Latest Articles

A geo-green third party?

Thomas Friedman -- la moustache de la sagesse -- has a column up (NYT $elect; reprinted in full here) suggesting that his "geo-green" shtick would be a good basis for a third party presidential candidacy. God love The Mustache for bringing energy issues to a broad audience, but this column is dopey.

Let's start with this:

What might a Geo-Green third party platform look like?

Its centerpiece would be a $1 a gallon gasoline tax, called "The Patriot Tax," which would be phased in over a year. People earning less than $50,000 a year, and those with unusual driving needs, would get a reduction on their payroll taxes as an offset.

Putting aside the rather paltry size of the tax and the difficulty of determining "unusual driving needs," this seems sensible enough, though a broad carbon tax would be preferable. But:

The billions of dollars raised by the Patriot Tax would go first to shore up Social Security, second to subsidize clean mass transit in and between every major American city, third to reduce the deficit, and fourth to massively increase energy research by the National Science Foundation and the Energy and Defense Departments' research arms.

What a bizarre list. Social Security is fine. If it's deficit-killing expenditures you're after, why not start with healthcare? And I'm all for mass transit, but is it more important than getting alternate sources of energy online? If reducing the deficit is so important, why does Friedman -- and virtually every other pundit -- insist that a gas tax be revenue neutral?

This, however, may be the most extravagant claim:

Bryant Terry, food-justice activist, answers questions

Bryant Terry. What work do you do? I’ve committed myself to feeding people; illuminating the connections between poverty, malnutrition, and institutional racism; and working to create a more just and sustainable food system for everyone. b-healthy gets teenagers cooking. In 2001, I founded b-healthy (Build Healthy Eating and Lifestyles to Help Youth), a New York […]

Gristy Road

Dear Gristmillians,

I'm getting a little worried about some of my fellow Grist staffers. As you may know, Grist is growing in both size and ambition, and has outgrown our current office. We must move -- but to where?

We've tried cramming into a Flexcar parked behind our old space, but that is just not working out. Among other things, we can't seem to agree on one radio station. So, we're off in search of a new location where we'll hopefully have a little more elbow room. But finding cheap office space in downtown Seattle isn't easy.

Tom, Grist's web production assistant, discovered several Gristers aimlessly walking around and crossing the streets of Seattle (without looking both ways!). He snapped the (strangely familiar) photo above to document our current plight.

We have exciting plans to expand and improve Grist and need your support to make them happen. Please lend a hand and help Grist get a move on.

And since we won't be needing our Flexcar memberships, we'll be giving them away to six lucky donors who contribute $50 or more by 11:59 p.m. PDT tonight. (And yes, the bamboo bike by Calfee Design and Miōn shoes are still up for grabs as well.)

Appreciatively,

Chris Schults
Web Production Manager

Doofus bashing

There was some delectable doofus-bashing while I was away by the folks at ScienceBlogs. First, in preparation for his debate on NPR's Science Friday, Chris Mooney allowed his readers the opportunity to savage the Dean of Doofus, Tom Bethell. They mangle Bethell's climate change denialism here, his evolution denialism here, and his science policy fruitcakism here. A little like shooting fish in a barrel, but damn, those fish aren't getting up again.

While you're over there, observe Tim Lambert take his cudgel to Tom Harris, a global warming denialist (and ex-tobacco shill) that's been getting a lot of attention in the rightosphere lately: whomp 1, whomp 2.

I'm a little ambivalent about the ultimate value of debunking paid shills. Of course they're stupid -- they're paid to be stupid. And bashing them probably just gives them more attention than they deserve. But as the above links show, there's something undeniably satisfying about seeing stupidity decisively and witheringly demolished.

Waves of Mutilation

Oceans are in deep trouble, says U.N. Human exploitation of the oceans has outpaced conservation efforts, the United Nations said Friday. It warned that ocean degradation is “rapidly passing the point of no return.” The watery deep, home to more than 90 percent of living organisms, faces danger from pollution, litter, overfishing, shipping, and climate […]

And Things Were Going So Well …

Struggling Iraqi refineries dump oil byproduct near Tigris River The government of Iraq has been disposing of millions of barrels of oil refinery byproduct by pumping it into mountain valleys in the north of the country and setting it on fire. The result: huge black bogs and thick smoke carried as far as 40 miles […]

And the Ban Played On

Japan fails in pro-whaling push, but still makes gains Four proposals widely viewed as steps toward a resumption of commercial whaling were defeated this weekend at the annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Animal-rights activists, enviros, and other folks opposed to the needless killing of large, intelligent mammals expressed relief; pro-whaling Japan had come […]

The Supremes come clean II

In February, the Roberts Supreme Court heard two cases on the Clean Water Act. Today they ruled 5-4 to void the decisions against two Michigan landowners. The score? Developers 1, Environment 0.

I don't know the full details of the opinions or their repercussions yet. It looks like it wasn't a complete victory for the developers, but still bad news for protecting wetlands. Here's a link from the Community Rights Counsel on what's at stake in one of the cases. Update [2006-6-19 13:5:40 by Ana Unruh Cohen]: This Forbes story has more.

When auto-delete just isn’t enough

In this day and age, there's little you can't do online. Book a flight? Click. File your taxes? Click. Chat with Aunt Sally on the other side of the world? Click. Contact your representative? Not so fast.

Congress wants to add "logic puzzles" to its already difficult web forms in an effort to reduce the number of emails it gets from those troublesome voters. Apparently, sending an email like this one through an advocacy group doesn't qualify you as a constituent with a legitimate concern. You need to answer questions like "what's 5 minus 1?" to get your Congressman (most likely, your Congressman's staffer) to read your email.

Advocacy groups are not letting this slide. Oceana has joined with at least 30 other groups in a letter to Congress today stating among other things that this technology "raise[s] dangerous questions about the infringement of constituents' First Amendment rights." It's not yet clear whether we'll be sending this letter via snail mail.

Umbra on farmers’ markets and food stamps

Dear Umbra, Do organic grocers take food stamps? Do farmers’ markets? If not, what do ecologically/health-minded people on fixed incomes do? David Burch South Bend, Ind. Dearest David, Did you know that in many states food stamps are no longer stamps? Plastic cards similar to ATM cards have replaced the paper coupons. Electronic Benefit Transfer, […]