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Situation Normal, All Ducked Up

Feds won’t make livestock-identification plan mandatory Surprising exactly no one, a federal plan to track all U.S. livestock with ID tags remains controversial with farmers. Surprising some, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has given up on making it mandatory. Intended to trace disease and to combat — wait for it — agroterrorism, the National Animal […]

To y’all readers, that is

On Nov. 30, we published an interview with Travis Bradford, author of Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry and founder of the Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development.

The interview was reprinted on Alternet, where it kicked up a vigorous, extended discussion. I asked Travis if he'd like to respond to some of the themes and comments there. His thoughts follow.

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I was delighted to see so much serious discussion of solar and other renewable energy sources follow my interview with David Roberts. Many of the questions and ideas readers raised are addressed in much greater detail in my book. But I'd like to take a few moments to address some specific issues.

First, should the solar revolution -- which has already happened in Japan and Germany, and is well underway in other European countries and in California -- be centralized or localized?

Can U.S. corn farmers fill both bellies and tanks?

The boom in corn-based ethanol seems like good news for farmers, who suddenly face growing demand for their crop. But is there enough corn to go around? And will surging demand mean surging prices for consumers? Tom Philpott addresses the food vs. fuel debate in today's Victual Reality column, and Yolanda Crous talks to a farmer in Missouri who's an ethanol co-op board member. Also, as a wee digestif, we bring you a rundown of celebrity biofuels hitting the shelves soon. (OK, we completely made them up. What can we say -- two weeks of biofuels coverage would leave you a little punchy too.)

JibJab’s latest

The fellows at JibJab have put up their latest animation. It's a fairly apt and amusing summary of 2006, though I am surprised to see Al Gore and his movie escape mention:

Maybe, maybe not

This is why I love the Economist magazine. They take cutting edge issues and put a monkey wrench in conventional thinking.

Turns out, organic food is not always better for the environment, fair trade may actually exacerbate poverty in some circumstances, and buying local may be be less efficient than buying food shipped thousands of miles away sometimes.

The latest idea in fighting global warming

Nuclear war.

Jim Baker eyes the oil in Iraq

With the disaster unfolding in Iraq, you'd think the U.S. government might take its eyes off the oil for a moment. There are some 27 million Iraqis who might demand a higher place in our priorities.

Apparently not. It turns out Jim Baker's ISG report is chock full of recommendations about what to do with Iraq's oil. Antonia Juhasz in the L.A. Times gives us the details. Let's just say, if you thought this war had absolutely nothing to do with oil, you need to reexamine your conclusions.

You really need to ask?

The riffs on energy, climate change, and renewable energy are all the excuse I need to link to Barack Obama's remarkable speech in New Hampshire.

Biodiesel means trouble for Uganda

As reported by Reuters yesterday:

The president of Uganda asked the National Forest Authority boss to quit after he refused to license a palm oil company to destroy a pristine rainforest on an island in Lake Victoria, according to his resignation note.

At Marsh Fork Elementary, danger is spelled M-A-S-S-E-Y

In Raleigh County, West Virginia, about 45 miles from Charleston, just over 200 students attend Marsh Fork Elementary School. Though small, Marsh Fork is important to the folks in the Coal River Valley, and not just because it's the only school in the county with high enough enrollment to remain open. No, the fate of Marsh Fork matters more because it represents all the special interests and politics that have come to define life in the shadows of Big Coal.

Not 300 feet away from where children learn and play nine months a year sits a leaking, 385-feet tall coal refuse dam with a nearly 3-billion gallon capacity. Never mind the coal dust that has been found in the school. Never mind the drinking-water contamination that has been reported. If this dam breaks, it will destroy everyone and everything within 30 miles. So why are 200-plus children still making the trip to school every day despite the constant threat of illness and even death?

Because they have nowhere else to go.