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Biofuels are wiping out rainforests

Almuth Ernsting over at Biofuel Watch has been working hard to get the word out on a small problem: a billion tons of carbon going into the air annually, with the potential of about fifty billion more on the way. People are deliberately setting Southeast Asia's rainforests and peatlands on fire to convert the land into something they can sell to countries striving to meet their Kyoto obligations -- palm oil. To put this into perspective, there are about 8 billion metric tons of carbon being dumped into the atmosphere by people annually, 6.5 billion tons from fossil fuels and 1.5 billion from deforestation. This is much worse than just dumping carbon from a tailpipe because it also simultaneously destroys entire ecosystems. You get two disasters for the price of one.

Take Me to Your Weeder

Solar-powered robot could pick weeds and reduce herbicide use Here’s an innovative idea for limiting herbicide use: A solar-powered robot with 20/20 vision and depth perception that uses GPS navigation to search out and destroy weeds. As it moves along at three miles per hour, the two-foot-tall, five-foot-long robot, designed by engineers at the University […]

America’s Coast Wanted

Katrina and Rita destroyed 217 square miles of Louisiana coastline Hurricanes Katrina and Rita drowned 217 square miles of Louisiana’s fragile coastline, turning wetlands, undeveloped dry land, and farmland into open water, says a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. The research underscores the urgent need for a storm buffer of plants, soils, and […]

‘Burb Your Enthusiasm

Commuting costs often outweigh savings from living in suburbs, researchers say The cost of commuting more than 12 miles often nullifies the savings of cheaper suburban housing, says a new study by the Center for Housing Policy. Low- to moderate-income families are often pushed to outer suburbs by a lack of affordable housing near job […]

The Killing Fields

Study links breast cancer to farm work October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Think that has nothing to do with the environment? Guess again. A new study of women in Windsor, Ontario, found that those who have worked on a farm are 2.8 times more likely to develop breast cancer than those who haven’t. The […]

Incentives in modern-day punditry

My brother called this evening to tell me that I was mentioned by name on the Rush Limbaugh radio show today. He was amused and delighted about it, on the theory that "any publicity is good publicity."

I'm more ambivalent. I won't say I don't enjoy the prospect of being more widely read -- any writer who says otherwise is blowing smoke up your ass -- but I can't say I'm entirely pleased that my renown will come from using an unnecessarily inflammatory analogy that did little but nurture the right wing's permanent persecution complex. I do a lot of work on Grist, at least some of which I like to flatter myself is thoughtful, occasionally insightful. But to thousands of people, I'm now and forever the guy who wants to execute global warming skeptics.

A few choice bits from the hate mail that’s come today

A while back, I wrote this post. Senate Environment Committee attack dog Marc Morano highlighted it in a press release. Then it ended up on the front page of the Drudge Report.

Here are some excerpts from the emails I've received today (warning: explicit language):

Speaking of Inhofe …

... he was profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle yesterday.

Suburban commutes are money-losers

A study of Washington and 27 other metropolitan areas by the Center for Housing Policy found that the costs of one-way commutes of as little as 12 to 15 miles -- roughly the distance between Gaithersburg and Bethesda -- cancel any savings on lower-priced outer-suburban homes.

More below.

On climate denialists and Nuremberg

There are people and institutions knowingly disseminating falsehoods and distortions about global warming. They deserve to be held publicly accountable.

As to what shape that accountability would take, my analogy to the Nuremberg trials was woefully inappropriate -- nay, stupid. I retract it wholeheartedly.

More -- much more -- later.