Latest Articles
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Whatever happened to local control is good?
From Organic Consumers:
Failing to suppress grassroots control over food safety laws and labels in the last session of Congress, industry has now called on their friends in the House Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry to slip a similar poison pill into an obscure section of the voluminous 2007-2012 Farm Bill. The provision would give the White House appointed Secretary of Agriculture the power to eliminate local or state food and farming laws, such as those in four California counties banning genetically engineered crops, and set an ominous precedent undermining states' rights.
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Hy-Wire hydrogen car
BBC takes a closer look at the Hy-Wire, GM’s hydrogen fuel cell car. According to the incredulous host, it’s “the future.”
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Watch at your own risk
I was going to wrap this into a previous post, but this kind of spectacular cluelessness deserves its time in the spotlight. Watch two mandarins of Beltway "moderation," Mark Shields and David Brooks, discuss Bush’s "new" climate strategy: Astounding. You really could not ask for a more crystalline example of the intellectual tics that have […]
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Images of dense development
Just wanted to point out a great website, "Visualizing Density," a product of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy (LILP). I'm not feeling like my usual prolix self today, so I'll let them do the talking:Sprawl is bad. Density is good. Americans need to stop spreading out and live closer together. Well ... that's the theory, anyway. But, as anyone who has tried to build compact development recently will tell you, if there's one thing Americans hate more than sprawl, it's density ... One reason people reject density is that they don't know much about it -- what it looks like, how to build it, or whether it's something they can call home. We have very rational ways of measuring density, but our perception of it is anything but rational.
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Friday music blogging: Okkervil River
I was originally going to fly to D.C. on Sun. June 10, but I moved it back a day when I found out Okkervil River is playing Seattle that night. Okkervil is a bit of a strange case — they’re one of my favorite bands of the last few years, maybe ever, but I’m leery […]
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Incident on the Mediterranean makes rounds on U.S. news
Last week we broke the story about French fishermen coordinating an attack on Oceana's research vessel, Ranger, in an attempt to get their hands on the pictures our crew has been taking of them using illegal driftnets.
Now everyone's talking about it, including our friends at NPR. They aired a segment on the confrontation on their top radio show, "All Things Considered." And footage of the assault is racking up hits on YouTube. Remember, you heard it here first.
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Ultimate Seattle hybrid plug-in
Well, I spent last weekend building the ultimate electric hybrid bicycle for Seattle riding. My first bike was more or less a prototype that taught me all I needed to know to put this one together.
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And spy planes
Identifying energy-saving opportunities is one thing -- and a good thing -- but just think of the potential for evaluating politicians ...
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Top scientists appeal to WTO
The other day I told you how there's a good chance we could see an end to commercial overfishing subsidies through WTO negotiations. And my organization is not alone in making the case to the World Trade Organization. At least 125 scientists from 27 countries feel the same way and sent a letter to the WTO making it clear that "an ambitious outcome in the ongoing WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations is vital to the future of the world's fisheries."
The scientists who signed the letter are a who's who of ocean fisheries scientists, including Daniel Pauly, Boris Worm, Jeremy B.C. Jackson, Andrew Rosenberg, Carl Safina, Callum Roberts, Larry Crowder, and Wallace "J" Nichols. These leading experts made the stakes clear: "Fisheries subsidies," they note in the letter, "produce such strong economic incentives to overfish that reducing them is one of the most significant actions that can be taken to combat global overfishing." How's that for pressure?
You can see the full letter here (PDF).
