Latest Articles

Speaking of EVs

I've picked up a copy of The Car That Could by Michael Shnayerson, the 1996 book about the birth of the EV1. This quote really summed up the whole sorry tale, and it appears early in the book (p. 24, emphasis mine):

Electric cars: Don’t call it a comeback

Though the snark against Who Killed the Electric Car? ("Who cares? It's history!") is bizarre and unwarranted, Joel Makower's post on the revival of electric cars and plug-in hybrids nonetheless contains a wealth of interesting information. I knew some efforts were underway to produce and market all-electric vehicles, but I didn't know how many.

It seems to me the only stumbling block is the development of light, economical, reliable lithium-ion batteries, and given that lithium-driven scooters are already on the market, I can't imagine they're too far away.

I predict the market will judge the Big Three American automakers' new push for flex-fuel vehicles harshly. Electric is the future, no matter how many subsidies the feds pump in other directions.

Gay sex and global warming

"If only gay sex caused global warming" is not only the most humorously titled, but one of the most psychologically and sociologically astute analyses of global warming I've ever seen in the confines of a newspaper op-ed.

‘Tis the Season (for strawberry shortcake)

Ah, June. Roses are in bloom, weddings and graduation exercises occupy the weekends, and it's time to head to the beach. Summer in full swing! Summer at last!

So why am I making Thanksgiving dinner on what is, to date, the hottest day of the year?

Welcome, dear reader, to the topsy-turvy world of the food writer. Like fashion models who don heavy mink coats in July and itsy-bitsy bikinis in December in order to accommodate magazine production schedules, foodwriters are always working many months into the future. This leads to a rarefied category of Seasonal Affective Disorder: Seasonal Displacement Disorder -- a syndrome in which the patient is unreasonably preoccupied with the events and sentiments normally reserved for a season approximately six months into the future.

Who killed the Phoenix Islands coral reef?

Here's a short whodunnit over at Current TV, "Canary is dead", which is awaiting the greenlight to be aired on television:

(Via TH)

Kunstler

For those of you who can't get enough of Mr. Doomy Gloomenstein, there's an interview with James Howard Kunstler up on Worldchanging.

Big Three Automakers shun hybrids for flex-fuel hoo-hah

It looks like America's Big Three automakers have decided that "flex-fuel" vehicles -- i.e., vehicles that can run on an ethanol blend -- are their ticket to green credibility.

Aargh.

EMA Awards 2006: Call for entries

The Environmental Media Association is seeking entries for their Sixteenth Annual Environmental Media Awards. (You might recall that Vanessa McGrady covered last year's event for Grist.)

Categories include:

More House shenanigans

Hm, turns out that Interior Appropriations bill has some nastiness in it too:

The Senate Appropriations Committees has included language in the FY 07 Interior Appropriations Bill to exempt some logging projects on the National Forests from the normal citizen comment and appeal requirements. Section 426 of the Senate Interior Appropriations bill provides that projects "categorically excluded" by the Forest Service do not need to be subjected to public notice, comment and appeal. In recent years, the agency has greatly expanded the size of logging projects that can be "categorically excluded."

Haiku and so forth

Before our oh-so-clever (and just-completed) We're Moving campaign, way back a few years ago in the dark ages, we had a Haiku Hullabaloo campaign. Readers submitted haiku and the best one was emblazoned on a t-shirt and sent to generous donors. This is the immortal winner: