Uncategorized

Gristy Road

Dear Gristmillians,

I'm getting a little worried about some of my fellow Grist staffers. As you may know, Grist is growing in both size and ambition, and has outgrown our current office. We must move -- but to where?

We've tried cramming into a Flexcar parked behind our old space, but that is just not working out. Among other things, we can't seem to agree on one radio station. So, we're off in search of a new location where we'll hopefully have a little more elbow room. But finding cheap office space in downtown Seattle isn't easy.

Tom, Grist's web production assistant, discovered several Gristers aimlessly walking around and crossing the streets of Seattle (without looking both ways!). He snapped the (strangely familiar) photo above to document our current plight.

We have exciting plans to expand and improve Grist and need your support to make them happen. Please lend a hand and help Grist get a move on.

And since we won't be needing our Flexcar memberships, we'll be giving them away to six lucky donors who contribute $50 or more by 11:59 p.m. PDT tonight. (And yes, the bamboo bike by Calfee Design and Miōn shoes are still up for grabs as well.)

Appreciatively,

Chris Schults
Web Production Manager

Doofus bashing

There was some delectable doofus-bashing while I was away by the folks at ScienceBlogs. First, in preparation for his debate on NPR's Science Friday, Chris Mooney allowed his readers the opportunity to savage the Dean of Doofus, Tom Bethell. They mangle Bethell's climate change denialism here, his evolution denialism here, and his science policy fruitcakism here. A little like shooting fish in a barrel, but damn, those fish aren't getting up again.

While you're over there, observe Tim Lambert take his cudgel to Tom Harris, a global warming denialist (and ex-tobacco shill) that's been getting a lot of attention in the rightosphere lately: whomp 1, whomp 2.

I'm a little ambivalent about the ultimate value of debunking paid shills. Of course they're stupid -- they're paid to be stupid. And bashing them probably just gives them more attention than they deserve. But as the above links show, there's something undeniably satisfying about seeing stupidity decisively and witheringly demolished.

Waves of Mutilation

Oceans are in deep trouble, says U.N. Human exploitation of the oceans has outpaced conservation efforts, the United Nations said Friday. It warned that ocean degradation is “rapidly passing the point of no return.” The watery deep, home to more than 90 percent of living organisms, faces danger from pollution, litter, overfishing, shipping, and climate […]

And the Ban Played On

Japan fails in pro-whaling push, but still makes gains Four proposals widely viewed as steps toward a resumption of commercial whaling were defeated this weekend at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Animal-rights activists, enviros, and other folks opposed to the needless killing of large, intelligent mammals expressed relief; pro-whaling Japan had come […]

The Supremes come clean II

In February, the Roberts Supreme Court heard two cases on the Clean Water Act. Today they ruled 5-4 to void the decisions against two Michigan landowners. The score? Developers 1, Environment 0.

I don't know the full details of the opinions or their repercussions yet. It looks like it wasn't a complete victory for the developers, but still bad news for protecting wetlands. Here's a link from the Community Rights Counsel on what's at stake in one of the cases. Update [2006-6-19 13:5:40 by Ana Unruh Cohen]: This Forbes story has more.

When auto-delete just isn’t enough

In this day and age, there's little you can't do online. Book a flight? Click. File your taxes? Click. Chat with Aunt Sally on the other side of the world? Click. Contact your representative? Not so fast.

Congress wants to add "logic puzzles" to its already difficult web forms in an effort to reduce the number of emails it gets from those troublesome voters. Apparently, sending an email like this one through an advocacy group doesn't qualify you as a constituent with a legitimate concern. You need to answer questions like "what's 5 minus 1?" to get your Congressman (most likely, your Congressman's staffer) to read your email.

Advocacy groups are not letting this slide. Oceana has joined with at least 30 other groups in a letter to Congress today stating among other things that this technology "raise[s] dangerous questions about the infringement of constituents' First Amendment rights." It's not yet clear whether we'll be sending this letter via snail mail.

Back

I'm back. (You noticed I was gone, right?) I've just returned from a most relaxing long-weekend stint at the Once in a Blue Moon Farm, a little organic farm/orchard on Orcas Island. We went for a wedding, but a group of about eight of us decided to stretch it into a mini-vacation in the farm's guest house.

I'll spare you the poetic rhapsodizing about watching my older son ride a small horse, feed chickens, and get nuzzled by llamas. But it was nice. As a bona fide city boy, he doesn't get much exposure to Nature, but he took right to it. It reignited our little dream of buying a B&B in the country somewhere. Matter of fact, there was a nice one on sale on Orcas, for the low low price of $1.5 million. Ahem.

Anyway, if you're in the area, Orcas is a delight -- not too touristy, small-town homey, but kind of funky too. And Blue Moon gets Gristmill's Official Travel Recommendation.

A cool technology, and fun-sounding to boot.

So, like, this is cool and stuff:

A water desalination system using carbon nanotube-based membranes could significantly reduce the cost of purifying water from the ocean. The technology could potentially provide a solution to water shortages both in the United States, where populations are expected to soar in areas with few freshwater sources, and worldwide, where a lack of clean water is a major cause of disease.

The new membranes, developed by researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), could reduce the cost of desalination by 75 percent, compared to reverse osmosis methods used today, the researchers say. The membranes, which sort molecules by size and with electrostatic forces, could also separate various gases, perhaps leading to economical ways to capture carbon dioxide emitted from power plants, to prevent it from entering the atmosphere.

Cleans up water, works against climate change. An amazing technology indeed. And will it come into widespread use anytime soon? My Magic 8 Ball (which always tilts toward skepticism) is skeptical.

The separation of economy and environment is a myth.

New head of the United Nations Environment Program Achim Steiner:

"Care for the environment is often portrayed as detrimental to economic growth," he told on his first day as head of the United Nations' top environment body.

"We hope to lay that myth to rest in the 21st century," he said by telephone from UNEP headquarters in Nairobi, setting out priorities for a four-year term.

Common sense ... I like it.

I put up my tent!

So I made it to 'Roo, as all the cool kidz call it. I even set up my tent, in the dark, all by myself.

Mmm ... Nothing like fair-trade coffee and sunlight to show you how dirty you really are. Yay for showers in my camp area. Boo for not finding them 'til I was dressed and sunscreened!

On tap today: interviews with Lyrics Born and a 'Roo green guy. Plus my first press conference!