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Going to Sundance?

Formerly known as EV Confidential, Who Killed the Electric Car?, currently in post-production, will be playing during the 2006 Sundance Film Festival (Jan. 19 - 29, Park City, Utah).

A synopsis:

Fashioned like a tongue-in-cheek murder mystery, Who Killed the Electric Car? sets out to uncover just who is responsible for the demise of this ill-fated vehicle. The spirited film runs through the prime suspects, including car companies, oil companies, the government, and consumers. Beginning in the early nineties, under pressure from the California Air Resource Board, car manufacturers were forced to develop nonpolluting vehicles. GM made the first car, the EV-1, available for lease in the midnineties. After less than 10 years, citing lack of interest by the public, the automaker took the vehicle off the market and officially discontinued the project. Government policy was rescinded, and currently, GM and other automakers are crushing all remaining electric vehicles. Filmmaker Chris Paine follows electric car activists who are desperately trying to save the few remaining cars from being destroyed and hoping to change policy. A very timely subject, Who Killed the Electric Car? serves as a potent reminder that the powers that be will stop at nothing to maintain their position in the world. The film is an informative and thoroughly entertaining journey into the world of environmentally conscious technology and the cars that may one day be here...again. -- Lisa Viola

I'd say "see ya there," but, alas, I'm not going.

Look, honey! It’s a disaster!

New bus tours of Katrina's aftermath: creepy or clever?

One thing's for sure: they're popular.

And other thoughts from a ‘clueless’ enviro.

As political junkies know, Grover Norquist -- a major player in the Republican establishment -- holds weekly breakfast meetings, attended by everybody-who's-anybody on the right. This is where much of the famed "message coordination" happens. It would take a brave Democrat to venture into that lion's den.

I guess Al Gore is brave (stupid? foolhardy? running for president?).

He attended last week's meeting to give a version of his basic PowerPoint presentation on global warming. According to Steve Hayward's account (via Ezra), Gore was charming and the presentation was impressive, but the Q&A session failed to dazzle.

What bugs me about Hayward's post is this:

The real environmental debate

The stereotypical environmental debate is between people who favor "command and control" regulation (big government) and those who favor market mechanisms (small government). Democrats and most environmentalists are thought to be on one side, Republicans and "free market" environmentalists on the other.

This is a woefully imprecise and outdated way of describing the current political landscape. It's a large and complex topic, too much to chew over in one blog post. But Kevin Drum, writing on an unrelated subject, nails perhaps the most salient fact:

One of the underreported stories of the past few years is the evolution of the Republican Party from being the party of capitalism and free enterprise to being merely the party of whichever business interests can help Republicans get reelected. There's a big difference between being pro-market and being pro-business -- in fact, they're often diametrically opposed ....

Polar bears

As if it wasn't enough that the huge reduction in the polar ice cap has caused polar bears to drown at an alarming rate, now tourists can pay to shoot them in Greenland.

Binky, polar bear of tourist chewing fame at the Anchorage Zoo, was just getting in his last licks while he still could ...

Umbra on hyped-up verbiage

Dear Umbra, Surely you must have noticed that ubiquitous cliché of environmental reportage: the alarming rate. Forests are disappearing at an alarming rate, coral reefs are being destroyed at an alarming rate, global warming is increasing at an a.r., and so forth. Clearly, the use of “alarming rate” is itself growing at an alarming rate. […]

Now That’s Intelligent Design

Schools curbing energy costs by building green School officials in Oregon are learning a thing or two from a prototype uber-green classroom near Salem, which uses a large skylight and other technologies to enhance and regulate the natural light coming into the space. With energy bills eating up millions of dollars from school budgets, the […]

Supply and the Land

Cities spending millions on land to protect water supplies Many U.S. cities are discovering they have a choice: Build huge, multibillion-dollar water-treatment plants, or buy up land around water supplies to prevent them from being polluted in the first place. More and more, they are choosing the latter option — derailing sprawl and protecting open […]

Let Them Eat Hake

International caviar trade halted to save sturgeon Oh, man, this is going to cramp our style at Grist staff parties: A global ban on international export of wild caviar — salty black sturgeon eggs prized by gourmets — took effect on Tuesday. The U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species nixed the lucrative trade, […]

Callahan leaves LCV

Deb Callahan, 10-year president of the League of Conservation Voters, announced today that she is resigning.