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Zombie hens survive euthanasia

In a truly bizarre story, laying hens who have survived euthanasia have walked out alive from compost piles. Neighbors in Sonoma County dubbed them "zombie chickens."

The eco-Martha greens parties and gift-giving

Eco-guru Danny Seo, otherwise known as the Asian male green incarnation of Martha Stewart, has jumped headfirst this year into the world of publishing. His book Simply Green: Parties launched this summer, and now he's released the second in the series, this one focused on gift-giving.

While I can't support all the ideas in the book (Dryer sheets as wrapping paper? Really?), and a few of the crafts are a bit involved (washable soap gift tags, a chandelier made from tree branches and holiday cards), some of the suggestions are ingenious. Ever thought of using old VHS video tape as ribbon? Yeah, me neither, but it actually looks pretty cool. Ditto for the fruit bowls made from those old cardboard globes (cut in half of course).

Both books (Parties and Giving) are available now via Grist's new Amazon store. And we get a small cut for everything purchased there ... so get to shoppin'!

They don’t ignore it

In order to further elucidate the role of animal welfare issues in environmentalism, let us examine mission statements from some of the top environmental organizations in the world.

Let's start with the first line of the mission statement from the World Wildlife Fund:

"Protecting natural areas and wild populations of plants and animals, including endangered species."

Notice that WWF talks about protecting wild animals independently of whether they are endangered (only later do they go on to discuss the sustainability of resources).

Here's the first sentence from the mission statement for the Defenders of Wildlife:

Al Gore’s tragic humor

Al Gore, funny guy:

Do you know if President Bush has seen the movie yet?

Well, he claimed that would not see it. That's why I wrote the book. He's a reader.

And a personal anecdote:

Huh?

People who want to poo-poo the environmental movement are fond of making a particular argument. It goes like this:

You go on and on about how the earth is "in trouble" and "out of balance." But guess what, dude, the earth is billions of years old. Nothing we could do could hurt it.

Yes. Right. Obviously. Though we may take ourselves out, and a good chunk of the earth's current biodiversity with us, the planet itself will survive and eventually regenerate new species.

What I don't get is ... so what? Why does this pop up so often? What's the force of the argument supposed to be? It mystifies me.

Gore: Oscar winner

An Inconvenient Truth will win the 2007 Oscar for Best Documentary. You heard it here first.

On a related note: below the fold, you can watch video of Al Gore's surprisingly funny appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last week. (Thanks to Treehugger for uploading the video.)

Senators send letter to ExxonMobil

Today's Wall Street Journal printed a letter from Senators Snowe and Rockefeller to ExxonMobil (here) along with an editorial about the letter (here).

In the letter, Snowe and Rockefeller ask ExxonMobil to stop perpetuating the uncertainty agenda (which they refer to as the "obfuscation agenda"). The letter is similar in many respects to a letter sent to Exxon by the British Royal Society.

The editorial is a broadside against the Senators. How dare they write that letter! You can feel the anger in it -- I'm quite certain the first draft was written in all caps.

Here are a few thoughts:

Is hydropower really low-carbon? Time will tell

Back in early November, I noted information suggesting hydropower may not be as carbon neutral as we thought. The word "may" was deliberately chosen.

At the time, I received an angry email from a leading hydropower supporter, which included links to some studies suggesting the data for high emissions was cherry-picked, or didn't take net emissions into account adequately.

I soon found other studies dealing with these objections and suggesting significant net emissions from hydropower. At this point, I was reminded of the debate between warming deniers and climate scientists, except I was not sure which side was which.

The December 2006 issue of Nature contains a fascinating article on the subject: "The green image of hydropower may have been seriously overstated, warn Scientists." The key paragraphs:

Group lobbies Starbucks to cut the rBGH

Tired of being cowed into drinking milk laced with artificial growth hormones simply because you can't kick the latte habit? Find it udderly disgusting that the largest food and beverage retailers in the world proliferate antibiotics? Wish Grist would stop milking the cow-related puns?

Well, today you can join in with Food and Water Watch's Hold the Hormones campaign by calling Starbucks and asking them to stop buying milk from dairies that use artificial growth hormones. The D.C.-based nonprofit offers up 10 good reasons to get involved.

And I claimed there were no eco-friendly chaps in the English Premier League

I stand corrected. Back in the day I claimed that there were no eco-friendly chaps in the English Premier League. But lo and behold -- I bring you Calamity James.

James, a goalkeeper for Portsmouth, was born David, not Calamity, but seeing as Wikipedia lists him under the heading "Notable footballers prone to errors," it's a deserved nickname. Still, judging from a recent op-ed, at least his heart's in the right place.

James berates English football (yes, soccer, whatever) for its eco-slackerness: