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Like blogging, but with my voice

One of the things I constantly* hear from Gristmill readers is, "David, we adore your writing, but what about your voice? We long to hear it!"

Well I give my fans what they want, so this morning, at the nightmarish hour of 7:00AM, I dragged my ass out of bed and spoke on the phone with Earthbeat Radio, a syndicated public-radio show out of D.C. The subject was "political climate change": Bush's alleged new climate policy, Gore's climate-policy speech, and related issues.

If you're eager to hear my congested, foggy, morning croak, you can download the show as an mp3 here (it's the second link down). You'll just have to trust me that my voice is much more mellifluous after several cups of coffee.

(*never)

And then I’m done!

I've just now gotten around to closely reading Gore's speech, and felt the usual mix of admiration and sorrow at what could have been. Three bits jumped out at me that I haven't highlighted yet.

First, a little hometown pride:

Many individuals and businesses have decided to take an approach known as "Zero Carbon." They are reducing their CO2 as much as possible and then offsetting the rest with reductions elsewhere including by the planting of trees. At least one entire community -- Ballard, a city of 18,000 people in Washington State -- is embarking on a goal of making the entire community zero carbon.

Ballard in effect! Wo0t!

Ahem.

Second, a little wonkiness:

Paging a Mr. Lomborg

Who's the object of James Inhofe's latest literary crush?

Why, none other than our old friend Bjorn Lomborg!

Pombo shows up at Colorado mouse hearings

California Rep. Richard Pombo weighs in on mouse debate in Colorado?

Further evidence that this isn't really about a mouse at all, but rather the business interests at stake in protecting crucial habitats. And Pombo's appearance is an election-year bid to reassure property-rights advocates that he will be steadfast in his support for a bill de-clawing the Endangered Species Act.

Have I mentioned yet that the 3-inch Preble's meadow jumping mouse can jump 18 inches high? Boing!

A visual representation of the federal budget

Want a truly horrifying look at where your tax money goes? Visit Death and Taxes 2007, where they have a big graph that can (fair warning) suck up an hour of your time. It breaks down federal discretionary spending visually, which gives a real, immediate sense of our priorities.

Looking for the EPA? Oh, it's that wee little circle in the upper right. Sigh.

To the tune of $25 million

Chevron has just made a $25 million research grant to UC Davis for research on cellulosic ethanol. (Press releases from UC Davis and Chevron.)

This was brought to my attention by reader D. Roberts (really!), who says, "To my knowledge this is one of the largest research awards ever made to any university (other than one outlier at Stanford)."

This is excellent news. The faster we can get cellulosic up and running, the more we can avoid building an enormous and disastrous corn-ethanol infrastructure.

Seattle’s — possibly the country’s — coolest new neighborhood

This past Sunday, I went out to the Highpoint neighborhood in West Seattle to attend the Green Living Expo.

Highpoint is extraordinary (check out this map of the master plan). When it's completed (about a third is finished at this point), it will be the largest interurban redevelopment in the country. I won't get into all the details -- check out the website -- but here's the short summary:

The community will be mixed-use, mixed-income, and mixed-ethnicity. They're connecting up the streets with the surrounding grid. All the sidewalks (and one test street) are made of permeable concrete that allows rainwater through. They're reserving fully half of the (eventually) 1,600 housing units for low-income buyers and renters. They've developed a massive, award-winning drainage plan based on bioswales, to naturally clean water as it drains into the neighborhood's stream and pond. The housing units are all built to Energy Star and Built Green standards. Housing styles and colors are purposefully diverse. Walkways connect pocket parks, green space, and community gardens throughout.

This was all done with intensive community involvement. It's really a remarkable achievement.

Anyway, I took a bunch of pictures -- on, I should caveat, a very cloudy day -- some of which are below the fold.

Wildfires are now in season

Ah, the oncoming of fall in Southern California.

Flakes of ash fall thick, soft, and white as snow. Clouds of smoke bigger than mountains fill the sky. Orange-y sunlight and hazy gray skies last for weeks on end. Thousands of firefighters struggle to contain blazes with flames 20 and 30 feet high. Bulldozers cut firelines. Planes and helicopters water-bomb all through the day. Evacuation orders typically arrive in the dead of night, when the skies are glowing and the traffic is wild.

Arrr … you ready to party?

Ahoy there, mateys! 'Tis I, ye saucy wench, and this day be wonderful for Something Fishy.

First, as has been mentioned several times already, there've been some exciting discoveries out in the South Pacific -- including some 52 new species of fish and corals. I be the first one to tell ye that the oceans are a great unexplored frontier. But when I read the news about all these new critters -- flasher fish! mantis shrimp! "walking" sharks! -- I could hardly believe me eyes eye.

And what better timing could those scurvy sea dogs researchers have, what with it being Talk Like a Pirate Day and all. I say we weigh anchor, head for the poop deck, and throw back a noggin o' rum in celebration. Who's with me?

I'll even provide the entertainment: footage from our most recent Pirate Convention and this instructional video on pirate-speak:

Lest we all get screwed.

Want to stop power company TXU from building a whole new set of coal-burning power plants in Texas, thereby single-handedly screwing what pitiful U.S. efforts there are to slow global warming?

Visit StopTXU.com.