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Breakfast at epiphany’s

Your morning repast: how much is it worth in oil? Chad Heeter investigates.

What would your global warming ad look like?

I'll be honest: The new Environmental Defense TV ads about global warming make me cringe. The public is conditioned at this point to view environmental groups as alarmists, and these ads could not possibly play more neatly into that stereotype. I mean, ominous music? A scary, deep-voiced narrator? A train heading toward a little girl? Seriously?

Who's going to do anything but roll their eyes?

If I was going to do a 30-second commercial, here's the script I'd use:

[Over very brief montage of smokestacks, hurricanes, and parched deserts.] Global warming's already here, and it's only going to get worse. In the next 20-40 years, everything's going to have to change: the way we get around; the way we produce our food; the way we power our homes and offices.

[Fade to bright montage of people in laboratories, wind turbines, farmers in fields, construction workers looking at building plans, high-speed trains, etc.] There will be difficulties we don't yet understand; professions we have not yet named; opportunities we have not yet begun to grasp. The next generation will be called on to create something entirely new: a prosperous, sustainable, healthy society. Let's unleash their energy. Give them the tools and knowledge they need.

Together, we can overcome the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. Let's get started.

Hm ... that might be a little longer than 30 seconds. But you get the idea.

What do you think? What would your ad look like?

After the levees

The TPM empire -- aficionados of political blogs will know of what I speak -- has started a new blog: After the Levees, about post-Katrina New Orleans. Bookmark it.

What it takes

I'm reading Wendy Kopp's One Day All Children..., the story of the founding of Teach for America.

It's inspiring. If you ever wonder what it takes to launch a movement, here's some tips gleaned from her experience:

1. Have a great idea.
2. Think big.
3. Focus like a laser.
4. Work harder than you have worked before.

From page 38:

The work was piling up. My solution was to begin sleeping every other night.

Easy!

A virtual walking tour of Wisconsin’s Sokaogon Chippewa community

Three years ago, the Sokaogon Chippewa tribe of Northern Wisconsin bought the nearby site of a proposed mine, winning a 30-year battle to preserve their land and community. But this April, the mortgage comes due, and the tribe is still struggling to raise money to pay it off. Tribe member Tina Van Zile leads a virtual walking tour of her community, reflecting on the past fight for justice, her present frustrations, and her hopes for future generations.

Sorry, optimists, it’s not your day

(Note: Due to previous misinterpretations of my sarcasm -- no, I do not actually believe that vegetarians are sinners -- I feel it necessary to mark all occurrences of sarcasm in the below post in bold.)

Gosh, there's just so much good news in the environmental world -- I feel it's my duty, in the name of balanced journalism, to bring you some bad news.

The U.K.'s Chancellor of the Exchequer -- I think I want that job just for the fancy title -- unveiled a budget yesterday that would exempt low-polluting cars from an excise tax. You would think this would be good news, but you would be wrong:

The only car that would qualify for the break, Honda Motor Co.'s Insight, hasn't been sold in Britain since it finished its five-year production run last year. ... No cars qualify for the exemption to the tax.

"I want to do more to encourage cleaner fuels and cars," said the Chancellor (presumed sarcasm mine).

Insidious, but clever, I must say.

They Got Seoul But They’re Not Eco-Soldiers

South Korean Supreme Court rules in favor of eco-damaging seawall In a bitter defeat for a worldwide coalition of environmentalists, the South Korean Supreme Court has ruled that construction can continue on what will become, if finished as planned, the world’s longest seawall. Begun in 1991 and about 90 percent complete, the 20-mile-long wall will […]

No, No, We Said Hit the Road, Gale

In parting gesture, Norton paves way for more roads on federal lands Yesterday, as a Cruella-De-Ville-esque parting shot, Interior Secretary Gale Norton issued a new policy that enviros warn could allow local and state governments to build hundreds of roads on national parks, wildlife refuges, and other federal lands in the West. At issue is […]

Hansen on 60 Minutes

A while back, famed NASA climatologist James Hansen appeared on CBS' 60 Minutes to talk about global warming and the Bush administration's attempts to suppress climate-change science. Now Crooks & Liars has the video. Check it out.

(via A Few Things Ill Considered)

Update [2006-3-23 10:28:46 by David Roberts]: That reminds me: Rick Piltz, who worked for years coordinating climate research programs at NASA, the U.S. EPA, and the National Science Foundation, quit last year and started talking to the press about administration interference in science. He's interviewed in the 60 Minutes piece, and has also started a fantastic blog about media-related climate science issues. Bookmark it.

As the world swelters

Judging from this quip recently overheard in New York at the West 4th Street subway station, the Environmental Defense + Ad Council's new Fight Global Warming ad campaign can't start soon enough:

Girl: ...I mean, who doesn't like being warm? It's not like they call it "Global Sweltering"! So who cares?