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But the paper makes him look more pessimistic than he really is

The UK's Independent has positively wallowed in a week's worth of journalistic eco-doomsaying -- see Sarah's woe over the possible fate of plankton or Dave's dissection of James Lovelock's apocophilia, plus a few more dismal items we never even got around to Gristmilling.

Frankly, I think The Independent has been yanking our chains, because the only thing that sells as well as sex is death and destruction. And today it supplied chaos and old night courtesy of author Jeremy Leggett, who like Lovelock has a book coming out: Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis.

Leggett is an "early topper" -- a person who's "worked in the heart of the oil industry, the majority of them geologists, many of them members of an umbrella organisation called the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO). They are joined by a small but growing number of analysts and journalists. The early toppers reckon that 1 trillion barrels of oil, or less, are left." As compared to "late toppers," who think there are at least 2 trillion barrels of oil left. It's not a minor point:

An assessment.

The UN's Millennium Ecosystem Assessment was completed by 1,360 researchers from 95 countries and published last year; a five-volume coda has just been published that "outlines four plausible ways the planet could develop politically, economically, and socially by 2050, and the effect they would have on people and the environment." According to a CSM article:

By 2050, it estimates that the highly global approach - with liberal trade policies, and concerted efforts to reduce poverty, improve education and public health, yet respond reactively to environmental issues - could yield the lowest population growth and the highest economic growth. But the environmental scorecard would be mixed.

In a fragmented world that focuses largely on security and regional markets and takes a reactive approach to ecological problems, economic growth rates are the lowest and the population is the highest of the four pathways.

Two other paths, which place a greater emphasis on technology and a proactive approach to the environment, yield population growth rates somewhere in the middle, and economic growth rates that may be slow at first, but accelerate with time.

Huh. The title of the article is "Forecast for Earth in 2050: It's not so gloomy," but I, living in a highly reactive, security-focused, highly influential country, am skeptical.

Journalism and global warming

Harvard's Nieman Foundation for Journalism puts out a journal called Nieman Reports. The latest issue is about news coverage of intelligent design and global warming. You can download the entire issue (PDF), or the section about global warming (with multimedia; without multimedia -- both PDF). I've only read a couple of the bits, but they're quite interesting.

(via Tim Lambert)

Interview with RealClimate scientists

An interesting interview with three of the science guys from RealClimate on DailyKos -- check it out.

(via Chris Mooney)

More on Alito and the environment

From BushGreenwatch. Some good info about specific cases.

People, animals at risk of famine.

In case you weren't aware ...

Drought is causing crisis conditions in East Africa, leaving millions hungry in Kenya, Somalia, and bordering countries. Sudanese herders have driven livestock into a Ugandan wildlife reserve in an effort to find water. The drought is affecting animals too: Elephants are leaving sanctuaries to find food and hippos are dying as water levels are depleted.

You know when you feel totally helpless ... ?

A Whale of a Door Prize

Greenpeace dumps dead whale at Japanese embassy Greenpeace, ever masters of artful subtlety, dumped a big ol’ dead whale on the doorstep of the Japanese embassy in Berlin yesterday. Here we pause a moment to let you savor the mental image … ahh. The whale dump was a protest against Japan’s ongoing hunt for minke […]

A surprisingly short post, considering the ground to be covered.

When one sees a headline that says "Environmental hazard: space junk," one might assume the article will be about the environmental hazards of space junk. One would be mistaken, as the article is about the potential danger of spacecraft being hit by space junk. An issue in some circles, surely, but "environmental hazard"? Might I suggest to the Boston Globe headline writer that "Junk in the trunk" might have been better?

Luckily, a reader feeling disgruntled over having been eco-misled can link from the space junk article to the the highly adorable "Hamster, snake best friends at Tokyo zoo." Aochan the snake was given Gohan the hamster (whose name means "meal") as a tasty treat, but elected to make her his buddy instead. They live together in a cardboard box and sometimes snuggle up to take naps.

Yay! Cute animal stories make me happy. Plus you can link from snake-hearts-hamster to fun human-interest story "Man trapped in toilet when lock freezes." The world is a terribly interesting place.

Sonar, and Thanks for All the Fish

References to naval sonar cut from report on mass whale stranding Sonar who? A federal government report on the stranding of 37 whales on North Carolina’s Outer Banks last year conspicuously fails to mention the possible influence of naval sonar. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration investigator Teri Rowles says that although she initially suggested loud […]

Can environmentalism be sexy, hip, and fun?

By the looks of this party, I say hell yeah! What am I talking about? ICInyc. From the press release [PDF]:

On January 25th, 2006 New York's eco-conscious elite will descend on the trendy LES hotspot Libation for a party held by ICInyc. The first party of its kind, ICInyc will bring these eco-chic revelers together for a simple purpose; to show the rest of the world that being fabulous and easy on the planet are one and the same.

...

The future-forward set is hungry for an ultra chic venue that speaks to its consciousness. ICInyc ("ici" is French for "here"), a roving celebration of front line visionaries blending fashion, design, media and the arts with the modest task of saving the planet, fills the void. "We created ICInyc as a spectacle, experiment and gathering place for the growing number of fashionable, design-savvy, eco-conscious urban dwellers," says Charles Heckman, one of the masterminds behind the event.

And eco-fashion (for the life of me I don't know why Grist hasn't interviewed her yet) hottie Summer Rayne Oakes should be in attendance.

And by the looks of the press list, this might be a serious event.

(Via TH)