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The Bill Factor

Bill Clinton teams with cities to fight climate change Yesterday, ex-Prez Bill Clinton announced a new international effort to fight climate change. The Clinton Climate Initiative is a partnership between the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group — a group of 22 of the world’s largest municipalities — and the Clinton Foundation. The latter will help […]

DDT Time

DDT poised for a comeback to fight malaria in Africa Hoping to gain ground in the fight against malaria, the World Health Organization will soon endorse the spraying of DDT in small amounts inside homes in afflicted areas. In May, the U.S. Agency for International Development made a similar endorsement. Malaria, spread by mosquitoes, kills […]

We’re Running Out of Drilling Puns

Senate votes to expand drilling in Gulf of Mexico Acting boldly to address America’s nascent energy crisis, U.S. senators … passed one more sop to the oil and gas industry and got ready to flee town for the summer recess. Yesterday, by a vote of 71 to 25, the Senate passed a bill that would […]

Wind powder

The NYT reports today that Colorado ski resort giant Vail Resorts is investing heavily in wind, "buying enough credits to offset all the power needed for its resorts, retail stores and office buildings."

Vail Resort's purchase makes them the second largest purchaser of wind credit after Whole Foods. The article states that Vail Resorts accounts for "10% of all skier visits in the nation last year." This makes their commitment a pretty significant splash on the ski scene.

Workers on organic farms are treated as poorly as their conventional counterparts

When Elena Ortiz found a job on an organic raspberry farm after working for nine years in conventionally farmed fields, she was glad for the change. The best part about her new job was that she no longer had to work just feet away from tractors spraying chemical herbicides and pesticides. An added bonus was […]

Umbra on writing to reps about climate change

Dear Umbra, I want to send a letter to my local representatives about global warming and how our whole city and state should take part in stopping it, but I don’t know what to say or how to approach this. Please help! Hillary Schwartz Birmingham, Ala. Dearest Hillary, Hmm, I can think of a few […]

Climate Bill

Clinton turns to climate change:

Oil is a feminist issue

So proclaims the cover of the latest issue of Ms., touting an article by Martha Burk: "Crude Awakening: U.S. Policies in Afghanistan and Iraq Sell Out Women in Favor of Oil." Alas, there's only a teaser online, not the full article.

In sum:

Whether supporting gender apartheid abroad, or sacrificing feeding programs for U.S. women and children so that ExxonMobil can get a tax break, or simply standing by while the company reaps record profits at the expense of women who must drive to work and heat their houses, U.S. priorities are consistent: Oil wins over women's rights hands down.

Appropriately, Burk focuses most of her attention abroad -- from pre-9/11 Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, where the Clinton admin overlooked gross abuses of women's rights as it tried to grease the wheels for a Unocal pipeline, to oppressive Saudi Arabia, to increasingly woman-unfriendly Iraq, back to present-day Afghanistan, where things are looking nearly as grim for women and girls as they did when the Taliban reigned. (The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission reports that more than 300 girls' schools have been burned or bombed in the country in recent years, Burk writes.)

Burk doesn't touch on any traditionally "environmental" threads in the piece, but it's an interesting, if cursory, look at how oil politics and gender politics collide.

Happy 25th Birthday, MTV

The MSM is awash with stories hyping the quarter-century milestone, so I figured I'd jump aboard the bandwagon and use it as an opportunity to point out that MTV.com's environment section highlights news from your favorite green mag.

(BTW, did you know that Martha Quinn now has a weekly '80s show on Sirius Satellite Radio? Still cute as a button!)

A rundown of global sports organizations.

So, maybe you don't like soccer or biking. Maybe you're just saying, "Hey! Enough with the specifics! Give me something broad to sink my teeth into!"

Well, friend, you're in luck. Today we'll be overviewing the variety of committees, confederations, groups, and forums that focus on environment and sport. Because really, who knew there were so many?

The United Nations deemed 2005 the International Year of Sport and Physical Education, so I'm a year late on this blog post, but bear with me. We'll start off with the United Nations Environment Programme's Sport and Environment section, which pretty much says it all:

Sport is intimately connected to nature. A healthy environment is necessary for healthy sport. For many athletes, it is this intimacy with nature that motivates and inspires them.

Sports facilities, events, activities and the manufacture of sporting goods have an impact on the environment. Energy consumption, air pollution, emissions of greehouse gases and ozone-depleting substances, waste disposal, wastes use and impacts on biological diversity are all issues for the sporting world to address.

Go team!