Uncategorized

Real World: Havana

Cuban conference addresses climate and development This week, an international conference of 800 brains is addressing climate change, environmental education, sustainable development, and other green topics — in Cuba. Yes, offering further proof that the commies have the right idea, Cuba got credit from U.N. Environment Program Director Achim Steiner for solving its energy crisis […]

Gathering data in the U.S.’ largest temperate rainforest a heroic and necessary task

Hiking part of the Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska a few summers ago, I was utterly wowed, but knowing that it accounts for nearly one-third of the old-growth temperate rain forest left in the world seemed incredibly incongruent with the fact that my government was working so hard to wreck it (thanks to some truly absurd subsidies).

An excellent story in the new National Geographic retells the tale and shines light on new efforts aimed at allowing the Tongass to continue its majestic reign, including a heroic grassroots effort of the Sitka Conservation Society to "ground-truth" those parts of the nearly impenetrable Tongass scheduled for the saw. Without SCS and others, this jewel would look mightily different, and they deserve our support and our thanks.

Our Flag Was Still There, Our Daily Grist Not So Much

Grist takes a break for the Fourth of July We hold these truths to be self-evident: that tomorrow is a federal holiday, and that our hardworking headline writers need a break. Therefore, we will not be publishing Daily Grist tomorrow, but we’ll be back on Thursday, refreshed and ready to go. See you then!

Music to Our Ears

Music festivals across the country aim to lessen their footprint Last year’s Bonnaroo music festival produced more than 1 million pounds of waste (and quite a population of wasted fans), but recycling, composting, and reuse efforts kept more than half of it from reaching a landfill. It’s part of an ongoing effort to address the […]

Black Coffeyville

Oil spill adds agitation to tri-state flooding A 42,000-gallon oil spill in Kansas is complicating state and federal response to flooding that has walloped that state, Oklahoma, and Texas. Weeks of rain have forced evacuations and caused at least 11 deaths. On Sunday, workers at a Coffeyville, Kan., oil refinery began evacuation procedures, but a […]

Bald eagle soars off the threatened-species list, and more

Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: John Ashcroft, Where Are You? We Always Thought It Was Industrial Strength Barrier Methods Sure to Hit Fox News Soon Spit on Polish Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Postcard From the New Atlantis No (Hot) Dogs Allowed Ka-Boom 15 Green […]

Readers write in about violent fires, violently bad puns, and more

  Dear Editor: How significant is the difference between one idiot burning a building full of rare plant tissues, research, writing, curricula, slides, and books all regarding the worthy goal of a better understanding of the natural world and the idiot who burns a church because it is occupied by a group of people they […]

Vader, Cheney, same same

The brilliant series of pieces on Dick (Vader) Cheney continues with the latest installment about destroying salmon runs for partisan purposes, making the western U.S. look like a pincushion punctured with drilling rigs, and unleashing the hounds of hell (snowmobiles) throughout Yosemite.

Dick Cheney -- truly an execrable almost-human being.

John Ashcroft, Where Are You?

Bald eagle soars off threatened-species list, cockfighting banned Two momentous avian occasions occurred this week: on Wednesday, the Louisiana legislature banned cockfighting, making it the last state in the U.S. to do so. And yesterday, federal officials confirmed the removal of Endangered Species Act protections for the iconic bald eagle. First, the cocks: by a […]

The Tahoe Blues

Blaze rages around Lake Tahoe; blame game begins in earnest What’s to blame for the raging fire that has burned more than 200 homes near California’s South Lake Tahoe? Try the homogenous stands of white fir planted post-clear-cut by 20th-century miners. Or was it this year’s low-snow winter and current drought? Perhaps criticism should be […]