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Tom Gray on green touring, Wal-Mart, and why he won’t proselytize

Gomez: (l to r) Ben Ottewell, Ian Ball, Olly Peacock, Paul Blackburn, Tom Gray. Photo: Kevin Westenberg Tom Gray isn’t sure where the stuffed monkeys came from. He just knows that at the moment, they’re in the way. Moving them to one side, he offers me a seat on the cushioned bench at the front […]

Regulatory takings initiatives tie communities’ hands

I love sewers. I love them because the alternative is so much worse. Ponder that for a moment.

What the heck do sewers have to do with property rights and regulatory takings? Patience, grasshopper.

As I wrote yesterday, a rash of so-called "property rights" ballot measures in the West are threatening the very basics of community planning and environmental protection. Arizonans are facing Prop 207; Californians are battling Prop 90; Idahoans are up against Prop 2; and Washingtonians are facing Initiative 933. (Montanans and Nevadans recently dodged a bullet when their initiatives were invalidated because of little things like fraud and constitutional violations. More on that in a later installment.)

By design, all the 2006 property ballot measures deploy the same scheme: "pay or waive." That is, you can pay a property owner to obey the law, or you can waive the law.

A small price to pay

Seems like more and more people -- even conservative economists -- are going on record in support of higher gas taxes.

From an economist's point of view, it's a bit of a no brainer. Like just about any addiction, our gasoline habit carries lots of "externalities" -- costs that fall on everyone rather than just the person who uses the gas. (Think climate change, oil spills, air pollution, security vulnerabilities, international military entanglements, economic risk from oil price shocks, etc.)

If we consumers had to pay those costs every time we filled our tanks, we'd use gas a little more sparingly -- and we'd create fewer externalities as a result. Plus, the taxes could provide a source of revenue to deal with the problems created by energy consumption -- say, a dedicated funding source for ramping up efficiency.

But that begs the question -- just how high should the taxes be?

David Quammen chats about evolution, science, religion, and his new book

Though we do not, alas, live in the kind of world where science writers become celebrities, David Quammen has developed an unusually devoted fan base. As a young man he aspired to write fiction, and that sensibility remains evident in science writing that reads like literature — humane, absorbing, occasionally thrilling. His “Natural Acts” column […]

Lots more

The folks at the League of Conservation Voters -- who are not at all milquetoast, but rather courageous and heroic! -- found a bunch more green campaign ads in addition to the ones I talked about here. A whopping 122 of them, in fact. They've put together a playlist on YouTube, which you can browse in the player below.

CPI’s report reveals the rich Rich in sheep’s clothing

Fired up about the ballot initiatives to restrict "regulatory takings" appearing in voting booths all over the West next week? Even more fired up about the thick, non-Western wallets pumping cash into these campaigns?

For insight into the ideological and economic interests behind this election season's hungriest wolf in sheep's clothing, the Center for Public Integrity has a great Takings Initiatives Accountability Project underway.

Great cover story on global warming

I commend you all to this month's cover story in Mother Jones: "The Thirteenth Tipping Point," by Julia Whitty. It's written in that Malcolm-Gladwell-lite style that's so popular these days, filled with fascinating tidbits drawn from academic research you wouldn't normally hear about. It doesn't quite make its central point, but that's all right -- it's more evocative than argumentative anyway, and it's a smashing read.

Most interesting to me was something I hadn't heard of -- an effort by John Schellnhuber, research director at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, to identify the earth's 12 most vulnerable places, those most likely to flip over a tipping point into cascading and devastating changes. They are:

Carbon offsets that go to developing world forests rule

Here's an uplifting article by Rhett Butler over at Mongabay. It enables my personal eco-fantasy. It's titled, Avoided deforestation could help fight third world poverty under global warming pact. $43 billion could flow into developing countries:

When trees are cut greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere -- roughly 20 percent of annual emissions of such heat-trapping gases result from deforestation and forest degradation. Avoided deforestation is the concept where countries are paid to prevent deforestation that would otherwise occur. Funds come from industrialized countries seeking to meet emissions commitments under international agreements like the Kyoto Protocol. Policymakers and environmentalists alike find the idea attractive because it could help fight climate change at a low cost while improving living standards for some of the world's poorest people, safeguarding biodiversity, and preserving other ecosystem services. A number of prominent conservation biologists and development agencies including the World Bank and the U.N. have already endorsed the idea. [Even the United States government has voiced support for the plan.]

The article also arrived just in time to support my argument presented here. Don't you just love it when you find people who share your point of view?

Cheaper By the Ruzzin

Voters in Boulder, Colo., will vote on carbon tax next week Next week, Boulder, Colo., will seek to become the first U.S. city to impose a carbon tax on homes and businesses. If the progressive hotspot’s voters say yes, the per-kilowatt tax will raise the average home energy bill by less than $2 a month […]

Huanhe or Another

China adds two more industrial accidents to the ledger If it’s Thursday, it must be time for a story about an industrial accident in China. And while we’re at it, why not go for two? An ammonia leak at a fertilizer factory south of Beijing yesterday killed one worker, sickened six residents, and caused the […]