Uncategorized

Solar confusion

This is a neat concept — a solar water filter — brought to us by reader Zack Scott: But I’m confused. Does this work, say, if I’m lost in the woods and waterless? Does it filter out enough of the undesired elements to render water safe for drinking? Thoughts from Gristmillers?

Whose Fault Is It, Anyway?

Carmakers, nuclear plant halt operations after Japan quake Aftershocks from Monday’s earthquake in Japan continue to be felt — and not the kind that shake the ground. Yesterday, officials ordered the nuclear plant that was damaged in the quake to shut down indefinitely while operators assess and fix some 53 problems discovered over the course […]

Swine By Us

Court rules against green groups, lets factory farms off the hook Some 2,600 livestock companies are participating in a sweet deal from the U.S. EPA. In exchange for paying a minimal fee and agreeing to participate in an air-quality data-collection program, factory farms can basically be exempt from Clean Air Act requirements for 30 months. […]

Unsustainability in the water

Poor African countries have been selling their fishing rights to richer countries for years, and now they can neither catch enough fish for their populations nor protect their fisheries from collapsing. In today's Wall Street Journal (behind a subscriber wall), the grim state of affairs is laid out:

Wealthy countries subsidize their commercial fishermen to the tune of about $30 billion a year. Their goal is to keep their fishermen on the water. China, for example, provides $2 billion a year in fuel subsidies; the European Union and its member nations provide more than $7 billion of subsidies a year. Such policies boost the number of working boats, increase the global catch, and drive down fish prices. That makes it more difficult for fishermen in poor nations like Mauritania, who get no subsidies, to compete.

The end result: African waters are losing fish stock rapidly, with ramifications both to the economies of Africa's coastal nations and to the world's ocean ecology. Over the past three decades, the amount of fish in West African waters has declined by up to 50 percent, according to Daniel Pauly, a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

Park Service hacks down some trees in Pa.

This is sorta effed. The National Park Service is cutting down hundreds of acres of trees on the Gettysburg Battlefield to restore historical accuracy. From NBC News in Pennsylvania: The National Park Service is starting another phase of its efforts to return Gettysburg Battlefield to how it looked in 1863, during the Civil War. The […]

Can’t They Just Use the Ocean?

Schwarzenegger announces $5.9 billion plan to battle drought California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced a $5.9 billion plan to prepare for his state’s almost-certain continued drought and population boom. Taking the need to douse Big Agriculture as a given, Schwarzenegger called for construction of new reservoirs and dams — but, true to his Greeninator reputation, […]

Big changes, happening quickly

Don’t miss (occasional Grist contributor) Christina Larson’s piece on environmentalism in China, which contains this pithy sentence: To understand why Chinese officials are genuinely concerned about the country’s growing environmental problems, you must first remember that they live here. The dynamic she describes is pretty fascinating. Environmental problems are getting so severe that they’re causing […]

Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada solve the mystery

What follows is a guest essay by Patrick Bond and Rehana Dada in memoriam for Sajida Khan.

-----

Internationally-known environmental activist Sajida Khan passed away on Sunday night in her Clare Road home at age 55. She was suffering her second bout of cancer, and chemotherapy had evacuated her beautiful long hair.

Before slipping into a coma last Thursday, she watched out her window, seeing within a few meters the interminable crawl of dumptrucks unloading heaps of stinking rubbish, as dust carried the smells and chemicals into her yard and home.

Khan's last, painful weeks were spent coming to peace with her failed struggle to close the Bisasar Road dump, a task that successive, dishonest Durban governments had promised to fulfill as early as 1987.

Now the vibrant, uncompromising activist has died, while the dump is thriving and in search of international investors. We don't need Belgian detective Hercule Poirot to learn why, for the answer is found in Agatha Christie's novel Murder on the Orient Express, in the Calais night coach where a man is found dead of 13 stab wounds.

Florida sees the climate light, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Leo, I’ve Got a Feeling We’re Not in Hollywood Anymore As Long As the Sox Are OK Crist Almighty Frankly, Madeira, We Don’t Want a Dam Welcome Back, Kosher Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Do You Really Want to Grill […]

Jarid Manos, CEO of the Great Plains Restoration Council, answers questions

Jarid Manos. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? What’s your job title? I am the founder and CEO of Great Plains Restoration Council, based in Fort Worth, Texas;, Wounded Knee, S.D.; and Denver, Colo. What does your organization do? Out here in flyover country, our prairies and plains have been so devastated they have […]