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Encyclopedia of Life off to a slow start

A couple of emails and an article in the latest issue of Science have roused me to post on the Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) website. The site is not functional yet but has a whiz-bang demo (completely fake) put together by a company called AvenueA|Razorfish that is well worth checking out.

However, that was the only thing that impressed me about the site. The article in Science just inflamed my skepticism:

A proclamation

I’m stealing this from Digby. Hats off you all you mothers out there — especially you, Mom! Mother’s Day Proclamation – 1870 by Julia Ward Howe Arise, then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, Whether our baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have great questions […]

Yeah, that’s running out too

A few weeks ago I mentioned a study showing that coal reserves are not nearly as extensive as the "200-year supply" invoked by coal boosters. Now Richard Heinberg brings word of another study that reaches substantially similar conclusions. The main thrust is that the quality of easily accessible coal is declining and that prices are […]

More on Superfund

I’ve posted several pieces recently on the recent Center for Public Integrity study of the downfall of Superfund. There are two more pieces out this week that relate — this one on the EPA diverting funds from the program, and this one on the EPA giving clean-up cash to the very same businesses that created […]

This is getting old

Next month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel will convene a summit of the G8 countries, which will issue a joint declaration on climate change. Here’s how that’s going: A draft proposal dated April 2007 that is being debated in Bonn, Germany, this weekend by senior officials of the Group of Eight includes a pledge to limit […]

Garret Keizer burns in anger about ‘green capitalism’

The new Harper's (June 2007) contains a stunning and powerful "Notebook" essay titled "Climate, Class, and Claptrap," by Garret Keizer -- a minister, if I recall correctly. Keizer writes as well as Wendell Berry, but with a kind of righteous anger that the more ponderous Berry tamps down. This essay is about the contradictions inherent in the environmental community's fast embrace of "green capitalism" and wondertoys.

The intestinal tipping point came for me when a contingent of students from Middlebury College (annual tuition and fees $44,330) found both the gas money and the gall to drive to the town of Sheffield (annual per-capita income $13,277) in order to lecture the provincials on their responsibility to the earth and its myriad creatures. Not to be outdone, a small private school in our area (annual tuition and fees $76,900) has challenged the wind projects as a source of noise disturbance for its special-needs students. This could actually turn the tide. Like a bookie assessing the hindquarters of horses, I've learned to place my bets with a sharp eye on tuition and fees. Don't tell me where you went to school; just tell me what it cost.

Alas, the issue is not yet available online, but like every issue of Harpers, is well worth a read at your library or newsstand. (There is also a nice series of short pieces, including one by Bill McKibben -- of Middlebury College, I seem to recall -- on what needs to be done to repair the damage after W is impeached or limps home in disgrace in 2009.)

To whet your appetite, I'll further shred my carpal tunnels to share more of this powerful piece:

Are our standards for exposure to toxics all wrong?

An intriguing new study published recently on Environmental Health News challenges the long-held assumption on which all regulatory toxicology testing is based, and poses new questions about what — and how much — of certain toxic substances merit “OK” exposure. Toxicology tests are usually performed by giving subjects (usually rodents) high doses of a substance […]

‘Eco-terrorism’: the latest

This is some scary sh*t.

Well, actually it’s about sports

The Oregonian brings word of outdoor companies going “carbon neutral” in the near future. They include roof-rack manufacturer Yakima (aiming to be zero-emissions before this fall), outdoor-gear behemoth REI (planning to neutralize its emissions by, um, 2020), Nike (which already powers more than half of its electricity use through wind energy), and shoe company KEEN. […]

Won’t run for Congress, but will shill

It’s official: Richard "Dick" Pombo (R-Nowhere) will not be attempting to reclaim the House seat he lost to Rep. Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.). The nation may breathe a sigh of relief. (McNerney’s probably effed anyway, though — after all, it’s still an extremely conservative district.) You may recall that upon losing Pombo went almost immediately through […]