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Bill and peak oil

Bill Clinton is officially on the peak oil bandwagon, and wants the nation's newspaper editors to hop on with him.

(via Oil Drum)

Dartmouth students ride the future

If you've been reading Gristmill -- as I'm sure you all have! -- you'll know that I just returned from a trip to cover the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. (And what a long, strange triperoo, it was!) One of the many things I didn't get to mention in my story is that I met these folks while I was there.

This book was made for walking

It makes intuitive sense that living in a community that encourages walking -- with sidewalks, good street connections, and homes that are close to shops and services -- would make you active and healthier.

As Sightline Institute's new book -- Cascadia Scorecard 2006: Focus on Sprawl and Health -- points out, such communities are also safer. (Full disclosure: I work at Sightline.) Residents who live in a compact community have significantly less chance of dying in a car crash -- not because they're better drivers, but because they drive less. (And car crashes, of course, are the leading killer of young people.) And they also tend to weigh less and have less risk of chronic diseases associated with obesity.

Check out the press page for pdfs and fact sheets about the new research. And check out media coverage: front page of the Vancouver Sun and in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer as well.

But for a quick take, here are my top ten facts from the new Scorecard:

Cool books for hot sunny days

Well, folks, it's officially summer. I know this because it's finally -- gasp! -- sunny here in Seattle. So get out those flip-flops and the sunscreen, settle into that lawnchair or hammock, and hand me a margarita ... it's time for the summer reading list.

Popular Science solves the whole energy thing

Everyone and their cousin has already linked to this, but in case you missed it, Popular Science is running a series of stories called The Future of Energy. It's good.

And when I say "good," I mean "more or less reflects my own priorities." I was particularly pleased that nuclear didn't show up on the list and that grid improvements were way up at No. 2. I would have moved "negawatts" -- i.e., efficiency and conservation -- up higher on the list, and moved hydrogen lower, but those are quibbles. Overall, nice work.

(The editors explain their methodology here.)

GM’s plug-in hybrid: rumor or … OK, it’s a rumor

Via Groovy Green, we hear that GM may be making a plug-in hybrid, possibly to debut at an auto show as early as January.

I'll believe it when I see it, but damn I'd sure like to see it.

Waste gas to clean gas

This looks pretty nifty: A company called Prometheus Energy Co. will be setting up a facility that takes waste gas from landfills (ew) and refines it into liquid natural gas, which can fuel vehicles (at least vehicles that have undergone a fairly expensive conversion). Allegedly the resultant gas will be cheaper than diesel, and Prometheus will also set up a fueling station.

The LNG can also be created from "excess gases at coal mines, dairy farms or abandoned natural gas wells."

These waste-to-fuel projects are the kind of no-downside strategy I hope we see a lot more of.

Or, how I survived my first camping trip

Find out more about how Bonnaroo is going green.

It was early afternoon on a Friday when I got the call. I had been wrangling commas and scanning The Superficial the news all morning when Grist kahuna maxima Chip Giller asked me if I would go to the Bonnaroo Arts & Music Festival in Tennessee to cover its efforts to eco-ize.

This was exactly the kind of break I'd been waiting for. Giller wanted me -- me! -- to travel across the country and file a real story.

My ego started to swell. Oh yeah, I said to myself. Giller knows that when he needs a real reporter who'll get the job done right, he comes straight to me the staff writer I share an office with. But when that guy can't go, whom does Giller turn to? Ya damn right.

The boss interrupted my mental cheerleading with a serious question. "Are you sure you're up to the challenge?" he asked. Hellz yeah, I told him.

After hanging up, I did a quick skills check. Talking to hot, sweaty musician-types about their eco-interests? Check. Hanging out in the beer tent eating funnel cake? I'll take seconds, thanks. Proudly flashing my all-access media pass in front of all the slobbering plebes? As long as it matched my outfit. Navigating airport security and surviving the middle seat on a transcontinental flight? Bring on the li'l bags of peanuts. Camping for four nights in the middle of summer in Tennessee?

Um, what?

From Poop to Pod

Forest dump If you drop some logs in a national park and no restroom cleaners are around to hear it, does it make a sound? We’ll soon find out, as budget crunches are forcing cutbacks on park luxuries … like clean bathrooms. Said one pooper of a Yosemite restroom, “It looked like nothing had been […]

Legendary music fest Bonnaroo urges fans to go green

Two’s company, 80,000’s a crowd. Photos: Sarah van Schagen.  For most of the year, this 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tenn., provides open, grassy pasture for a herd of cows. But for a short time each summer, the idyllic setting is taken over by a different kind of herd: the tens of thousands of fans who […]