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Apparently no one is immune to greenwashing

The genius Lily Tomlin once noted how hard it is to be funny these days, when satire can't keep up with the number of people who miss it entirely and use it as a script rather than a warning.

A few days back, Grey posted this great short video:

Just one day later, a group that has done tremendous work in the past -- a group I give to monthly and normally love, Redefining Progress -- sent me the letter below (after the jump).

It's grim. Despite the throwaway "we don't mean to encourage more shopping," the site sure looks like it does.

We’re all gonna die

Look out below: Infectious diseases are emerging faster than at any time in history, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a report on Thursday that urged closer global cooperation to tackle the growing health threats of the 21st century. The WHO underlined that the threats knew no boundaries and included not only epidemics, but […]

The magnitude of drought and floods will increase with climate change

A very good article in the Washington Post lays out the problem we face.

"Global warming will intensify drought, and it will intensify floods," explains Stephen Schneider, editor of the journal Climatic Change and a lead author for the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Why?

As the air gets warmer, there will be more water in the atmosphere. That's settled science ... You are going to intensify the hydrologic cycle. Where the atmosphere is configured to have high pressure and droughts, global warming will mean long, dry periods. Where the atmosphere is configured to be wet, you will get more rain, more gully washers.

The droughts will be especially bad. How bad?

Richard Seager, a senior researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, looked at 19 computer models of the future under current global warming trends. He found remarkable consistency: Sometime before 2050, the models predicted, the Southwest will be gripped in a dry spell akin to the Great Dust Bowl drought that lasted through most of the 1930s.

Enter a climate video contest, win a Toyota hybrid

Watch this quickie eco-video, then make your own and enter it to win cool prizes.

(Having trouble viewing the video? Download the latest version of Flash.)

Injecting CO2 into oil wells is not real carbon sequestration

Capturing CO2 and injecting it into a well to squeeze more oil out of the ground is not real carbon sequestration. Why? When the recovered oil is burned, it releases at least as much CO2 as was stored (and possibly much more). Therefore, CO2 used for such enhanced oil recovery (EOR) does not reduce net carbon emissions and should not be sold to the public as a carbon offset.

Yet a company, Blue Source, LLC, proposes to do just that: to capture the CO2 from a fertilizer plant, pipe it to an oil field, and inject it into wells for EOR :

The company hopes to profit from the project by earning credits for the carbon reductions in voluntary carbon markets and by selling carbon dioxide to energy companies.

The deal will cut CO2 from the plant by about 650,000 tonnes per year by permanently storing the emissions in the oil fields, he said. The U.S. Department of Energy says that capturing CO2 from power plants for enhanced oil recovery could greatly boost U.S. oil reserves while permanently keeping CO2 from reaching the atmosphere.

Uh, no. To repeat, if the captured CO2 is used to extract oil that releases CO2 when it is burned, then how is that offsetting anything?

You won’t find a better review of the Yamaha CP300 anywhere!

If you happen to be perusing the newest issue of Jazz Times — available on newsstands! — flip on over to the Gearhead section and check out the ace review of the Yamaha CP300 Stage Piano. It’s written by a young piano prodigy who’s tearing up the D.C. jazz scene. You can hear some of […]

Janisse Ray says that greens need to ‘be the change’ in moving toward sustainability

The wonderful southern environmental writer Janisse Ray (Ecology of a Cracker Childhood, and others) has a new piece in Orion magazine of interest to Gristmillers, called "Altar Call for True Believers," where she wonders why even the so-called choir seems to be failing at making great strides toward sustainability. It starts out with this startling vignette about greens and air travel:

BP promises to stop dumping waste into the Great Lakes

On July 15, the Chicago Tribune reported that BP wanted to significantly increase the discharge of ammonia and toxic wastes into the Great Lakes. The outcry was enormous -- even Republican congressmen from the area joined in the criticism, and several powerful congressional members, including Rahm Emanuel in the House and Barack Obama in the Senate, threatened hearings. The city of Chicago was considering legal action, and a large petition drive began.

Apparently the political efforts have paid off, because BP announced it will reverse its decision and not add more pollutants. The catch: it's not legally binding, because the conservative administration in Indiana has not revoked the pollution permits.

The Bush administration proposes to make illegal MTR mining legal

I suppose I should have something to say about the Bush administration’s latest effort to encourage mountaintop removal mining. But what? It’s not like there’s any particular analytical insight required. The Bushies are choosing profit for coal companies over some of America’s most beautiful landscapes and oldest cultures. It’s right there in the open. What’s […]

New article fails to shed light on state renewable portfolio standards

Jordan Schrader of USA Today manages to pen a long piece about the profusion of state renewable portfolio standards (RPSs) without discussing, except in the most glancing, cursory fashion, any of the important issues around them. For instance, he notes that some people say RPSs will raise electricity rates, while others say they will ultimately […]