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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!

China can pollute and dam all at once!

China has experience with spilling toxics into rivers: it's done it just recently in the Songhua, the Xiangjiang, the Yellow, and the Yangtze.

And China really loves dams; oh, does it heart dams.

So I guess this shouldn't be surprising:

Chinese authorities tried to slow the spread of a toxic spill by building 51 makeshift dams along the tainted river and using fire trucks to pump out polluted water before it reaches a reservoir serving a city of 10 million people, state media said Friday.

The spill of 60 tons of coal tar into the Dasha river in north China's Shanxi province was the latest in a series of mishaps fouling the country's already polluted waterways. Officials said there have been at least 76 water pollution accidents in the last six months.

Nope, not surprised. Just depressed.

Don’t Be a Menace to South Central

Urban gardeners evicted from community farm in L.A. South Central Farm, a 14-acre community garden in a sea of warehouses in urban L.A., will be bulldozed to make way for … a warehouse. The 350 low-income families who for years have been growing food on the plot this week lost their fight to save the […]