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Umbra asks: Where has Grist gone?

Dearest Gristmillers,

Umbra Fisk here, writing to inquire whether you've seen any of my Grist colleagues.

I spent the last few weeks in my usual spot in the basement, working on a series of columns about eco-friendly foodstuffs, pausing only for the occasional bite of locally grown fiddlehead fern. Finished at last, I rushed up the five flights of stairs to turn in the copy.

But the place was nearly empty. The people, the computers, the desk, the 2005 and 2006 Best Magazine Webby awards -- all gone. Unaccountably, all that was left was a brand new unicycle.

I know it's been tough up there lately: bad news about melting icecaps, Grizzly-Polar-Care Bear hybrids, etc. Also, it's very, very crowded (why do you think I fled to the basement?). Still, I'm not quite sure where they'd go.

Let me know if you see them. You'll recognize them by the kenaf notebooks, furrowed brows, and quick wordplay. Also, one of them is carrying a suitcase stuffed with cash -- though apparently not nearly enough. The fundraising guy, Michael, muttered something a few days ago about needing $60,000, having only half of it, and desperate times/measures. I was on deadline, and wasn't paying close attention. Now I wonder.

In addition to keeping your eyes open, maybe you could also open your wallet, and relieve some of Grist's financial strain. Send 50 bucks by 11:59 p.m. PDT tomorrow, June 23, and I tell you what: I'll put you in a drawing for this nifty Kris Holm Unicycle. I'm finding it too challenging to both pedal and fork fiddlehead at the same time, so this one-wheeler can be yours.

Unbalanced,
Umbra

P.S. The one nice thing about working in the basement is easy access to the storage closet. And do you know what's in there? A beautiful Calfee Design bike made of gleaming, sustainable bamboo. Send us $100 and I'll put you in a drawing for it. Or send $50, and I'll give you a chance at one of these 24 pairs of Miōn shoes. They're waterproof -- handy as sea levels surge!

P.P.S. There is more than one way to give, so pick your pleasure: check, PayPal or credit card.

Gore links

Via an endorsement of Al Gore for president by The New Republic's head honcho Martin Peretz, I found a piece that Gore wrote for TNR way back in 1989 (PDF). Give it a read. It's remarkable for its erudition and foresight. While you read, try to imagine President Bush saying the words. Then weep quietly.

An Inconvenient Truth won the Humanitas prize for helping to "liberate, enrich and unify society." It's the first Special Prize given by the organization in ten years.

Here's Gore on Keith Olberman's Countdown.

Here's Gore on Charlie Rose.

In a poll of Daily Kos readers, Al Gore gets the presidential endorsement by a wide margin.

Step One: Get a Job With Better Health-Care Coverage

Wal-Mart to educate employees on environment and health Retail leviathan Wal-Mart, anxious to be the eco-friendliest big-box chain around, is developing a program to teach employees how to care for themselves and the environment. Anonymous sources say the as-yet-unveiled plan, tentatively named the Environmental Health and Wellness Program, will give employees practical advice, like using […]

You Look Like You Just Saw a Coast

Offshore drilling bill moves forward in House Legislation that would end a 25-year ban on most offshore drilling was approved by the House Resources Committee yesterday. The bill would authorize oil and gas development farther than 50 miles offshore, unless a state acted to prohibit exploration within 100 miles of its shore; the current ban […]

Sear in the Headlights

Summer in Western U.S. is off to a hot, dry, fiery start In Western states, wildfires and heat waves are getting an early start this year — a pattern unsurprising to climate scientists, and likely to get worse. Wildfires have already burned more than 3 million acres, more than triple the average for this time […]

A Long and Windy Road

Compromise in Congress keeps Cape Wind project above water The beleaguered Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound is keeping its head above water, thanks to good old-fashioned compromise. A provision to allow the Massachusetts governor to veto the planned wind project was holding up a Coast Guard reauthorization bill in Congress; a new version of […]

Moms

Lou Bendrick -- who occasionally writes for us -- is funny. And she's got a funny piece up on Orion. It's about moms and environmentalism and how easy it is to screen it all out.

Let me cultivate my personal female mystique by disclosing that I am the environmental media and I also loathe the environmental media. Just say "photovoltaic" and my eyes start to get heavy; start in about polar bears drowning and I have to go the happy place in my head that involves ponies, chocolate, and George Clooney. Add to this the typical dose of future pessimism found in most environmental reportage (we'll soon be digging for grubs with a stone spear, you just wait and see!) and blame (that un-recycled peanut butter jar just killed a polar bear cub, damn you!), and you'll discover that I'm headed to the grocery store to see who made the worst-dressed list at the Oscars.

It's a sentiment that might annoy some hardcore Gristies, but it's obviously pretty widely shared.

(She goes on to say nice things about us, so naturally I find the article brilliant.)

Do you know where your candidates stand on climate change?

With growing numbers of scientists declaring that the global climate crisis is approaching a point of no return, there is a huge and bewildering disconnect between our physical world and our political environment. Our government’s response to the prospect of runaway climate impacts is one of paralysis. The negligence of the Bush administration is understandable. […]

File under: WTF

Did you know you can now get organic food on Amazon.com?

Investors see green in buildings

Contrary to popular belief, most developers don't bulldoze Bambi solely to satisfy their innate avarice. Instead, they pave the Earth at the bidding of their clients -- by which I mean lenders and investors, not homebuyers, office tenants, or other such "end users." Regardless of how exciting and cool a development proposal is, it just won't happen if some faceless banker doesn't advance a big pile of cash.

As rapacious national banks swallow smaller, local competitors by the dozen, these lending decisions have increasingly fallen to bankers blindly applying generic guidelines. The result: a paint-by-numbers landscape of interchangeable (but financially safe) subdivisions, strip malls, and office parks. Any developer who dared to innovate would have to do so on his own dime -- and sure enough, many pioneering examples of New Urbanism have been backed by "nontraditional" investors like old-money families, large corporations (like Microsoft, Disney, EDS, and Ebsco), and even charitable foundations. Despite growing interest in socially responsible investing, few investors have thought of how to clean up the picture in the building industry -- source of, say some, half of America's greenhouse gas emissions.