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A heaping helping of paranoia

I went through a brief period of being obsessed with the Bush administration’s transparent attempt to elevate so-called "eco-terrorism" to the status of Biggest, Baddest Domestic Bogey Man. (Honestly, what threat will these supposed tough guys not piss their pants about?) But the Bushies are caught up in other struggles now, and the propaganda push […]

Smells like election season

Thanks to Matt over at TPM's Election Central for pointing this one out. Check out this recent ad from the Tennessee senatorial race:

An interview with Majora Carter, founder of Sustainable South Bronx

Majora Carter is no ordinary environmental leader. For starters: She’s a woman, she’s black, and she’s not afraid to publicly challenge Al Gore. Majora Carter. Photos: Sustainable South Bronx In 2005, she was honored with a MacArthur “genius grant” for her work with Sustainable South Bronx, a group she founded to mobilize grassroots environmental activism […]

Why the Hudson Insitute needs to compost its manure a little better.

Very few people are actually passionate about industrial food. Sure, people will buy rock-hard and flavorless tomatoes from the supermarket without thinking much about it, but they won't get mad because, say, there's a farmers' market down the road where someone's selling flavorful heirloom tomatoes grown without chemicals.

Alex Avery of the Hudson Institute -- funded lavishly by right-wing foundations and agribiz giants -- is a different breed altogether. Indeed, it's as though Monsanto conjured him up in a test-tube: the fellow seems to have a congenital hatred of organic food -- and a burning desire to make you hate it, too. His preferred method for achieving his goal is fear.

Take the BS he's been spreading about the recent E. coli outbreak affecting pre-washed, bagged spinach, on Gristmill and elsewhere.

How would you spend it?

A new congressional analysis shows that we are spending roughly $2 billion a week on the Iraq War.

(Amusingly, when I Googled the subject, Google asked: "Did you mean: congressional analysis two million a week" -- I wish, Google. I wish.)

Meanwhile, Bush's FY06 budget request pushes for steep cuts in renewable energy funding.

Let your mind wander a bit. Imagine, if you will, that the situation were reversed: that Bush pushed for cuts to military spending and poured $2 billion a week into researching, developing, and deploying new renewable-energy and energy-efficiency technologies.

$2 billion a week. What would you do with it?

Weird Al rocks my socks off

This video has nothing to do with the environment but my white and nerdy husband is insisting that I blog it perpetuates the stereotype that Priuses are white and nerdy. Sigh.

The same implication is made for the Segway, but I can't say I disagree.

Critique is a good thing

I read the Worldwatch/CAP Report on Renewable Energy (PDF) last night and agree with Dave that it is a good document. The biofuels section raised my eyebrows more than it should have. I critique it below.

Here is the bottom line on crop-based biofuels, and I am not alone in this assessment (for once) -- Monbiot and Brown share my concerns. You have to replace on the world market every grain or bean you stop exporting and instead feed to an American car. Regardless of what others were using that grain for, the only way for other farmers on the planet to fill that hole is to grow more crops and the only way to grow more crops is to clear more land and the only land left to clear are rainforest carbon sinks and other assorted ecosystems.

Growing our own just forces others to grow their own. You cannot put the same bean into both your stomach and gas tank. When a biofuel profit taker tells you that biofuels do not compete for food, they are lying through their teeth. 70% of a corn kernel is lost to the human food chain when you use it to make ethanol.

It’s a TKO

Oh, this is delicious. You may recall Sen. James Inhofe's wackadoo speech on global warming and media bias the other day. Well, CNN did a segment on it, pointing out the many flaws and falsehoods. They ended with this: "Inhofe challenged the media to get this story straight in that speech, but when we asked for an interview with him we were told he's just too busy to speak with us this week."

Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.

Update [2006-9-28 16:28:4 by David Roberts]: Inhofe responds.

The Amazing Technicolor Dream Cote

Ivory Coast scandal highlights illegal dumping of toxic waste The recent dumping of toxic oil byproducts and subsequent deaths of eight citizens in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, has highlighted the shady world of illegal toxic-waste disposal. The practice of unloading nasties on developing countries was addressed by the U.N.’s Basel Convention in 1989 (you remember that […]

Can’t See the Forest for the Bling

Northern forests worth up to $250 billion a year, research says You thought they were just standing there, but forests in Russia, Canada, and other northern nations provide services worth up to $250 billion a year, say Canadian researchers. Water filtration, erosion control, habitat provision, greenhouse-gas absorption, and tourist attraction are highly lucrative pursuits that […]