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From Inconvenient to Indiana

Don’t hate the narrata, hate the game Much to the surprise of playa hataz, An Inconvenient Truth — starring the allegedly “stiff” Al Gore — is doing gangbuster box office, boasting the industry’s highest per-screen average. This is driving certain parties nuts, leading to incoherent screeds and comparisons of Gore to both Goebbels and Hitler. […]

Going to Hell in a Sandbasket

North central China being slowly swallowed by desert Two deserts in north central China are rapidly expanding, burying 1,500 square miles of grasslands, lakes, forests, and villages under sand every year. Government-led deforestation and water-engineering projects are largely to blame. A giant reservoir near the town of Minqin diverts all available water resources into an […]

Biscuits ‘n’ Crazy

Forest Service will auction off Oregon timber burned by Biscuit fire Enviros have lost a four-year legal battle to keep logging out of Oregon’s Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, burned four years ago by the massive Biscuit fire. A federal appeals court has cleared the U.S. Forest Service to auction off rights today to about 400 […]

The Evolution Will Be Pint-Sized

Some small animals evolving to adapt to climate change, study finds As we humans cling to the status quo while it floats down the river toward a global-warming waterfall (ahem), smaller animals are getting on with evolving. New research in Science identifies heritable genetic changes in some small wildlife that increase their chances of survival […]

Could the battle for South Central Farm be coming to a close?

The scene at South Central Farm would look familiar to anyone who’s ever attended a multi-day protest: there’s a makeshift kitchen to feed the masses, a small sound stage, a tent for banner-making. But the kitchen is preparing nopales quesadillas instead of vegan stew, the stage features a Norteño band replete with cowboy hats, and […]

Electric car questions

Tomorrow I'll be chatting with the folks behind Who Killed the Electric Car? (I saw it this evening -- it's quite good.)

Any questions y'all would like me to ask?

Deactivated cylinders

The competition to own the biggest truck on the block has finally reached its zenith. The Detroit News tells us that pickup truck sales continue to "crater."

GM and Ford Motor Co. announced plans to cut North American vehicle output in the third quarter to pare their stocks of unsold [pickup] trucks.

"That market is sitting back a bit," said Gary Dilts, senior vice president of sales at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group. "But the core of the truck business -- a very large percentage -- will remain, because they need that kind of vehicle."

Garbage in = garbage out. A small percentage of people who buy these trucks actually need them.

It’s that kind of movie

A friend sent this email -- her review of An Inconvenient Truth -- at 1:18 AM last night.

Getting accurate information: Public or private responsibility?

An interesting debate was touched on in this thread, so I thought I'd elevate it so we can discuss it directly. Atreyger says this:

Imagine people who don't understand the [climate] science at all ... what happens is that you have a lot of hand-waving from both sides, with polarization of the pro- and con- groups who don't know what's going on and are just listening to others ...

I guess my point is that if all of us would have a better education in science and math, then this problem would be reduced.

This is a common sentiment, and there's certainly an element of truth in it: If the citizenry were better educated in basic scientific method, statistics, and logic, climate contrarianism would have a rougher time of it.

But, as Kaela put it:

‘Eco-terrorism’: This will go on your permanent record

Well this is comforting:

AUGUSTA, Maine -- State police have asked about a dozen environmental activists in Maine to provide samples of their DNA as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, police said.

Update [2006-6-8 16:28:18 by David Roberts]: See also this very good story in the L.A. Times.