Uncategorized

Fear it

Take a big breath, hold your nose, and here we go!

Clever

Jeffrey Sachs:

The biggest energy crisis of all, it seems, involves the misdirected energy of a US foreign policy built on war rather than scientific discovery and technological progress.

Check out the KiteShip

Shipping costs (and emissions) got you down? Try a KiteShip, winner of the prestigious California Clean Tech Open.

How cool is that?

WTF?

Let's take a moment, shall we, and dig through the layers of conservative talking points on the Kyoto Protocol.

The main claim is that it's "unfair" because it requires emissions reductions in developed countries, but not in developing countries (especially China and India) -- a commonly cited rationale when senators refused to vote for it under Clinton.

This is, as many others have pointed out, a morally troglodytic argument. The developed countries put the CO2 up there. That's how they got developed. That's how they got rich. Of course they have an obligation to act first and do more to solve the problem. If you spend years crapping in your house, and then take a homeless person in as a roommate, you don't quibble with your new roommate over who cleans up the shit. You clean it up. It's your shit.

Oy.

But then you have another argument which, instead of insulting the intelligence and moral standing of those in the developing world, adopts an unctuous tone of concern for their wellbeing. Consider this bit from Inhofe's goofball speech:

A heaping helping of paranoia

I went through a brief period of being obsessed with the Bush administration’s transparent attempt to elevate so-called "eco-terrorism" to the status of Biggest, Baddest Domestic Bogey Man. (Honestly, what threat will these supposed tough guys not piss their pants about?) But the Bushies are caught up in other struggles now, and the propaganda push […]

Smells like election season

Thanks to Matt over at TPM's Election Central for pointing this one out. Check out this recent ad from the Tennessee senatorial race:

An interview with Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx

Majora Carter is no ordinary environmental leader. For starters: She’s a woman, she’s black, and she’s not afraid to publicly challenge Al Gore. Majora Carter. Photos: Sustainable South Bronx In 2005, she was honored with a MacArthur “genius grant” for her work with Sustainable South Bronx, a group she founded to mobilize grassroots environmental activism […]

How would you spend it?

A new congressional analysis shows that we are spending roughly $2 billion a week on the Iraq War.

(Amusingly, when I Googled the subject, Google asked: "Did you mean: congressional analysis two million a week" -- I wish, Google. I wish.)

Meanwhile, Bush's FY06 budget request pushes for steep cuts in renewable energy funding.

Let your mind wander a bit. Imagine, if you will, that the situation were reversed: that Bush pushed for cuts to military spending and poured $2 billion a week into researching, developing, and deploying new renewable-energy and energy-efficiency technologies.

$2 billion a week. What would you do with it?

Weird Al rocks my socks off

This video has nothing to do with the environment but my white and nerdy husband is insisting that I blog it perpetuates the stereotype that Priuses are white and nerdy. Sigh.

The same implication is made for the Segway, but I can't say I disagree.

Critique is a good thing

I read the Worldwatch/CAP Report on Renewable Energy (PDF) last night and agree with Dave that it is a good document. The biofuels section raised my eyebrows more than it should have. I critique it below.

Here is the bottom line on crop-based biofuels, and I am not alone in this assessment (for once) -- Monbiot and Brown share my concerns. You have to replace on the world market every grain or bean you stop exporting and instead feed to an American car. Regardless of what others were using that grain for, the only way for other farmers on the planet to fill that hole is to grow more crops and the only way to grow more crops is to clear more land and the only land left to clear are rainforest carbon sinks and other assorted ecosystems.

Growing our own just forces others to grow their own. You cannot put the same bean into both your stomach and gas tank. When a biofuel profit taker tells you that biofuels do not compete for food, they are lying through their teeth. 70% of a corn kernel is lost to the human food chain when you use it to make ethanol.