Latest Articles
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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:
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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.
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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.)
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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:
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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:
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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.
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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:
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Moopheus and the gang partner with ‘Fast Food Nation’
They've seen the family farm become a factory farm. They've learned the truth about industrial dairy facilities. And now they're trying to escape the perils of a meatpacking plant. They are Leo, Moopheus, and Chickity, the animated stars of a series of short films by Free Range Studios and nonprof Sustainable Table.This latest version of the Matrix spoofs is Meatrix II½, and this time, they've partnered with Fast Food Nation to promote the film and help raise awareness about the production of fast food.
Unfortunately, it looks like Fast Food Nation hasn't done too well in theaters. Opening weekend, the film made just $390,000 compared to number-one film Happy Feet, which debuted at $42.3 million.
Interestingly, that same weekend, Saw III, a horror flick I had referenced in describing the surprising level of gore in Fast Food Nation, made $2.8 million, more than seven times as much as moola as FFN. (Get it? Ha ha, moo-la. Ahem.) I guess that's the difference between having a major marketing firm pushing your film and leaving it to a cow in dark glasses.
Below the fold, The Meatrix II½ via YouTube, a lower-quality version for those of you too lazy to click this link.
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The agricultural subsidy train never stops
Now that produce farmers are feeling the heat from overseas competition, they want some of the federal subsidy pie.
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