Uncategorized

Monitor your electricity use

In the making-the-invisible-visible department, I give you the Kill-a-Watt, a $30 widget that plugs in between an electrical device and an outlet to tell you exactly how much electricity the device is using.

I could plug one of these up between my power strip (computer/external hard drives/printer/scanner/monitor/speakers) and the outlet, but frankly I'm too scared.

(via BB)

Make your own ecosystem

Choose dry-land or marine-aquatic!

(via Digg)

China, China, China

Two interesting stories on China, one small, one large.

The small one, in the L.A. Times, is about the latest toxic river spill in China and the government's quick and transparent response -- obviously it learned some lessons from last month's disastrous Songhua River spill.

The long one, in the N.Y. Times, is about fledgling attempts by NGOs and citizen groups in China to have a say in big development projects. Specifically, it focuses on huge hydropower projects like the one planned for the Nu River. There are also some interesting details about the country's electricity situation.

One study estimated that China might build enough new dams, most of them in Yunnan, to double its hydroelectric output in the next five years. One plan would inundate one of the most popular tourist attractions in China - Tiger Leaping Gorge.

Part of the frenzied hydropower development is driven by the thirst for new energy supplies. But part of it is caused by the breakup of the state monopoly that once controlled electrical generation in China. That breakup left regional state-owned energy giants who were each assigned "assets" - like rivers or coal deposits. Each faces competitive pressures to develop new power plants quickly in order to claim market share.

Mr. Ma, the environmental consultant in Beijing, said environmentalists understood that China faced a complex challenge in developing new energy sources even as it must reduce pollution. But he said this intense pressure to develop was why laws that provide oversight and public review must serve as safeguards.

Lots of food for thought.

Rebuilding: He-said, she-said

Everything -- everything -- eventually becomes fodder for a partisan food fight.

In some ways, the nation's response to Katrina is cleaving the public down partisan lines as a domestic issue, just as Iraq has on foreign policy. Both issues have become polarizing, rather than unifying, issues for the country, said Glen Bolger, a pollster for Hill Republicans.

According to a poll this month for the Hotline political newsletter, which asked whether Congress should tackle Iraq or the Katrina recovery first in 2006, Americans wanted the Gulf Coast rebuilt by 58 percent to 28 percent.

Democratic and independent voters generally agreed on addressing Katrina's problems, while self-identified Republicans chose Iraq, 46 percent to 37 percent.

Update [2005-12-26 11:10:29 by David Roberts]: Also, don't miss the extremely thorough L.A. Times rundown on the history of bureaucratic feuding that doomed New Orleans' levees.

Squidoo

Have y'all heard of a site called Squidoo? People share their expertise on various subjects and then, in some way I'm not entirely clear on, make money from it. It's free to use, though. If I had any expertise on anything, maybe I'd "create a lens," as the site puts it.

Here's the lens on green building. Pretty neat.

Utne Independent Press Award

Not to toot our own horn (toot! toot!), but I thought I'd draw your attention to the fact that Grist has won the 2005 Utne Independent Press Award for online political coverage.

We are flattered.

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick note to wish all Grist (and Gristmill!) readers a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Here's hoping Santa brought all of us what we really need: Enough courage and compassion to overcome fear.

Game over, man?

Greenpeace is taking on the French government ... again:

Africa has already lost two-thirds of its ancient forests in the last thirty years, industrial logging threatens most of what remains. In as little as five to ten years Africa's apes, the gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos, will disappear with the last undisturbed forest areas.

And France, by accepting timber from illegal and destructive sources, is also jeopardizing the development of legitimate trade in legal and environmentally and socially responsible timber.

Click here for the government's response to date.

That five-to-ten-year time frame also applies to Orangutans in Asia. Is this the end? As I have said before, extinction in the wild is extinction, period. Zoos are just fleeting holding tanks for creatures that no longer have a place on our planet. The great apes are our closest remaining cousins and when they go, there will only be us and the monkeys. Shiver ....

Better control over reproduction is still crucial.

A few days ago, I received an email update from the Sierra Club's newsletter, PopNews:

There's nothing better than to end the year with a victory! On December 12th, after years of effort made by Choice New Jersey, a coalition of organizations, including Sierra Club, Contraceptive Equity Bill A292 passed the New Jersey Assembly by a vote of 57-14. The bill mandates that insurance companies who cover wellness medication prescriptions such as those for diabetes, high blood pressure, and especially if they cover Viagra, must also cover female contraceptives.

It is incredible that they had to work so hard for so long for what seems like such a simple thing. There is hardly a better way to limit environmental impact while improving the quality of someone's life than to help him or her avoid an unplanned pregnancy. One little question: Why only female contraception?

I’m dreaming of a solar Christmas

My parents are in the midst of building a new house -- their retirement home, as it were -- and I spent a little time (okay, very little) trying to persuade them to include some green building techniques. The pat answer was that there's not enough sun in Middle Tennessee to run solar panels.

Put aside the fact that solar is the tip of the green-building iceberg. Is it true that solar panels are only useful in areas with tons of direct sunlight?

According to a fascinating post from Jamais Cascio, no: Solar can be effective even in areas where it -- gasp -- snows. Read the post and follow the links. Interesting stuff.