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Duh, China’s big
Jared Diamond's book Guns, Germs and Steel is an excellent read, and a great resource for environmentalists. Even better is his second book, Collapse. In it, he looks at how the collapse of civilizations has often been precipitated or exacerbated by environmental stress. One of his most stunning chapters is on China, and the vast ecological problems it faces thanks to its breakneck development.
How vast? Howzabout 10% of GDP?
China's pollution problems are costing the country more than US$200 billion a year, a top official said yesterday as he called for stronger action to balance environmental protection against economic development.
Environmental damage is costing the government roughly 10 percent of the country's gross domestic product, estimated Zhu Guangyao, deputy chief of the State Environmental Protection Agency. China's GDP for 2005 was US$2.26 trillion.This probably explains why China abandoned it's attempt to develop a "green GDP" measurement earlier this year -- if the Chinese submitted their economy to a full accounting, it would have almost certainly shown negative growth for the last several years.
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Gore/Lohan feud
Caught Gore on Leno last night. Jay compared the efforts to stabilize the ozone layer to global warming. It's a pretty good analogy: International cooperation combined with some new technology has gotten that particular environmental disaster under control. Maybe there is hope after all. I think Gore has realized that the American entertainment industry may be more powerful than the military industrial complex.
Gore mentioned his feud with Lindsay Lohan and that he might consider a nude scene in his next movie if "the script had integrity and it advanced the story."
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Interview with Lawrence Bender
There's an interesting interview with Lawrence Bender, the producer of An Inconvenient Truth, on TruthDig today.
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Americans and Climate Change: Setting goals IV
"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.
Today's bit is brief and fun. It's about setting a different kind of target: Targets for changing the attitudes of the public.
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Going to Hell in a Sandbasket
North central China being slowly swallowed by desert Two deserts in north central China are rapidly expanding, burying 1,500 square miles of grasslands, lakes, forests, and villages under sand every year. Government-led deforestation and water-engineering projects are largely to blame. A giant reservoir near the town of Minqin diverts all available water resources into an […]
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Biscuits ‘n’ Crazy
Forest Service will auction off Oregon timber burned by Biscuit fire Enviros have lost a four-year legal battle to keep logging out of Oregon’s Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, burned four years ago by the massive Biscuit fire. A federal appeals court has cleared the U.S. Forest Service to auction off rights today to about 400 […]
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Electric car questions
Tomorrow I'll be chatting with the folks behind Who Killed the Electric Car? (I saw it this evening -- it's quite good.)
Any questions y'all would like me to ask?
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Deactivated cylinders
The competition to own the biggest truck on the block has finally reached its zenith. The Detroit News tells us that pickup truck sales continue to "crater."
GM and Ford Motor Co. announced plans to cut North American vehicle output in the third quarter to pare their stocks of unsold [pickup] trucks.
"That market is sitting back a bit," said Gary Dilts, senior vice president of sales at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group. "But the core of the truck business -- a very large percentage -- will remain, because they need that kind of vehicle."Garbage in = garbage out. A small percentage of people who buy these trucks actually need them.
