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Urchins evacuated in preparation for storms
With the height of hurricane season approaching, and the Katrina anniversary monopolizing the media, it's fair to say America's got hurricane on the brain. While coastal residents and (let's hope) the government prepare for this year's storms, so too do marine creatures.
Scientists and volunteers near Conch Reef rounded up about 500 long-spined sea urchins (critical to the health of coral reefs) in a shallow rubble zone and moved them to deeper water on the coral reef where they'll be safer.
Take note, Mr. President. Preventative action before hurricanes = good. Still in the "beginning" stages of recovery a year after the fact = bad.
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Grist staffers sample organic beer variety pack
You can't go wrong. Last week, an unusually heavy box made its way to Grist List HQ, and we were oh-so-pleasantly surprised to find out that a) Lakefront Brewery had sent us a case of their beer and b) shameless begging really does work. We actually received a variety of brews -- including the New Grist beer that we had oh-so-subtly requested as well as an organic variety called Organic ESB and the coffee-blended Fuel Cafe Stout.
At a Seattle-staff gathering on Friday, we sat down to taste-test these Lakefront Brewery beverages -- and believe me, we took our task seriously. Our verdict? Tasty. Seriously. And not just because Lakefront Brewery sent us a free case. Although Lakefront Brewery did send us a free case. Did I mention Lakefront Brewery sent us a free case?
And that's not to say we wouldn't accept free cases of beer from any other organic brewers out there. Because we would. And we would also accept more free cases from Lakefront Brewery. In fact, I'm just going to say Lakefront Brewery a few more times. Lakefront Brewery. Lakefront Brewery. Lakefront Brewery.
So in conclusion, we'd like to thank you, Lakefront Brewery, for allowing us to sample our namesake beer. You did name it after us, right?
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The Army Corps of Engineers is the real culprit behind New Orleans’ devastation
The fate of this navigation channel on the Louisiana coast, shown in 1970 (left) and 2001, offered a glimpse of things to come. Photos: White House OMB If an unsafe building collapsed and killed 1,000 people, we wouldn’t blame the building’s manager, even if he bungled his evacuation plan, or its maintenance crew, even if […]
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A new blog by pigeons gives a bird’s eye view of air quality
A recent article announced a new milestone in the blogging world -- the very first blog by pigeons. A team at University of California Irvine is gathering data on smog particles in the atmosphere using pigeons outfitted with "backpacks and cell phones." (Because they don't already gab enough on apartment windowsills.) The project was inspired by WWII homing pigeons equipped with spy cameras.
The team devised a feather-weight minipack with an antenna, a cell phone SIM card, global positioning system equipment, and a pollution sensor. The GPS tracks the pigeon's exact location, the sensors pick up airborne pollutants, and the information is text-messaged to the website.
The naturally meandering route of a pigeon gives the experiment a random quality that creator Beatriz da Costa intended. The project does have its detractors, though.
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The Beak Shall Inherit the Earth
Sixteen bird species saved from extinction Sixteen bird species that nearly went extinct in the mid-1990s were saved by international cooperation and concerted conservation efforts, according to a study published in the journal Oryx by researchers from BirdLife International. Scientists say the rebounds in populations of the Norfolk Island green parrot, the Mauritius parakeet, and […]
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Can we compare growth in the green building and green transportation sectors?
I've just been reading those Scientific American articles on energy and climate change. After rereading the stabilization wedges article (PDF) I began to think, "How likely is it that any particular wedges will take off?" This got me thinking about green building (almost everything does these days) and how much has happened to the building industry in recent years.
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A snippet from Rolling Stone’s recent piece on Kurt Vonnegut.
Rolling Stone's recent piece on Kurt Vonnegut begins this way:
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Will this help break the offsets market out of its niche status?
In a matter of moments, carbon-offset outfit TerraPass will be announcing a partnership with Expedia, the online travel site. The deal is, when folks book their flights through Expedia, they'll have a chance during the checkout process to offset (their share of) their flight's emissions. Short flights will go for $5.99, longer cross-country flights for $16.99, and international flights (13,000 miles or more) for $29.99.
This is a cool deal that I think will do a lot to break the offsets market out of its niche status. Right now, energy users have to initiate the process -- go to terrapass.com and calculate their own offsets. That's inherently limiting.
Now, it's just another part of booking travel. I'll bet dimes to dollars that other online travel sites will be doing this same thing within a year.
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Vacation
Obviously, my (interminable) series on fear and environmentalism raises more questions than it answers. It's woefully schematic. There's much more to be said. I hope, if nothing else, this will prompt people to start talking about this stuff. Advocates for reason and compassion are often derided as fuzzy-headed and unrealistic, despite the obvious failure of fear and violence to produce anything of worth. They need to start defending themselves more explicitly, and more proudly. They are in the right.
Anyway.
Later this evening, I'm heading out in the trusty minivan with the trusty family to spend a week lounging in a cabin on Flathead Lake in Montana. My plan is to wage an aggressive campaign of leisure. I will not stop until unconditional relaxation has been declared.
While I'm gone I'll be leaving the blog in the hands of its many other capable contributors. I'm sure they'll do you proud.
See you next week!
