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Harry Taylor

A gentleman named Harry Taylor became instantly famous when he stood up at one of President Bush's notoriously scripted "town hall" events and said, among other things, this:

You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf.

...

... in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and ... I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself.

Taylor is also a member of the Sierra Club. According to Carl Pope, Taylor had this to say when asked about the event by club staff:

Cape Wind, R.I.P.

The much-debated Cape Wind project off the coast of Cape Cod has effectively been killed by an amendment to the Coast Guard budget bill.

After all that debate among the locals, it was a parliamentary gimmick in Washington, D.C., that put to rest what would have been the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., and one of the biggest wind farms in the world.

(Amanda wrote about Cape Wind here.)

Edens Lost & Found

Check out Edens Lost & Found, a four-part PBS series (and book, and newsletter, and curriculum) about how four cities -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle -- are working to transform urban environments to integrate nature and improve quality of life. Apparently the first two episodes have already aired; Los Angeles and Seattle are coming up this Spring. Sounds interesting. Check your local listings.

Current TV: Make your own Yaris TV ad, and more

So you think you've got the chops to produce a television commercial after making your own Chevy Tahoe ad? Well, let's see how well you do when you have to shoot and edit it yourself! Still up to the challenge? If so, head on over to Current TV where they're seeking submissions for viewer-created ads for the Toyota Yaris.

What would you do with your Yaris? Now, you don't have to own a Yaris to take on this project. Just make a V-Cam commercial about what you would do with your Toyota Yaris. The operative word here is "you." Make it personal, engaging and compelling. Where would you go? Who would you take? What would you take with you? Whatever you do, have fun and let your freak-flag-fly. There. Now go make something.

Now, before you get all subversive, check this out: the Yaris supposedly gets up to 40 mpg on the highway, according to the Toyota website. Oh yeah, if your piece airs, you earn $1,000.

If you'd rather watch than create, Current has added several new enviro pieces to their Earth pod:

Global Public Media

I'm sure everyone but me already knew about this, but Global Public Media is a kick-ass site that contains interviews with all sorts of smart people about a range of issues relating to a "post-carbon world." It's eaten about half my day so far. Right now I'm learning about permaculture and the central importance of soil from David Holmgren. Visit at your own risk.

Peak oil: catastrophic or merely unpleasant?

On EnergyBulletin, permaculture-guy Toby Hemenway does his part to cool off some of the more overheated peak oil apocaphilia. He doesn't deny the basic physical facts of peak oil, but he says for peak oil to be truly catastrophic, the following five propositions must be true:

1. Our demand for oil is unchangeable and is not significantly affected by price.

2. We are so badly addicted to oil that we will watch our civilization collapse rather than change our behavior.

3. Significant oil conservation is not possible in the time frame needed.

4. Even with conservation, demand will be more than oil plus alternatives can possibly meet.

5. Society is so fragile that it cannot withstand large shocks.

In fact, Hemenway says, all five are false.

He makes a good case, and I don't really dispute it. But if someone did want to dispute it, I think it would go something like this:

Outsourced linky post

Over at Peak Energy, Big Gav has one of his patented long, link-filled, impossible-to-summarize posts, covering several things I wanted to mention, thus saving me the trouble. Go read it.

There will come a day …

... when buying green tags to offset [your group's activity here] is no longer worth sending out a press release about. And it can't come soon enough.

Carat Top

Ringing in a new era of ethically and ecologically responsible jewelry Did you know 30 tons of waste rock can be generated in producing one gold ring? Us neither, but now we’re never getting married. Trying to keep a step ahead of consumers’ growing social and environmental consciousness, the jewelry industry is making some changes. […]

Aral Be There

Aral Sea coming back to life after decades of draining damage The dramatic diminution and pollution of Central Asia’s Aral Sea is one of the 20th century’s most stunning eco-disasters — but its restoration may become an eco-miracle of the 21st. Since the World Bank’s $85.8 million Kok-Aral Dam project began in 2001, the Aral […]