Uncategorized

The Daily Grist Headline Battle Royale: Match 2

Thanks to everyone who participated in the first Daily Grist Headline Battle Royale. There were 34 votes and the winning headline was my personal fave, "One King to Bring Them All and in the Darkness Bind Them," which garnered 35% of the votes.

Here are this week's nominees:

1. Nobody Undoes It Like Sara Lee: Industry-backed bill would overthrow state food-labeling laws
2. Beetle Bailiwick: Warmer B.C. ravaged by beetles, haunted by dead birds
3. Bring in Da Illinois, Bring in Da Hunk: Obama speechifies for energy independence, chemical-plant security
4. I Know You Are, Senator, But What Am I?: Pro-drilling Alaska rep aims to punish anti-drilling Washington senators
5. Rumblings in the Bronx: A virtual walking tour of the South Bronx

Remember, if we can keep this going and gain some momentum (read: we need more than 34 votes), we could have ourselves a "Daily Grist Headline Deathmatch" at the end of the year.

Now vote!

How much do Americans pay for essentials?

Ever wondered what percentage of their income poor Americans pay for food? (Hint: more than the rich.) What proportion of Americans drive to work versus take public transit, and how much it costs them to do it? What the average household will pay to heat their home this winter? How much it costs to have a kid with asthma? Todd Hymas ferreted out these, uh, fun facts and more.

Alan Hipólito of Verde Native Plant Nursery answers readers’ questions

What can the well-off do to help low-income people? Alan Hipólito, this week's InterActivist, shares some ideas. He also answers questions about getting his nonprofit off the ground, replicating the concept of a local garden nursery, staving off discouragement, and painting his toenails. To find out what color, you'll have to read the whole thing.

Blogging resumes

So yeah, I'm a bad blogger -- been almost totally AWOL this week. I have, however, been keeping myself busy.

On Monday, I sat down for a longish discussion with Rabbi Michael Lerner, who's leading the call for a spiritual movement from the "left hand of God" (yes, as opposed to the Right).

On Tuesday, I had a shortish chat with water experts Peter Gleick (head of the Pacific Institute) and ex-EPA head Bill Reilly about the state of play on global water issues.

On Wednesday, I had lunch with Richard Louv, whose new book about "nature-deficit disorder" is making waves.

All these will be on the site in coming weeks -- along with the long-rumored interview with Lester Brown, which is running Monday (a firm date!).

I shall now return to regular blogging, barring the appearance of more smart people in the Seattle area.

Chuck Norris strikes yet again.

And while I'm at it:

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.

Ah, minutes of entertainment.

Melts in Your South, Not in Your Plans

Antarctica ice sheets melting faster than expected Another day, another round of studies showing the world’s ice sheets melting faster than expected, another outbreak of indifference from the public, another resigned sigh from enviros, another bout of empty rhetoric from legislators. K, see you tomorrow! Oh, what, you want details? All right: The lucky ice […]

Harp seals vs. Maritimers

Here is another poverty-related issue, from the Maritime Provinces of Canada -- especially the poorest of all provinces, Newfoundland and Labrador. The infamous slaughter of baby harp seals is set to begin again a bit later this month, on the ice off the Atlantic coast. Such organizations as Greenpeace [well, it looks as though GP's involvement is uncertain; you decide what that means; so let us leave them out of this for now] and the Humane Society of the United States are already in place to protest.

Another pair of celebrity-protesters are Paul McCartney and his wife Heather, great activists for animal rights. They arrived yesterday in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, with a retinue of helicopters, with the intention of observing the seals as closely as they can on the ice. The story on their visit, in yesterday's Globe and Mail, prompted a large number of comments from readers, the great majority of them very unfriendly indeed. Among the recurring themes were: Foreigners have no right to tell Canadians what to do; vegetarians are hypocrites; celebrity activists are hypocrites; Sir Paul is a hypocrite; the seal-slaughter is traditional; it is not inhumane; it is good for North Atlantic ecosystems.

Portraits of loss in the wake of Katrina

It's impossible to forget the images of a hurricane-wrecked New Orleans and its victims that were beamed around the world in the immediate aftermath of the storm. But what did it look like when the TV crews left? Well, um, still bad. Seattle-area photographer Chris Jordan took his camera south this winter to see what the storm had wrought. The message he brings back with his photo essay: our choices matter more than we think.

Interior Wreckorating

Interior official says big oil-royalty giveaway was likely a mistake Remember that $7 billion to $9 billion in royalty payments that oil and gas companies won’t be sending to American taxpayers for leases on public land? Turns out it’s the result of an Interior Department mistake. Oopsie! According to testimony yesterday before a House subcommittee, […]

A guest essay by Arthur Coulston

Posted below is an essay from guest author Arthur Coulston. He is the co-founder of Energy Action, a coalition of over 30 leading youth climate, energy, and environmental organizations.

(The essay represents Coulston's opinion alone, and does not constitute an official statement from Energy Action.)

-----

For over a year now, various rabble-rousers have been ringing the death knell for environmentalism, creating an uproar and prompting a series of rebuttals and hallelujahs that taken together raise the important question: "What were we talking about?"

But just in case the water was not muddy enough, I offer my own contribution. This is not a riposte to either the initial "Death of Environmentalism" or any of the specific responses made since. Rather, it is my own answer to what I believe is the central question in this important debate: "Why has environmentalism struggled to address the issue of climate change, and how might we become more effective?"

Our posterity: An open letter to environmentalists

It is self-evident that in a democratic political system the short-term interests of the present generation can pose a threat to the long-term interests of their posterity. Without a systematic or constitutional means of balancing these potentially conflicting interests, posterity is represented only as a tenuous secondary interest of a handful of citizens who must balance and blend their representation of future interests with their own present interests.