a task already done by marine experts.)

Not a big surprise. Saddest part is that it's doing so, it seems, at the request of foreign shipping companies, who don't care about the U.S.' endangered species or laws regarding them. And why should they? There's only 300 of these creatures left, hardly enough to quibble about ...

How to talk about the future without depressing everyone

Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.

We have a problem, we greens. It has to do with the way that we talk about the future. We do need to have a more plausible account of what the kind of world we are recommending would be like.

However, our main narrative about the future talks of apocalypse and doom and gloom: the earth is dying; species are disappearing; the planet is overheating.

If people want to do something about it, too often they're told they'll have to lead a life of sacrifice and constraint. And if they won't, we'll guilt-trip and scare them 'til they repent.

And even if they do as we say, they also worry that it probably won't make much difference anyway because the Chinese, Indians, and North Americans are all busy ignoring the issues.

Welcome Back, Potter

Final Harry Potter tome is “greenest book in publishing history” Feel that crackle in the air? That’s millions of Harry Potter fans trying not to fidget as they wait for the book’s midnight release. (Or trying not to freeze, in the case of an Australian fan who was rescued after diving into a frigid lake […]

Good times

Good times. He must miss them. Apparently he’s given up entirely and just started posting gibberish. (h/t reader MR) Update [2007-7-20 8:5:14 by David Roberts]: Seems they’ve taken the gibberish down. Or rather, they’ve taken that specific piece of gibberish down. Gibberish like this lingers on.