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Climate Bill

Clinton turns to climate change:

Oil is a feminist issue

So proclaims the cover of the latest issue of Ms., touting an article by Martha Burk: "Crude Awakening: U.S. Policies in Afghanistan and Iraq Sell Out Women in Favor of Oil." Alas, there's only a teaser online, not the full article.

In sum:

Whether supporting gender apartheid abroad, or sacrificing feeding programs for U.S. women and children so that ExxonMobil can get a tax break, or simply standing by while the company reaps record profits at the expense of women who must drive to work and heat their houses, U.S. priorities are consistent: Oil wins over women's rights hands down.

Appropriately, Burk focuses most of her attention abroad -- from pre-9/11 Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where the Clinton admin overlooked gross abuses of women's rights as it tried to grease the wheels for a Unocal pipeline, to oppressive Saudi Arabia, to increasingly woman-unfriendly Iraq, back to present-day Afghanistan, where things are looking nearly as grim for women and girls as they did when the Taliban reigned. (The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission reports that more than 300 girls' schools have been burned or bombed in the country in recent years, Burk writes.)

Burk doesn't touch on any traditionally "environmental" threads in the piece, but it's an interesting, if cursory, look at how oil politics and gender politics collide.

Happy 25th Birthday, MTV

The MSM is awash with stories hyping the quarter-century milestone, so I figured I'd jump aboard the bandwagon and use it as an opportunity to point out that MTV.com's environment section highlights news from your favorite green mag.

(BTW, did you know that Martha Quinn now has a weekly '80s show on Sirius Satellite Radio? Still cute as a button!)

A rundown of global sports organizations.

So, maybe you don't like soccer or biking. Maybe you're just saying, "Hey! Enough with the specifics! Give me something broad to sink my teeth into!"

Well, friend, you're in luck. Today we'll be overviewing the variety of committees, confederations, groups, and forums that focus on environment and sport. Because really, who knew there were so many?

The United Nations deemed 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education, so I'm a year late on this blog post, but bear with me. We'll start off with the United Nations Environment Programme's Sport and Environment section, which pretty much says it all:

Sport is intimately connected to nature. A healthy environment is necessary for healthy sport. For many athletes, it is this intimacy with nature that motivates and inspires them.

Sports facilities, events, activities and the manufacture of sporting goods have an impact on the environment. Energy consumption, air pollution, emissions of greehouse gases and ozone-depleting substances, waste disposal, wastes use and impacts on biological diversity are all issues for the sporting world to address.

Go team!

Saline solutions

Last October, in a Gristmill guest essay, Lloyd G. Carter described attempts by agribiz interests in California's powerful Westlands Water District to suck more subsidized water out of California's rivers.  Now the District is locked in another battle -- this one over toxic soil -- that could end up costing taxpayers $1 billion. Bill Walker, west coast VP of the Environmental Working Group, explains.

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In a repeat of a scheme that led to one of the worst wildlife disasters in the nation's history, federal water bureaucrats are on the brink of a decision that could kill thousands of migratory birds in California's San Joaquin Valley each year -- and will cost taxpayers $1 billion.

No Onion, but it’ll do

Dave Letterman's Top Ten Dumb Guy Ideas For Lowering Gas Prices:

10. Make all roads downhill.
9. Cheaper self-service price if you pump the oil and refine it yourself.
8. Gas comes from dinosaurs, so all we need are more dinosaurs.
7. Invade Iraq.
6. Give Cheney a sawed-off shotgun and have him stick up an Exxon.
5. Tax cuts for the rich.
4. Get Bush and the Middle East to straighten everything out on Oprah.
3. Jet packs for everyone.
2. Gas only costs 12 cents a gallon in Venezuela; drive to Venezuela for gas.
1. Get tubby genius Al Gore to figure it out.

(via Sierra Club blog)

Michaels wants the balance balanced

Oh man, this is too hilarious:

It seems that [notorious climate skeptic Pat] Michaels called [CNN Friday's Peter] Dykstra to complain that the network doesn't do enough to bring out the side of those who question the thesis that human industrial and transportation activity is warming the globe. Dykstra politely disagreed, but he was curious. So he took the time to look up all of the network's pieces on the topic.

The expert CNN quoted most? Dr. Patrick Michaels. By a factor of two.

A dash of persecution complex really gives the ignorance a nice flavor, doesn't it?

Swamp coolers

If I lived in Phoenix, I would own a swamp cooler powered by solar panels. I would be immune to rolling blackouts and could reduce my electric bill by about 75% during the hot months.

Locking in global warming

What do you call it when a society knowingly cripples itself? I'm not sure. But historians studying our strange slow-motion self-immolation will find much to ponder in articles like this:

Top executives at many utility companies have reluctantly accepted that coal-fired power plants contribute to global warming, and they have begun planning for a more restrictive future.

Then there is C. John Wilder, chief executive of TXU Corp. The Dallas-based utility company is racing to build 11 big power plants in Texas that will burn pulverized coal. That process releases substantial amounts of carbon dioxide, the most worrisome of several heat-trapping gases widely blamed for global warming.

TXU contends Texas needs a lot more power, and it wants to be the company to provide it. Critics of its $11 billion construction program see another motivation: The federal government may slap limits on carbon-dioxide emissions. If it does, plants completed sooner may have a distinct advantage. That's because the government may dole out "allowances" to release carbon dioxide, and plants up and running when regulations go into effect may qualify for more of them than those built at a later date.

Obscene enough. But then, get this:

Nuclear security

Speaking of nuclear power, I meant to mention this a couple weeks ago:

Four years after the leaders of the world's eight largest economies vowed to raise $20 billion over 10 years to prevent terrorists from obtaining nuclear materials, only $3.5 billion has been donated -- and far less has been used to secure enriched uranium, the key ingredient of a nuclear weapon.

Hundreds of tons of uranium remain at loosely guarded facilities across Russia and the former Soviet Union, and in nearly 40 other countries, according to specialists. And the need to secure the material has grown: In April, Russian police arrested a foreman in a nuclear plant for attempting to sell 22 kilograms of uranium.

Sounds like a great time to build hundreds and hundreds of new nuclear plants all over the world!