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Generation X can make a difference.

As my inaugural blog for Gristmill, I'd like to send a shout out -- or rather, to put out an APB -- for Generation X, or what I would like to call my "Lost Generation."

No offense to Larry Page or Sergey Brin. You have shown that youth -- thrown in the deep end far too early -- can actually rise to the challenge, blossoming into revolutionary 25-35 year olds who truly change the world.

While past industrial revolutionists created the steam engine, the cotton en(gin)e, and the diesel engine, you created and revolutionized the search engine, and have revolutionized the internet. Good show!

But, honestly, where are your 1,000 counterparts, working together at every level of industry, government, and the nonprofit sector, to address our generation's Cold War -- the threat of global warming?

New diesel cars will crop up in California.

New diesel cars have not been sold in California for years, due to air regs.

With the introduction of low-sulfur diesel, that will change. Expect to see a lot more 45 MPG VW TDI's on the road as a result. And for wannabe biodiesel enthusiasts, this means no more perusing Craigslist with nothing but beat-up Mercedeses to choose from.

California’s emissions caps will spur the nation to follow

California has a long history of trailblazing environmental regulations that eventually spur federal action. The Clean Air Act and efficiency standards for appliances are good examples. Why does this happen? Sometimes it's because the rules prove proponents right and doubters wrong. And sometimes it is the regulated industries themselves that lobby for the expansion -- better a single standard than a patchwork of state regs.

So, will this week's accord on AB 32 in California result in a federal cap on carbon?

Some think so.

Fair Price Energy has some ideas.

A new website entitled Fair Price Energy includes some interesting proposals for moving forward with sensible energy policy in America. While the author admittedly offers no entirely new ideas to the discussion, the combination of policies and the clear presentation merit a look.

Although economists for decades have proposed a host of policies that would greatly improve the energy situation (economists were among the first to call for gas taxes decades ago), the key issue is political viability; this is where the ideas at Fair Price Energy are somewhat lacking. Both the suggested tax on energy imports and a lack of compensation mechanism for industries hurt by the proposal seem to make it more than a long-shot in the current political landscape. But it is still worth a look, especially since it has a nice system for redistributing the tax revenue from higher energy prices in a very progressive manner, which would ease the concerns among many environmentalists about the potential regressive effects of higher energy costs.

Love of Labor

Grist takes Monday off to celebrate Labor Day You know those bumper stickers and T-shirts that say “organized labor: the folks who brought you the weekend”? Clever stuff. Well, organized laborers are also the folks who brought you this weekend: Labor Day weekend. To celebrate all their hard work, we’re taking Monday off. We suggest […]

A Touch of Class

New York schools will clean green Kids in New York will breathe easier this fall, thanks to a new law requiring schools in the state to purchase environmentally friendly cleaning supplies. “It’s well documented that when you clean up the quality of the air we breathe indoors, students’ attendance rates go up, attention spans in […]

Summit aims to ask experts your questions about the environment, other issues

Next week, 112 great minds will convene at the world's first international thought summit. The monumental undertaking [PDF] by nonprofit dropping knowledge is "dedicated to moving people from apathy to activity through the simple act of asking questions." The summit, Table of Free Voices, will take place in Berlin's historic Bebelplatz square Sept. 9 and will bring together experts from a wide range of fields to answer questions submitted in video form by the public.

Questions already culled by dropping knowledge range from the practical, "How can we discuss global problems when we do not know how to solve local ones?," to the environmental, "Will children grow up in an environmental wasteland?," to the emotional, "Are you scared?"

The questions chosen for the experts span eight global themes, including "The Human Footprint" -- which focuses on energy, ecology, and sustainable ways of life. Though it could be argued that all eight themes involve issues that affect the environment in some way.

The authors of Limits to Growth were right, 30 years ago and today

Write about peak oil, environmentalism, or any kind of resource constraints to enough people, and you'll eventually meet someone who stopped reading books after 1973. That is, this person -- male or female -- will remember one thing, and one thing only: The Club of Rome published The Limits to Growth in 1973, and the results were mocked, dismissed, and eventually disproved by the glut and economic expansion of the 1980s and 1990s.

Students could win 25K, Earth Day concert for ideas on greening campus

mtvU, MTV's 24-hour college network, and GE this week announced they are partnering to present college students with an eco-challenge. Their mtvU GE ecomagination Challenge asks students to get their creativity on to propose projects that will "green" their campuses. The winner of the challenge (which is open to teams and individuals) will receive $25,000 toward making those ideas happen. And the winner's school will host an mtvU Earth Day Concert and Festival in Spring 2007. If that won't boost your popularity around campus, I don't know what will.

Complete rules and regulations will be available starting tomorrow, but I do know that they will be accepting submissions until Dec. 1 and will then pick the top 10 entries. Those projects will be profiled on the Challenge website and some will be featured on various other mtvU outlets. Students will be able to play a part in the voting process, and the winner will be announced in March 2007.

Here's a tip from the press release: "mtvU and GE are especially looking for ambitious and innovative projects that considerably better the overall environmental health of campus, are cost conscious and practical, and push the creative boundaries of "green" thinking."

So get to thinking about how you can green your campus. And while you're at it, look around that dorm room of yours. A recent Philly Inquirer story notes that green decorating ideas seem to be taking hold at schools across the country. And this New American Dream site offers an interactive guide for shopping green when you head back to school this fall.

Florida manatee found in waters off Cape Cod

Ahoy me hearties! 'Tis I, back again from the briny deep. Me spyglass has been focused lately on Florida's favorite aquatic mammal: Shamu the manatee.

Seems at least one of the slow-moving "sea cows," which usually make their home off the Florida coast, has traveled all the way up to Cape Cod. Another manatee (or perhaps the same one) was spotted in the Hudson River two weeks ago.

Says one wildlife biologist, "It's, to our knowledge, the northernmost sighting of a manatee ever documented." Researchers aren't sure why the animal went so far north, but suspect it's because waters in that area have been unusually warm. Could this be global warming related? Will manatees soon be dodging boat motors off Nova Scotia?