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A virtual walking tour of Columbia, Miss., with Charlotte Keys of Jesus People Against Pollution
In 1977, a factory in Columbia, Miss., that had been manufacturing Agent Orange was rocked by an explosion. The owner, Reichhold Chemical Inc., shuttered the facility and abandoned or buried thousands of barrels of toxic waste near the water supply of the predominantly poor, African-American neighborhood where it had operated; flooding and leaks followed. In […]
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Gulf oil production remains hobbled
Oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico didn't get much attention during the 2005 hurricane season. Thankfully none were so catastrophic as to overtake any of the catastrophes unfolding on land during Katrina and Rita. But as the folks at SKYTRUTH document, there were still plenty of spills.
And according to the Minerals Management Service (the part of the Department of the Interior responsible for overseeing production in federal waters), Katrina and Rita were the greatest natural disasters to oil and gas development in the history of the Gulf.
Furthermore, the impact hasn't stopped. Due to the oil infrastructure wreckage, three boats have been damaged, including one that led to a massive spill back in November.
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Klare on the permanent energy crisis
Energy analyst Michael T. Klare has been busy lately. There was his great piece on natural gas in The Nation, an op-ed in the L.A. Times this weekend about how it's not just us but the whole world that's addicted to oil, and -- most deserving of your attention -- a new piece on Tom's Dispatch arguing that the world is on the brink of a more-or-less permanent energy crisis:
Although we cannot hope to foresee all the ways such forces will affect the global human community, the primary vectors of the permanent energy crisis can be identified and charted. Three such vectors, in particular, demand attention: a slowing in the growth of energy supplies at a time of accelerating worldwide demand; rising political instability provoked by geopolitical competition for those supplies; and mounting environmental woes produced by our continuing addiction to oil, natural gas, and coal. Each of these would be cause enough for worry, but it is their intersection that we need to fear above all.
Yup.
Read the whole thing.
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Bush and Crichton
Todd Gitlin brings us this quote from Frank Barnes' Rebel-in-Chief: Inside the Bold and Controversial Presidency of George W. Bush:
Though he didn't say so publicly, Bush is a dissenter on the theory of global warming....He avidly read Michael Crichton's 2004 novel State of Fear, whose villain falsifies scientific studies to justify draconian steps to curb global warming....Early in 2005, political adviser Karl Rove arranged for Crichton to meet with Bush at the White House. They talked for an hour and were in near-total agreement. The visit was not made public for fear of outraging environmentalists all the more.
Sigh.
My review of Crichton's book is here.
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Back to switchgrass
According to a guest op-ed in today's NYT, switchgrass is the road to world peace. And a pony.
I'm ready to be convinced about this stuff. If switchgrass really flourishes on marginal land, soaks up pesticides, absorbs CO2, looks great in floral arrangements, and -- this is key -- could eventually be scaled to compete with the abundance and price of corn, count me a cheerleader.
I think biofuels will be only a small part of the long-term energy solution, but low-impact crop fuels are necessary and comparatively unobjectionable as a bridge technology.
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More evidence that individual purchases mean less than changes in the system
Apparently I didn't do such a good job in this post explaining why I found this New York Times article on higher-mileage, gas-electric hybrid SUVs so troubling. So I'll try again.
To recap -- the Times article claims that, under the system governing vehicle fuel economy in the U.S., selling a hybrid Escape lets Ford sell an additional Lincoln Navigator without running afoul of federal CAFE standards. In other words, while buying an Escape may mean that you're driving a more efficient vehicle, it doesn't mean that the average fuel economy of all the Fords on the road will change one whit.
A couple commenters over on my blog mothership said this is bunk. But I think the article is on to something.
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White House knew about breach of levees
So yeah, I know you've got scandal fatigue, but if you can squeeze just one more in, here you go.
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Media Shower: The inauguration
What do you get when a significant number of your posts are about the same topic? You're asked to write a weekly column! Thus, I introduce "Media Shower," whereby I'll shower you (ha ha) with musings on the intersection of media and the environment. While I'll focus on television, film, video games, and the internets, no medium will be off-limits. Specifically, I'll be exploring ways that TV shows, movies, etc. are being used to help the cause. To that end, I give you Jeff Skoll.
