Latest Articles
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Diss Me Cate
EPA whistleblower says agency misled on health hazards of 9/11 dust A U.S. EPA whistleblower has gone public with accusations that the agency downplayed the health hazards of dust from the collapsed World Trade Center. EPA senior scientist Cate Jenkins — who has long clashed with her employer — says the agency relied on misleading […]
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The Definition of Insanity
Bush administration will open 8 million Alaskan acres to oil drilling As only makes sense following a disaster in northern Alaska involving oil spills and corroded pipelines, the Bush administration next month plans to open 8 million northwestern Alaska acres to oil and natural gas development. The area, in the National Petroleum Reserve, contains “a […]
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God Hates BP
BP hits more snafus in Prudhoe Bay Beleaguered oil giant BP has halted leak testing on pipelines in Alaska’s Prudhoe Bay oil field after learning that workers may have been exposed to asbestos. Since a major spill in the oil field in early March, as many as 200 workers have been stripping insulation off of […]
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Stop Us If You’ve Heard This One
EPA must consult wildlife officials about pesticide use Yesterday a federal judge overturned a two-year-old regulation that allowed the U.S. EPA to approve pesticides without consulting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about toxic impact on rare animals and plants. Ruling in favor of nine environmental groups, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenor declared that […]
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Shags in the wild
While it is not about a strictly environmental topic, I nonetheless feel duty-bound (and proud) to point out that our very own Sarah van Schagen -- author of the wildly popular Something Fishy column -- has a new piece up on CampusProgress.org. Check it out.
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Non-“environmental” environmental policies
It's funny -- on the way to work today, I was thinking about a post on policies that would help the environment but are not traditionally thought of as "environmental." Then John pops up this morning with something very similar. So I guess it's in the air.
One of the common accusations against the environmental movement in the whole death debate was that enviros conceive of "the environment" too narrowly, and thus conceive of their political mandate too narrowly. They focus on technocratic policies about PPB of contaminants in water or new-source regulations on coal plants, instead of trying to build a broad progressive movement.
So. What are some policies that most people would not label "environmental," but which would benefit the environment? Off the top of my head I'd cite:
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The best ways to “fix” agriculture
Agricultural presents a particularly challenging set of environmental issues because of its complexity and the myriad ways agriculture affects environmental variables; from pesticides to soil erosion to water use, agriculture is by far the greatest human-induced alteration of the natural environment on the planet.
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TerraPass and verification
TerraPass, sellers of carbon offsets, has undergone its first verification report:
Based on an agreement with Center for Resource Solutions (CRS), creator of the Green-e program, this report details our impact for the year, the sales-supply balance and our distribution of offset projects. The good news, in case you’re wondering, is that we passed!
Big deal, you think? Perhaps for this individual company, but it's quite important that the carbon offsets industry -- which seems to be capturing public attention and taking off -- establish some shared standards of accountability. TP's Tom Arnold says:
We, along with CRS, hope to extend this pilot program into an industry-wide program. That means attracting other industry participants as well as getting feedback on what types of projects qualify for a Green-e like program. The CRS announcement went out this morning and I'm happy to say that NRDC, WRI, Interface Fabrics, climate change experts Seth Baruch and Terry Surles, and others will also participate in a new GHG Advisory Group to help shepherd through a program.
Cool.
(Here's the Green-e press release on the formation of the advisory group.)
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Komanoff on wind
Don't miss an excellent piece in Orion on the fevered debate over wind power. It's by Charles Komanoff, who you know as a periodic Gristmill contributor.
