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Depressing Friday reading

Sorry for the paucity of blogging -- we've been have big meetings about the Future of Grist (I won't give anything away, but suffice to say we gotta wear shades).

As some light Friday reading, try an article from Harvard Magazine called "Fueling Our Future" (and don't miss the sidebar, "Is Nuclear Power Scaleable?"). It's a tight, cogent, and fairly disheartening explanation of the sheer scope of what we need to do: reduce GHG emissions by 60 to 70 percent by 2050. And that's just to stabilize climate temperature at already dangerously high levels.

Harvard prof Daniel Schrag, who's featured in the piece, argues fairly convincingly that we're going to be using a lot more coal for energy in the next several decades, and so there's no way around finding reasonably clean ways to do it. His own scheme is to carry the CO2 out on ships and inject it into deep ocean waters where pressure and temperature will keep it down. Sounds like something to pin your future on, huh?

None of the people featured in the article are exactly thrilled about coal, or about nuclear, which they also endorse. They just view them as inevitable realities.

Read the piece and share your thoughts in comments.

Electric car gets its kicks on Route 66

Electric car booster Remy Chevalier -- editor at large for the zine Electrifying Times and last seen at swanky parties with Grist higher-ups -- is getting his kicks on Route 66. No, literally. If you're in Chicago next Friday, head to the Funky Buddha lounge to help Remy and Co. kick off a two-week trip from Chicago to Los Angeles on the infamous Route 66.

No gas-guzzling road trip this -- the crew has stated three eco-goals:

Oil production’s peaking? Snag a Hummer

Memo to self: Keep up with the Wall Street Journal's daily Oil-News Roundup.

Two choice nuggets emerged today. First, there's this discussion of Royal Dutch Shell's latest quarterly earnings report:

Royal Dutch Shell, the world's fourth-largest publicly traded oil company, reported a tiny, 3% increase in first-quarter earnings from a year ago, but said the high cost of sucking oil and natural gas out of the ground could delay some exploration projects, especially long-term developments, including one planned for the Gulf of Mexico. Shell also said it could no longer promise to replace 100% of the reserves it depletes this year. [Emphasis added for the benefit of peak-oil enthusiasts.]

Next, on the auto-biz front, there's this:

Just as large retailers enter the market

Although a recent Wall Street Journal report properly touts the impressive upward trend of organic-food sales, data cited in the story show that the actual rate of growth in organic sales is falling slightly, just as mega-retailers poise themselves to enter the organics market.

An assist from an angler scribe

I must admit I reach first for the sports page in the morning. The headlines on the front page of the Washington Post these days are just too depressing to be the first things I face.

So imagine my surprise last weekend when I found biting environmental-policy commentary in section E. Never one to read fishing or hunting commentaries, the pictures of bloviating politicians smack in the middle of renowned wildlife columnist Angus Phillips' column caught my attention.

Titled "Party Talk Leaves Plenty of Room for Action," Phillips absolutely dismantles a Washington press event on the Potomac (literally -- there were optional canoe trips) to announce the everything's-voluntary-and-we-won't-really-fund-it National Fish Habitat Action Plan.

Showing that he could have a second career as a political reporter, Phillips concludes with:

It’s All Happening at the Zooplankton

New species of deep-sea zooplankton discovered Scientists have found 10 to 20 new species of zooplankton deep in the Atlantic Ocean, including teeny-tiny shrimp-like creatures, gooey jellyfish-esque plankton, and swimming worms. Zooplankton form the base of many ocean food chains and act as carbon sinks by feeding on carbon-laden plant phytoplankton and then sinking to […]

The Artful Roger

Roger Mustalish, Amazon researcher and protector, answers readers’ questions For Roger Mustalish, head of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research, a trip to Peru’s Amazon rainforest is, to quote the ubiquitous credit-card ads, priceless. (And by entering Grist‘s sweepstakes, your trip to Peru really could be price-less!) As InterActivist this week, Mustalish chats […]

What we can learn from anti-smoking advocates

Jamais Cascio -- late of Worldchanging, now ensconced in a snug new blog home -- has an intriguing post up arguing that there are parallels between the climate-crisis debate and the smoking debate of yore, and furthermore that those pushing the climate-crisis issue have much to learn from anti-smoking advocates.

I think he's right on both counts. But I also think he's being rather optimistic about both the parallels and the lessons. Consider this:

Climate crisis and the 2008 election

Wesley Clark is talking about global warming the climate crisis. I'm really curious to see how the issue plays out as candidates start jockeying, looking ahead to 2008.

Everyone on the Dem side will need to acknowledge it, of course, but I wonder which ones will really grab it and try to make it a signature issue. Most of all I want to see what Hillary Clinton, the front-runner [weeps silently], will say about it. I predict a tepid brew.

And of course the calculus on the Republican side is more complex. There's still enormous skepticism about it in the base, and there's the omni-present corporate lobby to please. But public pressure is building and it's becoming increasingly embarrassing to be an outright denier. So candidates on the R side will be probing and experimenting, looking for just the right balance of pander, misdirection, and earnest expression of concern.

Should be fun to watch.

(via EnergyBulletin)

UCLA student wins Larry David’s hybrid in surprise giveaway

UCLA students in Prof. Sherman's "ENVIRON 188: Effective Methods of Social Change" class got quite a surprise yesterday when Larry and Laurie David showed up to lecture about the climate crisis. One student in particular, Erick Tarula (pictured at left with Larry David; photo: Getty Images, courtesy mtvU), was even more surprised when he was handed the keys to the Prius Larry drives on Curb Your Enthusiasm. The lucky med student is the winner of the Curb Global Warming sweepstakes; he was one of tens of thousands who registered for the Stop Global Warming Virtual March on Washington (Laurie's pet project) at mtvU.com.

The couple's surprise visit and lecture was caught on film as part of mtvU's (Emmy nominated!) series "Stand In," which has featured other unexpected profs including Sting, Madonna, Bill Gates, Cameron Diaz, Marilyn Manson (!), and Snoop Dogg (!!).

In a press release from our friends at MTV, a staffer said they were honored to have the couple lecture on such a critical issue; Laurie said it was great to talk to students about making an impact; and Larry, well, he claims his wife offered up his car without asking him and had this to say: "This was a great day except for the part when I gave away the car." Oh, Larry, I heart you.

The episode of "Stand In" with Larry and Laurie David will premiere Tuesday on mtvU and mtvU's broadband channel, Über.