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A few choice bits from the hate mail that’s come today

A while back, I wrote this post. Senate Environment Committee attack dog Marc Morano highlighted it in a press release. Then it ended up on the front page of the Drudge Report.

Here are some excerpts from the emails I've received today (warning: explicit language):

Speaking of Inhofe …

... he was profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday.

Suburban commutes are money-losers

A study of Washington and 27 other metropolitan areas by the Center for Housing Policy found that the costs of one-way commutes of as little as 12 to 15 miles -- roughly the distance between Gaithersburg and Bethesda -- cancel any savings on lower-priced outer-suburban homes.

More below.

On climate denialists and Nuremberg

There are people and institutions knowingly disseminating falsehoods and distortions about global warming. They deserve to be held publicly accountable.

As to what shape that accountability would take, my analogy to the Nuremberg trials was woefully inappropriate -- nay, stupid. I retract it wholeheartedly.

More -- much more -- later.

Grist for the Military

Navy divers clean up coastal messes Navy divers are the latest crazy hippies clamoring to clean up coastal messes. For problems too expensive or vast for civilian government agencies to handle, military divers provide cutting-edge technology and finely tuned abilities — and in turn, they get to sharpen their diving skillz. This summer, Army and […]

Axis of Upheaval

Wobbly earth may contribute to extinction of mammals, study finds Natural shifts in the earth’s orbit and axis correspond to the periodic emergence and extinction of rodents and likely other mammals as well, says a study published today in Nature. Researchers studying 22 million years of rodent fossil records in central Spain found that certain […]

Is wood-framing a green building material?

Talk about "framing" these days, and many people will think about author and linguist George Lakoff, and the post-2004-election brouhaha about how to communicate, or "frame," political ideas.

But apparently, there's much more obscure debate going on about another kind of framing -- the kind of framing that goes into building a house.

It's a bit arcane, really. But the crux of the debate is this: should traditional wood-framing count as a "green" building technique? Or is something else, such as steel or concrete, a more environmentally friendly choice?

Sure wish they’d go green

So this weekend I had the great pleasure of roaming around Manhattan, popping my head into generally closed-to-the-public spaces as part of the annual Open House New York. Among my favorite stops was a small shop in the East village called Build A Green Bakery. Apart from its divine chocolate-chip cookies, the bakery has made a small name for itself for being environmentally conscious, in everything from its supply chain to its ultra-green storefront. (Take a virtual tour and check out the materials they used).

There are enough to shoot again

In the 1800s, the Texas Bighorn sheep numbered about 1,500 in the remote, craggy Texas wilderness. But by the 1940s, their numbers had dwindled to around 35 and they were looking to join the ranks of the dodo bird. However, conservation efforts and personal motivation tapes pushed the Bighorn sheep to clamber and hoof their way gradually back up the rocky, precarious cliff to population rebound, and at the windswept peak the Texas Bighorn found the ultimate reward:

Signs are hopeful

In 1903, a 45-year old Theodore Roosevelt stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon in Northern Arizona. He looked out over one of this country's great wonders and advised the nation to "Leave it as it is. You can not improve on it. The ages have been at work on it, and man can only mar it."

A little over a century later, I am sweating about 175 miles south in the 95 degree heat of Tempe, Arizona.

And although the Grand Canyon is still intact, we have not listened to the advice of this great Republican leader on a global scale. We have, in fact, marred this globe, and marred it badly. And we need to fix it. And to do that we need to build a new world. "Leaving it as it is," complete with its 6 billion greenhouse-gas-spewing citizens, is no longer an option.

I am in town for a conference set up by Arizona State University (ASU) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) to confront this very inconvenient truth.