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Enviros and Navy square off on whales

If you think the World Cup is exciting, try keeping up with the current legal battle between the Navy and the environmental community. On June 28, the Natural Resources Defense Council and other groups filed a temporary restraining order against the Navy's use of sonar testing.

Speaking of EVs

I've picked up a copy of The Car That Could by Michael Shnayerson, the 1996 book about the birth of the EV1. This quote really summed up the whole sorry tale, and it appears early in the book (p. 24, emphasis mine):

Electric cars: Don’t call it a comeback

Though the snark against Who Killed the Electric Car? ("Who cares? It's history!") is bizarre and unwarranted, Joel Makower's post on the revival of electric cars and plug-in hybrids nonetheless contains a wealth of interesting information. I knew some efforts were underway to produce and market all-electric vehicles, but I didn't know how many.

It seems to me the only stumbling block is the development of light, economical, reliable lithium-ion batteries, and given that lithium-driven scooters are already on the market, I can't imagine they're too far away.

I predict the market will judge the Big Three American automakers' new push for flex-fuel vehicles harshly. Electric is the future, no matter how many subsidies the feds pump in other directions.

‘Tis the Season (for strawberry shortcake)

Ah, June. Roses are in bloom, weddings and graduation exercises occupy the weekends, and it's time to head to the beach. Summer in full swing! Summer at last!

So why am I making Thanksgiving dinner on what is, to date, the hottest day of the year?

Welcome, dear reader, to the topsy-turvy world of the food writer. Like fashion models who don heavy mink coats in July and itsy-bitsy bikinis in December in order to accommodate magazine production schedules, foodwriters are always working many months into the future. This leads to a rarefied category of Seasonal Affective Disorder: Seasonal Displacement Disorder -- a syndrome in which the patient is unreasonably preoccupied with the events and sentiments normally reserved for a season approximately six months into the future.

Who killed the Phoenix Islands coral reef?

Here's a short whodunnit over at Current TV, "Canary is dead", which is awaiting the greenlight to be aired on television:

(Via TH)

Kunstler

For those of you who can't get enough of Mr. Doomy Gloomenstein, there's an interview with James Howard Kunstler up on Worldchanging.

Big Three Automakers shun hybrids for flex-fuel hoo-hah

It looks like America's Big Three automakers have decided that "flex-fuel" vehicles -- i.e., vehicles that can run on an ethanol blend -- are their ticket to green credibility.

Aargh.

EMA Awards 2006: Call for entries

The Environmental Media Association is seeking entries for their Sixteenth Annual Environmental Media Awards. (You might recall that Vanessa McGrady covered last year's event for Grist.)

Categories include:

Haiku and so forth

Before our oh-so-clever (and just-completed) We're Moving campaign, way back a few years ago in the dark ages, we had a Haiku Hullabaloo campaign. Readers submitted haiku and the best one was emblazoned on a t-shirt and sent to generous donors. This is the immortal winner:

House moves to screw Rocky Mountain Front

Of course, the good news from Conrad Burns doesn't mean the Rocky Mountains are out of danger. This is from a Wilderness Society press release (which I can't find online):

Much of the attention regarding the Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act of 2006 (H.R. 4671), passed by the House of Representatives on June 29, has focused on the bill's repeal of the 25-year-old moratorium on off-shore oil and gas drilling. But the bill also would be a fiscal disaster for the country and have huge ramifications for the Rocky Mountain West, where provisions buried in the bill are intended to dangerously accelerate oil shale and tar sands development and provide industry with a new and unmerited entitlement program to taxpayer funds, and could lead to thousands of improvidently issued drilling permits.

You really can't take your eyes off the House for a second. Of course, this bill will probably be stopped or weakened in the Senate, but still -- the attack is relentless.

Here's the rest of the press release, with the juicy details: