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Small steps made, but no real plan for post-2012

The international climate conference in Nairobi just wrapped up, and it sounds like it was a bit of a yawn. As expected, no exciting progress or big future plans.

Of course, progress is in the eye of the beholder, as we see in three different articles from MSM sources:

Alister Doyle and Gerard Wynn for Reuters:

U.N. climate talks keep Kyoto on track, but scant progress

Environment Ministers kept plans for widening a U.N.-led fight against global warming beyond 2012 on track on Friday amid criticism of scant progress in aiding Africa and confronting wrenching climate change.

After two weeks of negotiations in Nairobi, about 70 ministers agreed to review Kyoto in 2008 in what many see as a prelude to widening a 35-industrial nation pact to outsiders such as China and India in the longer term.

It also agreed to aid Africa obtain funds for clean energies such as wind and hydro power. But delegates had mixed views on the outcome of the talks.

From Say It to Spray It

Word. Beating out Sudoku, bird flu, and persistent vegetative state, the New Oxford American Dictionary’s word(s) of the year for 2006 is (are?) “carbon neutral.” Personally, we wonder what happened to lanced, santorum, and Maf54. Which is why they don’t let us write the dictionary. Photos: iStockphoto Tongue tried It’s a dream come true: a […]

Readers talk back about elections, ethanol, respecting our elders, and more

  Re: How Green Was My Election? Dear Editor: Things are clearly not as bad now as they were before Election Day. However, we should temper our celebratory mood by considering: 1. Nancy Pelosi, the next likely Speaker of the House, supported the war until her constituents in San Francisco made it politically impossible for […]

because of the country’s decision to resume whaling.

... because of the country's decision to resume whaling.

Ah, I love it when the market works! Bottom line: you want tourist dollars, then stop killing whales.

Failed by industrial food, farmers and low-income folk get together

"Edible Media" takes an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism.

In Alabama, farmers are going broke, squeezed between low prices their goods receive in commodity markets and rising costs for fuel and other inputs. Meanwhile, obesity and diabetes rates surge among low-income African-Americans, whose food dollars tend to to flow to highly processed food.

In short, commodity food markets are failing both groups. In a piece in the latest Nation, Mark Winne shows (subscription wall) that smart public policy at the state level is helping farmers and low-income consumers buck the system, to the benefit of both.

The bill could affect most large construction in the city starting in 2012

In a preliminary vote, the D.C. city council unanimously decided to phase in green building standards that would apply to private as well as public development in the district.

The district is poised to become the first major city in the country to require that private developers build environmentally friendly projects that incorporate energy-saving measures.

By 2012, most large construction in the city -- commercial and city-funded residential -- would have to meet the standards, if the D.C. council gives final approval to a new bill next month.

Under the bill, within two years, all new district-owned projects, including schools, would have to meet the green standards, and in 2009, any building receiving more than 20 percent public financing would have to do the same. By 2012, every new commercial building over 50,000 square feet -- about the size of a medium-size retail store -- would have to meet the guidelines. The rules would also apply to affordable housing.

The Royal Whee

U.K. greens grin as climate bill unveiled in annual “queen’s speech” We thought wigs and rowdiness were the most delightful customs in the British Parliament, but it turns out there’s another: the annual “queen’s speech.” This opening-day tradition offers a chance to boast about the things Parliament will accomplish in the coming session. And this […]

Demand in the Roughy

Deep-sea trawling puts ecosystems in deep trouble, says U.N. report Deep-sea trawling is bad. How bad? Uh, pretty bad. Turns out raking gigantic fishing nets across the ocean floor shatters millennia-old coral, raises smothering clouds of sediment, and destroys underwater mountains. “It’s the equivalent of clearing old-growth forest to collect squirrels,” says researcher Alex Rogers, […]

You Are What You Eat

Fast Food Nation movie opens, and we talk with author Eric Schlosser There was a time when Eric Schlosser took his kids out for fast food. But once he started researching an article on the industry, all that changed. The article turned into a widely acclaimed book, Fast Food Nation, which has now been turned […]

Franklin, My Dear, I Do Give a Damn

Pennsylvania plan would cut mercury emissions 90 percent in nine years If a plan approved by a state board yesterday makes it through 14 days of withering stares from the legislature, Pennsylvania will join the cadre of states enacting tougher environmental rules than the feds. The controversial plan, which aims to cut mercury emissions 90 […]