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A Q&A with Tom Friedman on the energy crisis and his new movie Big Oil.

The one does not get the other

The mainstream media has a bead on the blogosphere. They've got their story.

"The blogs" is now short-hand for "conspiricists, wackos, and (worst of all) partisans." If a nightly news producer needs something slightly outre said, something outside the orbit of polite political dialogue, "the blogs" are happy to say it for them. There are, after all, a lot of blog posts. They're bound to say anything.

This makes the media lazy. Exhibit A: CBS Nightly News did a story on the widespread belief that Bush & Rove are manipulating gas prices in advance of the mid-term elections. We're told the blogs are fairly abuzz with suspicion.

For this, they mustered two blog screenshots:

New mine safety official not so good on the whole mine safety thing

I have a sneaking suspicion that sometimes when I link to stuff, y'all don't herd over en masse to read it. WTF?

With that in mind, I hope the excellent Justin Rood will forgive me for just poaching this entire post from TPMmuckraker:

Haven’t bashed the guy in a while

What with Inhofe capturing all the earth-fu**ing-lunatic attention on Gristmill of late, it's been way too long since we pointed out the earth-fu**ing-lunacy of Rep. Richard "Dick" Pombo (R-Calif.). Let's look around for some Pombo bashing, shall we?

Oh, look! Here's some in the NYT:

In a little-noticed provision of the much-reviled Deep Ocean Energy Resources Act -- which the House passed in June and the Senate will take up when Congress returns -- Mr. Pombo lowered the royalty rate for oil shale from 12.5 percent to 1 percent. Should the day arrive when the price of shale oil becomes competitive, this could turn out to be an extraordinary giveaway of federal revenue (most oil shale lies under federal land) and a huge incentive to wreak environmental damage.

And here's some more in Rolling Stone, which ranks Pombo the seventh worst Congressman (only seventh?):

Not going so well

The political pundits haven't noticed, probably because they habitually put the health of the planet at the bottom of their list of concerns, but this week on national television, David Letterman pointed out that the Current Occupant of the White House is trying to present himself as an Environmental President.

It's a struggle, as you can see:

What’s the best balance of green and cheap?

So, I find myself in a bona fide environmental quandary. (Perhaps I should write a letter to Umbra!) My wife and I just bought a house -- we'll be moving in in a couple of weeks. A few days ago we ripped up the (tattered, cat-pee-stinking) carpet, to discover that there are not, marketing claims to the contrary, "hardwoods throughout." Most of the floor, in fact, looks like some kind of particle board.

Long story short: we need new floors throughout the house.

Unbalanced mercury report has green groups in an uproar

Conservation groups are fired up about "Seafood Choices: Balancing Benefits and Risks," a new report released on Tuesday, by the Institute of Medicine. The report attempts to undermine government advice by downplaying the risks of mercury in seafood, especially with regard to children and America's number one most heavily consumed fish: tuna. On a completely unrelated note, the panel that wrote the report has multiple ties to the food industry, including the tuna industry ...

>>Read the report (if you don't mind paying $55)

>>Check out Oceana's response

From Real Life to Real Men

Leo-topia Once upon a time, we swore we’d never watch reality TV, but now we’re Dancing With the Bachelor’s Top Model every week. And soon Leo may join the lineup, greening a yet-to-be-chosen American town (ooh, pick us! pick us!) in E-topia. But will it restore our dwindling dignity? Stay tuned. Photo: Steve Granitz / […]

Hot Air Act

Canadian Clean Air Act meets icy reception Canada’s newly proposed Clean Air Act — hyped as the centerpiece of the Conservative government’s green agenda — is getting booed right off the stage. The bill sets a far-out goal of cutting greenhouse-gas emissions 45 to 65 percent by 2050, making no mention of the country’s commitment […]

The Hole Truth and Nothing But the Truth

Ozone hole biggest, deepest on record This year’s ozone hole is bigger and deeper than any other on record, NASA scientists said yesterday. From Sept. 21 to Sept. 30, the ozone hole sprawled to an average of 10.6 million square miles. That’s pretty big, alright: approximately the surface area of North America plus Argentina. In […]