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Hummer Bummer

Correction: Schwarzenegger didn’t really sell off his Hummers News reports published last week and cited here in Daily Grist claimed that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) had, in a fit of green consciousness, sold his fleet of Hummers. Turns out that was poppycock. A media representative in the Governator’s office said Monday that Schwarzenegger still […]

The Little Engine That Could

Honda develops “superclean” diesel engine for passenger cars Honda Motor Co. is aiming to clean up diesel’s dirty image with a new diesel engine for passenger cars that runs as cleanly as the most advanced gasoline-powered engines. In 2009, the company plans to start selling a sedan, probably a Honda Accord, powered by its new […]

Anyone Got an Extra PFD?

Earth nearing warmest point in a million years, may see rougher El Niños The earth is the warmest it has been in the last 12,000 years and is within 1.8 degrees of its highest average temperature in the past million years, scientists report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The global surface […]

An Accident Waiting to Aspen

Aspens are dying mysteriously in the Western U.S. Aspens, the most widely distributed trees in North America, are rapidly dying in some Western states — and no one knows why. The culprit may be insects, or climatic stress, or overgrazing. Or all of those. Or none of them. It may be a lack of recent […]

Bird Mentality

New sightings of ivory-billed woodpecker in Florida Bird researchers have spotted ivory-billed woodpeckers 14 times in the past 18 months in a remote area of the Florida panhandle — on some occasions, two at the same time — according to a report in the Canadian online journal Avian Conservation and Ecology. The team of scientists […]

A Colorado home-builder reflects on his attempt to go green

Sunshine on my solar panels makes me happy. Photos: Daniel Shaw In and around Aspen, Colo., incorporating green into the building process usually means wondering, “How much cash can I spend on my house?” After all, this valley sports some of the most energy-sucking but least-used second, third, and fourth homes on Earth. One of […]

What should I ask him?

Tomorrow (er, later today) afternoon, I'm having lunch with renowned science journalist David Quammen, author most recently of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. (For more on Quammen and a bibliography, see here.)

Reluctant is an entry in Norton's "Great Discoveries" series, meant to be short, brisk, accessible works on topics of scientific import. It is all those things, but never cursory. It never feels dumbed down. I highly recommend it.

Also check out this interview he did with Salon. It touches on some of the animal welfare issues discussed here recently.

So, anyhoo ... what should I ask him?

The Times a bit too flowery on China’s growing rose industry

China is positioning itself to take the lead in world rose production. Government leaders hope investing in the flower industry will bring capital and jobs to southwestern China, and florists in the U.S. see it as an opportunity to obtain cheaper products, thereby increasing profits.

Workers in the burgeoning rose industry are mostly young women, earning an average of $25 per month, which the NYT article at least points out. Missing from the piece, though, is any thought to the health, labor, and environmental effects of the flower industry, or to how China's flower project could engage with fairer standards.

NGO cozy with human-rights nightmare Burma?

The accusations in The New Republic about the Wildlife Conservation Society's cozy relationship with the government of Burma, which has one of the worst human rights records in the world, should disturb all committed environmentalists. Our goals do not exist in a vacuum and it is not alright to focus myopically on biodiversity conservation without taking into account other serious issues.

So no matter what you think about animal welfare and animal rights, I hope everyone out there will express some concern about turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in order to promote environmental goals. That's a value judgment for sure; one that I stand by wholeheartedly.

Like peanut butter and chocolate

Today, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) took to the Senate floor to give what was billed as a "major speech" on climate change. (Full transcript here.)

Inhofe is, of course, famous for being one of the Last True Skeptics, resolutely resistant to the idea that global warming is real, much less dangerous. It is, he says, the "greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people." He's an implacable foe of any energy legislation that doesn't begin and end with drilling. (His latest gambit was an attempt to punish California for its recent climate legislation.)

He's also, as it happens, a budding media critic. His office at the Senate Environment Committee has taken to publicly attacking journalists who fail to demonstrate sufficient balance (a mix of truth and falsehood) and objectivity (refusal to distinguish between them).

Now, some might find nefarious motives for Inhofe's skepticism, and no doubt his indebtedness to the oil and gas industry plays some role, but veteran Inhofe-watchers realize that on this issue, he is a True Believer. Whether that is more or less scary than simple corruption I leave to the reader.

What's remarkable about this particular speech is its windy, compendious breadth. Inhofe comes off like nothing so much as an assiduous right-wing blogger who's spent hours in his Cheeto-scattered basement combing the net for every rumor, half-truth, and slander he can find, collecting them all into some half-ass database of delusion.

It's a bravura performance, though one can't help wonder when Oklahomans' more pressing concerns are being addressed.

I don't have the time or energy to refute every piece of disinformation, but here are some highlights, so you'll know what to look for the next time you discuss the subject with a conservative skeptic: