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Energy is better spent elsewhere

(Warning: If speaking frankly about religion's dark side upsets you, please read no further.)

There has been a lot of discussion on this site recently about the potential positive role religion (specifically Christianity) can have in solving our environmental problems.

Call me skeptical.

Biodiesel for cell phone towers not all good

Here's a Reuters piece about using locally grown crops to power remote cell phone towers in areas of the developing world. Always walking that fine line between reality and pessimism, I have a few thoughts to share.

It turns out that most of the people in the world who do not already have cell phones also live where there is no power-generation infrastructure (electricity). It's a bit of a conundrum. If you are going to expand your cell phone market to the billions who don't have one yet, you have to find ways to power your cell phone towers, as well as give your potential customers enough electricity to power the phones you want to sell to them.

The latest issue is full of goodies

This month's issue of Science gave me lots of food for thought.

There was an article about Edmund Phelps, who just won the 2006 Nobel Prize in economics. It tells us that the U.S. swept the science Nobel Prizes this year -- analogous to winning all the gold medals at the Olympics. Putting it this way cheapens the whole process and is a reminder of the competitive nature of people, scientists included.

On the other hand, this is an example of how a country with enough wealth and education to pay millions of people to sit around on their butts and problem solve -- engineers, scientists, and economists -- can contribute solutions to the world's many problems.

Expect to see more solutions coming from India and China in the not too distant future. The three billion desperately poor of the world cannot contribute, having their hands full just staying alive. Those billions of potential problem solvers are lost to us, thanks to the tremendous rate of population growth that outstripped the economic growth, infrastructure, and education needed to keep them from being impoverished.

An insult generator for tree-huggers

Inspired by Mark Peters' piece on tree-hugging and name-calling, a dear reader and his friend converted an Elizabethan insult generator into a Conservative insult generator and then into a combined Elizabethan-Conservative insult generator. So there, you quailing, hazardous-waste-spooning pignuts!

Business Week cover story looks at the watering down of the organic ethos

A fine feature story in Business Week this week -- The Organic Myth, by Diane Brady. "As it goes mass market, the organic food business is failing to stay true to its ideals," the cover proclaims.

When I first glanced at the mag, I expected rah-rah boosterism for corporate organics and spite for old-school purists, but the article actually struck me as a pretty fair assessment of the culture clash between the organic ethos and the Big Biz model -- the gist being that the two are remarkably ill-suited. Corporate enthusiasm for organics notwithstanding -- and there's plenty of enthusiasm out there, from Wal-Mart to General Mills to Kellogg and beyond -- these two approaches to comestible commerce look increasingly irreconcilable.

None of this is new, of course -- our own Tom P. has written about the issue (and I'm interested to hear his assessment of this story). But this is the first article that's made me think the organic juggernaut is really about to blow up into a big ol' mess. Not just organic getting watered down, as is already happening, but the whole system breaking down, unable to support the new model of globally sourced organic items pouring into processed foods and mega-stores. Demand is outstripping supply by huge margins, corporations are demanding lower prices, production is being offshored to unreliable suppliers, individuals are growing even more confused about what "organic" means.

They’re on board

I read the statement below after a round of knocking on church doors to pitch a local screening of The Great Warming to pastors and priests -- yes, thank you, I did feel a bit silly. Anyway, Moab's 8,000 residents are served by 19 official houses of worship (you can find the less-organized believers at the co-op). By and large, churchgoers here vote, and they're pretty pro-active, especially when it comes to the health and welfare of the canyons.

Rick Sherman, a Catholic priest who's written on stewardship for a few newspapers, was quick to point out that his church has been on the environmental ball for years, and handed me a few pamphlets on the subject. Not having read many religious tracts lately, I was impressed -- and not scared a bit! This is from Global Climate Change: a plea for dialogue, prudence and the common good, a statement from the U.S. Catholic Bishops. Yes, it's a serious read, but it's not Latin and there's no math.

Business as usual is expensive too

Will global warming eventually cost the world's economy $12 trillion? I've got no clue. I mean, even the specialists who've studied the economic impacts of climate change have no real idea. The latest figure is just their best guess.

But this much is clear: no matter whether this estimate is on the mark, the idea that we should tally the cost of "business as usual" -- i.e., letting climate change run amok -- is exactly the right framework for thinking about the issue.

A guest essay by Melanie Griffin

We present a guest essay from Melanie Griffin, director of Sierra Club's Partnerships Program.

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I've been a "professional environmentalist" for 25 years now. While the right wing paints a picture of environmentalists as negative obstructionists and prophets of doom and gloom, I don't fit that description and neither do most of my environmentally inclined friends. It's true we are forced to spend a lot of our time "stopping" things -- hazardous waste dumping, irresponsible development, oil drilling in America's Wildlife Refuges and the like. And if you're paying any attention at all to the current trends and predictions about global warming, or to the Bush Administration's unraveling of decades of basic environmental safeguards, you probably wonder how a career conservationist ever gets out of bed in the morning.

But let's face it, to dedicate your life to protecting the planet from basic human behaviors like greed and power and selfishness, you've got to be an optimist at heart. You have to believe that you can make a difference with your life -- that there is hope.

The Great Warming pops up in Moyers’ special

It may only have been a couple of establishing shots, but when America's great documentarian gives you the nod, baby, that's legit. This brief brush with fame came during the PBS Moyers on America special Is God Green?, when "Courtesy of The Great Warming" flashed across the screen -- twice! I dropped my fork and called the folks.

Tips to save energy

I wish I'd written this: an energy economist's seven-point prescription for using energy more efficiently.