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Observations on human nature

The sun pouring in my windows shut the furnace down hours ago. My daughter had two friends over for the night and we all walked to the local breakfast place this morning. There was a waiting list, so the girls skipped off to the park while I hung out sipping coffee. I would call them when our number came up (they all three have cell phones of course).

As is my habit, I observed. Attempts to strike up conversations with other guys proved fruitless of course. There was a shiny, navy blue Jetta TDI parked out front (with two biodiesel stickers on it, of course). As a status symbol, it is a step in the right direction, but not quite environmentally benign enough (in my rigorously defended opinion), unless it was made from recycled oil instead of soy.

In case you thought Sundays were lazy!

Be sure to check out this week's compilation of global warming news, brought to you by H. E. Taylor each week via A Few Things Ill Considered. It is quite comprehensive, so if 300+ links intimidate you, here are a few highlights:

Passenger rail on the East Coast is a mess

Western Massachusetts has just one passenger train that runs (once a day) up and down the north/south length of the Connecticut River Valley, connecting some of the bigger towns with Vermont and Connecticut. As if one train a day isn't bad enough, the new cover feature of the local weekly exposes just how inadequate it is:

In a few short hours

At around 5:30pm Pacific (8:30 EST) today, I’ll be appearing on Air America radio — specifically Radio Nation with Laura Flanders — to discuss media coverage of the State of the Union speech. And related matters. To tell you the truth, I’m not 100% clear on what I’ll be discussing, but rest assured that I’ll […]

Gore should get up in this thing

Grist’s nonprofit status obviously means we can’t endorse any presidential candidate, and I doubt I’ll personally decide whom to support until much closer to the election. But one thing I will say is that — for all the reasons aptly described in Tim Dickinson’s new Rolling Stone piece — Al should run. Run, Al. Run. […]

U.S. schools get schooled on sustainability

Remember how report card time at school brought a mix of emotions — excitement, anxiety, a little bit of vomit in your mouth? Oh, to be a student again. But last week, the tables were turned as 100 universities across the country were graded in a College Sustainability Report Card released by the Sustainable Endowments […]

Jeremy Piven gets caught out

I admit it -- the vestigial high school girl in me loves celebrity gossip. Still, I can't help but cringe in sympathy every time the tabloids metaphorically draw and quarter some poor, stylistically challenged starlet for mismatching her bag and shoes or stepping out of her house in sweat pants on a Sunday morning. I happen to be a major fan of sweat pants on Sunday mornings. In fact, if I had the eff-you fortitude to walk down to my local coffee shop in pajama bottoms, I would.

Ethyl alcohol dulls the imagination

What explains The Economist's fascination with ethanol? In this week's issue, Britain's leading current-affairs magazine has published an extended article on "Green America: Waking up and catching up." Although most of the article actually talks about other energy sources besides ethanol, and about state-level efforts to encourage energy conservation and reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, the photo editors chose to illustrate it with pictures of ethanol, ethanol, ethanol.

No, not that

Talking about climate change, that is. More evidence that it's the hot political topic of the moment -- even the muckety-mucks at Davos are all abuzz over greenhouse gas emissions:

Let’s put bison back on the praries

Every once in a while, a pearl tossed to the swine (we Gristmill commenters) by a fellow Sus scrofa domestica (that's for you, Canis) sticks in my ear. Blame this one on amazingdrx. He mentioned that a concerted effort to restore our prairies could sequester underground much of our carbon without any new technology or the warming effect of temperate tree plantings.

Harvesting a mix of prairie grasses to displace coal in a power plant is many times more efficient and ecologically benign than converting it to liquid fuel, and would tie in nicely with the URGE2 concept. I'm not licking boots here. URGE2 is a powerful idea.