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Southern Land Do Need You Around, Anyhow

Big conservation deal will protect 218,000 acres of forest in the South Conservationists are celebrating the biggest sale of private land for preservation in the South’s history. The Nature Conservancy and the Conservation Fund have put up a combined $300 million for 218,000 acres of forestland owned by International Paper in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, […]

Chemical plant security

To turn our attention to the kind of terrorism that could actually hurt people: The failure of "strong on terrorism" Republicans to do anything to protect chemical plants and facilities -- some of the most vulnerable and dangerous targets for terrorists -- is a scandal that has gotten nothing like the press it deserves. It would be difficult to find a case where Republican "strength" more cravenly crumbled before the demands of a (heavily contributing) industry. There's no defense for it; nobody even tries to defend it. They just don't talk about it.

An explosion at a chemical plant would be a human and ecological disaster that would dwarf 9/11. (It would even dwarf a whole dealer lot full of graffiti'd SUVs!) And it's just a matter of time.

Anyway, the latest and greatest on this is Jonathan Chait's latest column in the L.A. Times. Read it and weep.

See also this NYT editorial, Carl Pope here and here, Greenpeace here, and from a couple years back, John B. Judis in The New Republic.

‘Eco-terrorism’: A subtle chill

A few bits and pieces on the "eco-terrorism" front:

This L.A. Times piece makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside:

Plug-in hybrids go viral

I'm not a big fan of flash animation. I am, however, a huge fan of plug-in hybrids. Love trumps hate in this instance, so I urge you to check out Calcar.org's efforts to spread the word on the benefits of plug-in hybrids with this piece of viral marketing.

If you make it to the end of the animation, there's a chance to sign a petition to automakers urging them to manufacture plug-ins.

Make your own Chevy Tahoe commercial

Check this out: Chevrolet has a site up where you can design your own commercial for the Chevy Tahoe. As Kevin Drum says, this one is probably not long for this world, so watch it while you can.

Here's my commercial:

Hey, 2,325 U.S. kids have died, 16,653 have been injured, and up to $2 trillion will be spent to keep our oil supply safe. If you support the troops you'll get out there and use some of it! Chevy Tahoe: Don't let all that blood go to waste.^™

Two leaders — one mainstream, one radical — debate over green movement

When Eric Mann first encountered environmentalists, he saw them as a bunch of "arrogant, racist airheads." When Frances Beinecke first encountered environmentalists, she felt she'd found her cause. Now, both are tireless proponents of environmental sanity, but they work in very different ways. Mann is director of the L.A.-based Labor/Community Strategy Center, where he fights for environmental justice, immigrant and labor rights, and economic equity. Beinecke is president of Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the nation's biggest green groups. We got the two of them talking about poverty, the environment, and building a stronger movement; find out what they had to say.

How environmentalists lost the battle over TCE

An article in the LA Times today reveals how the U.S. EPA has been completely emasculated in recent years. It focuses on TCE, an industrial chemical found in the nation's water supply. After four years of study, the EPA concluded that TCE was as much as forty times more likely to cause cancer as previously believed. That was in 2001.

Concerned about a potential $1.5 billion in cleanup cost, the Pentagon handled things their way: they launched a pre-emptive strike against the EPA, wielding political power and deploying bureaucratic red tape in a campaign of Shock and Audit:

Happiness: The Chinese zombie ships of West Africa

I read this on the Greenpeace blog and it really shocked me. I do admit that I eat fish sometimes, but I had no idea that I was contributing to this. It seems that Chinese workers not only pay a high price for making Western cloth, but now are used as fishermen, spending years on ships that are almost falling apart.

They are being forced to steal from countries with lesser means. Did you now that the countries in West Africa are the only countries where they eat less fish? Not because they want to but because of the illegal fishing fleets taking advantage of their lack of means of patrolling their seas. And now there just aren't plenty of fish anymore.

Where will the fish end up? Often on dinner plates in Europe...

Everything you wanted to know about Portland…

Well I'll be. I was skeptical about whether Treehugger's "tell us about your city" thing was going to work, but they asked about Portland, OR, and man did they get an earful. Some really fascinating stuff in comments.

Laurie David is friggin’ everywhere

And good for her. If Grist's interview with David didn't satisfy your appetite, E magazine serves up some fresh interview goodness.

It has been my goal this year to permeate popular culture with [global warming], and to use all of the resources that I have available to me to make that happen. One of those resources is my relationships with comedians and my ability to produce comedy. And then, obviously, my relationship with HBO. Just using everything I can to take this issue off the science pages and put it on the front pages. My feeling is that if people don't start demanding change, the government is not going to change.

Get on witcha bad self!

(via TH)