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Warren G. Stone, green religious leader, answers questions

Warren G. Stone. What work do you do? I’m a rabbi in the Washington, D.C., area; I’ve been privileged to serve as the rabbi of Temple Emanuel for the past 18 years. I also serve as the national environmental chair for the Central Conference of American Rabbis and am on a variety of boards, including […]

Good stuff in the new issue of the ‘journal of food and culture’

Edible Media takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web. Anyone who loves food, and enjoys reading about it, should check out the quarterly magazine Gastronomica, which calls itself the “journal of food and culture.” It’s published by the University of California Press, but it’s no academic rag. It tends […]

Arctic sea ice and global thawing

Once again National Geographic Magazine has managed to knock my socks off, this time with its June '07 issue. Vanishing Sea Ice is journalist and photographer Paul Nicklen's touching homage to the Arctic and its wildlife through the lens of his camera: a decade-long documentary of its accelerating demise. Big Thaw, meanwhile, zooms out to the global level to tell how ice around the world is fast receding. Global warming-induced meltage is a familiar story by now, but new studies are showing that -- due to multiple positive feedback effects -- the decline is occurring more rapidly than scientists had anticipated. Which, as the article discusses, brings sea level rise and habitat loss to the visible horizon.

A point which I personally hadn't considered is the widespread fallout of mountain glacier melting:

Maybe we’re wrong thinking that airline executives don’t get it

This Washington Post story suggests that the airline industry is not being led by dumb people who just don't get it.

No, the darling of the industry, the best and the brightest, the folks heading the industry vanguard, aren't stupid. They get it.

They just don't care. They believe that personal wealth will protect them and their children and grandchildren.

They plan for growth, even as the planes carry fewer people, which means they plan to keep increasing both their overall greenhouse gas emissions and the per-mile traveled emissions, as well as to have more planes emitting more water vapor into the atmosphere where is serves as powerful heat trapping barrier.

But you're not supposed to think ill of them, because they earn money for helping destroy the climate.

At least the damage inflicted by cigarette companies is felt mainly by the smokers and the people close by -- these guys are helping push a rock over a cliff onto millions of people who can't even afford an in-flight magazine, much less a flight.

Schwarzenegger to California farmers: Considuh this a divorce

There’s a fair amount of debate on Gristmill about how much green cred to give the Governator — that A-list action hero of enlightened Republicanism. I don’t follow California politics closely enough to venture an opinion. But I do know that promoting a policy that will result in yet more suburban sprawl and evict small- […]

A new website assesses property risk

Earlier this week I learned that I'm eligible, via my mother, for Dutch citizenship, which means I could potentially work, vote, and live in Holland without having to go through the hassle of visa applications.

Before moving to a country that lies largely below sea level, though, I might want to check out Climate Appraisal, which, as its name suggests, is a website where you can size up the environmental hazards of your desired address. A joint project of a former banking executive and climate scientists at the University of Arizona in Tucson, the site has plenty of free information on numerous ways your property might perish, including earthquakes, shoreline reduction, hurricanes, tornadoes, drought, fire, and flood. Each of those categories provides a definition, scientific overview, and scientific links. If you're willing to fork over actual cash, the premium subscription will generate maps, graphs, and tables in each of the hazard categories specific to your address. (Clicking on the floods tab, for instance, might tell me how many times the rivers in my county have breached their banks in the past 100 years.)

The cost of acting first on climate change vs. the cost of not acting

"Lose-lose: the penalties of acting alone stall collective effort on climate change" is an article the Financial Times ran a while back. While the piece gives a panoramic analysis of the international prisoner's dilemma, there are two other angles that are missing. The first is the penalties of no one acting. According to the UK's environmental minister, the economic rationale for inaction is that the first country to act risks undergoing some degree of economic hardship. This, he explains, is "the last refuge of the deniers -- the idea that it's not worth anyone doing anything unless everyone does it."

What’s in your status symbol?

That's right. I actually saw a Hummer pulling a trailer with stuff in it yesterday. Although stunned, I recovered in time to get a shot of his trailer as he pulled away from the transfer station. Coincidentally, I was also pulling a trailer on my bike (also visible in the lower right hand corner). We smirked at one another as we passed. I think it's adorable how he painted is little red wagon to match his big red Hummer.

Hummers are a joke in some circles and a huge badge of honor in others. Not long ago, while I was over in Kirkland, which is a wealthy suburb of Seattle, I counted eight or so Hummers in the span of half an hour. In Seattle, just on the other side of Lake Washington, you could easily count that many Priuses in that time frame.

Condi in a Tesla

I give you Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, riding in a Tesla electric car: More gape-worthy Tesla pics here. More about Rice here. (thanks LL!)

Are Americans smart enough to learn from Australia’s crisis?

What if there was a country that was like America in many ways, such as the obstinate refusal of its government to acknowledge that pursuing economic growth at the expense of the environment is simply a way to commit suicide faster, a fondness for beer, and an enormous capacity to live the high energy lifestyle as if there was no tomorrow?

Could Americans learn anything from it?