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Umbra on herbicides and lawns

Dear Umbra, My husband just spread some very toxic weed-killer on our lawn, and I told him there must be a safer way to get rid of weeds. Our children and pets were not allowed on the lawn for 24 hours. We have a well and septic system, and I was wondering if that stuff […]

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck …

Andy Revkin, NYT's climate reporter, brings news of a just-released federal study on climate change which shows "clear evidence of human influences on the climate system."

For a moment I'm shouting, "All right! We're moving past debate and into problem solving."

But ... not to be undone by their own research conclusions, policy officials note that "while the new finding was important, the administration's policy remained focused on studying the remaining questions and using voluntary means to slow the growth in emissions of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide."

There's also this:

Dr. Christy [one of the study's authors] also said that even given what the models projected, it would be impossible to slow warming noticeably in the coming decades. Countries would be wise to seek ways to adapt to warming, he added, even as they seek new sources of energy that do not emit heat-trapping gases.

So, we simultaneously resist admitting this is a big problem and jump right past prevention to adaptation.

I'm guessing this report will spark some change, and it does knock another leg out from the feds' already tottering chair of denial. But it still amazes me that it's so incredibly difficult for us to deal with the problem squarely.

Reflections on my interview with Al Gore

Damn 20 minutes goes by quick.

Update [2006-5-3 10:9:58 by David Roberts]: Especially when you blow your first five minutes discussing your shared Tennessee roots.

Nation’s largest solar home community

I have no idea if this is actually the nation's largest solar home community. I do know, however, that it's good news:

Homebuilder, Lennar today announced a partnership with PowerLight Corporation and Roseville Electric to build the nation's largest solar community. The Sacramento division of the national builder, Lennar, operates locally as Renaissance Homes and Winncrest Homes and will integrate photovoltaic systems and upgraded energy efficiency measures into 450 new homes slated to be built in Roseville over the next two years.

When municipal utilites, homebuilders, and solar installers team up and cooperate, efficiencies and cost savings can be maximized. Solar installations are cheaper when installed at the time of contruction. Houses can be oriented to maximize production. And the distribution system can be sized appropriately, with additional potential savings.

How did this happen? Back in November, the city passed a requirement making it so.

Leadership on clean energy is at the local level.

Vote!

Have you voted for us in the Webby Awards yet? NO?!?

Well then. Quit whatever you're doing immediately, go register, and vote. You want those National Geographic clowns getting big heads? I didn't think so.

Sex and taxes

Discussion of taxes in this country rarely gets beyond "higher vs. lower" screeching. We desperately need smarter tax talk: rational discussion of what we want as a society, what we don't want, and how best to allocate our resources. To get there, we have to get people interested in taxes -- remind them that the government works for them, and they should pay attention to what they're funding.

I have no idea how to bring about that state of affairs. But I suppose you could do worse than equating taxes and sex.

Gas price follies

I'll confess that I've grown rapidly tired of the hubbub around gas prices. It's pretty clear that our national leaders don't plan to do anything but posture and pander, and saying, "look how the jerks are posturing and pandering!" gets tiresome after a while.

However, the intrepid bloggers at Think Progress never tire of it, so I'm just going to outsource to them for a while.

For instance, see this post, with video of Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist -- who has rapidly become one of the most pathetic, sad-sack public figures in memory, still scrabbling desperately to keep his presidential hopes alive, the last one to know that they were stillborn from the start -- making the comically preposterous claim that gas prices wouldn't be high now if Clinton had allowed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ten years ago. Seriously.

And then there's this post, which relays the amusing story of Karl Rove a) for once getting something right, and b) getting blasted by his own people for it.

It's not every day that Karl Rove gets a lesson in politics. But the President's ace strategist was brought up sharply at a recent White House meeting with a group of Republican congressional-staff chiefs when he suggested that the best approach to soaring gasoline prices was this: wait. There's no immediate fix available, so let the market work its magic, Rove said.

Yeah, Republicans in Congress didn't like hearing that. "We want better panders, Karl! That's why we pay you the big bucks!"

Skepticism

This great post on Sprol brings some much-needed skepticism to many of the energy alternatives currently being touted as green -- ethanol and "clean coal" among them.

Beez!

Did you know that a swarm of bees is also known as a grist of bees?

I leave it to readers to tease out the metaphorical implications.

Good Luck, Little Buddy

First captive-bred giant panda released into the wild Good news for panda lovers (so, basically everybody): On Friday, the first of 103 giant pandas being bred at a Chinese research center was released into the wild. And panda-monium ensued! OK, not really. Four-year-old Xiang Xiang, whose name means “auspicious,” wandered without event from his cage […]