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Palm-oil plantations imperiling orangutans, and more
Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: Hey, At Least He Pronounced It Right Sounds Familiar That’s It, No More Toothpaste For Us Got to Get Ourselves Back to the Pesticide-Free Garden Just Say Noh Read the articles mentioned at the end of the podcast: The Trouble With Dribbles Depositive Thinking
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She discusses her new environmentally themed show
This spring a small-but-innovative dance company in Southern California called TRIP Dance Theatre premiered a production about what poet Gary Snyder calls "the war against nature." The dance was called "Poisoning the Well."Using delicate, Asian-flavored music, played live, the dancers first appeared carrying water and gathering around a well. Slowly the audience could watch the grace and beauty of these dancers, four of them women, literally turned upside down by human desperation, greed, and the raw flow of our "effluent society," including elegantly simplified depictions of "red tides," the vast gyres of plastics in the oceans, and "drunken" trees.
The dance was both gorgeous and upsetting, but required very few words words. To better understand, and to introduce TRIP Dance Theatre to a wider audience, I asked company founder and choreographer Monica Favand Campagna to talk about her work:
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Calling All Working Assets Customers
Your incessant gabbing can raise money for Grist As if the free pints of Ben & Jerry’s weren’t sweet enough, now Working Assets customers can get something even sweeter: the chance to earn money for Grist with the click of a button. Phone and credit-card customers can go to the Working Assets voting page and […]
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With Protectors Like This …
Wildlife-trade regulators approve massive sale of ivory The world’s only body that can limit trade in endangered species kicked off a 12-day meeting this weekend with one hell of a bang: The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, approved the sale of some 60 tons of […]
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Friday music blogging: Okkervil River
I was originally going to fly to D.C. on Sun. June 10, but I moved it back a day when I found out Okkervil River is playing Seattle that night. Okkervil is a bit of a strange case — they’re one of my favorite bands of the last few years, maybe ever, but I’m leery […]
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Incident on the Mediterranean makes rounds on U.S. news
Last week we broke the story about French fishermen coordinating an attack on Oceana's research vessel, Ranger, in an attempt to get their hands on the pictures our crew has been taking of them using illegal driftnets.
Now everyone's talking about it, including our friends at NPR. They aired a segment on the confrontation on their top radio show, "All Things Considered." And footage of the assault is racking up hits on YouTube. Remember, you heard it here first.
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Top scientists appeal to WTO
The other day I told you how there's a good chance we could see an end to commercial overfishing subsidies through WTO negotiations. And my organization is not alone in making the case to the World Trade Organization. At least 125 scientists from 27 countries feel the same way and sent a letter to the WTO making it clear that "an ambitious outcome in the ongoing WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations is vital to the future of the world's fisheries."
The scientists who signed the letter are a who's who of ocean fisheries scientists, including Daniel Pauly, Boris Worm, Jeremy B.C. Jackson, Andrew Rosenberg, Carl Safina, Callum Roberts, Larry Crowder, and Wallace "J" Nichols. These leading experts made the stakes clear: "Fisheries subsidies," they note in the letter, "produce such strong economic incentives to overfish that reducing them is one of the most significant actions that can be taken to combat global overfishing." How's that for pressure?
You can see the full letter here (PDF).
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And You Should See ‘Em Pop a Wheelie
Hypermilers squeeze every last drop out of their fuel economy Your hybrid only gets 47 miles per gallon? Too bad for you, sucka. A small group deeming themselves “hypermilers” has adjusted driving habits to use the teeniest amount of gas possible, and boasts of achieving up to 112.2 mpg. These bad-ass fuel economizers have moved […]
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WTO talks could end fishing subsidies
Most ocean conservationists are on pins and needles in anticipation of the results of this week's International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting. But I'm also thinking about another three-letter acronym and how much good may be coming out of it. W-T-O. That's right, the World Trade Organization.
In Geneva (and at the current Doha round) there's serious talk of cutting government subsidies for commercial fishing -- the fundamental driver for the unsustainable exploitation of the oceans. I just returned from there, where I met with Pascal Lamy -- head of the WTO -- and, together with Professor Rashid Sumaila of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, briefed a large number of the delegates.
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Pollution hasn’t gone down of its own accord
It was only a matter of time before Planet Gore got around to the most famous bit of disinformation.
The big lie is to tout the fact that the air has gotten cleaner in recent decades while conveniently ignoring the fact that the reason for this achievement is environmental activism leading to tough air pollution standards. Progressives must push back hard on this big lie (something John Kerry failed to do with George Bush in the second Presidential debate).
