Latest Articles
-
Umbra on herbicides
Dear Umbra, How do herbicides (organic, if such exist, or non-organic) work? David Burch South Bend, Ind. Dearest David, Herbicides are considered a subcategory of pesticides, for all you confused by my last pesticide comments. Herbicides kill plants with a vast array of ingenious torture and maiming techniques. (Maiming a plant isn’t quite like maiming […]
-
Get smart
This is a bit far afield, perhaps, but the British press is reporting that new drivers in the UK will soon have to take an "eco-driving" test in order to get their license. The UK initiative is modelled after a Dutch program that claims that smarter driving habits -- slower acceleration, less braking, lower top speeds -- can shave gas consumption by a third or more.
Last year, after a brief (and undeserved) flap over they Toyota Prius's worse-than-advertised mileage, ardent hybrid enthusiasts began circulating advice about how to maximize the vehicles' efficiency. So it's good to see some effort to do the same thing for the 99+ percent of cars on the road that aren't hybrids.
-
We can expect to see much more of this
A different take on the energy issue:
If America is to continue to climb the curve of technological advance, hopefully culminating in a society powered by the ultimately cheap, clean and flexible source of energy -- nuclear fusion, which would give us transmutation of the elements as a "spinoff" -- we must continue to seek out, extract, and refine the petroleum gifts of the Earth. As the prices of oil and gas advance, and ordinary people find it increasingly difficult to heat their homes and drive their cars, they will grow very tired of the self-righteous pseudo-moralizing of the save-the-Earth crowd. At some point, when hundreds or thousands of Americans have died of exposure to the cold and the shortfall of petroleum has precipitated a nationwide depression, anyone who dares to suggest that further energy exploration, extraction, or refinement is unacceptable for some moss-and-dirt-worshipping reason will find himself ornamenting the end of a rope.
And you thought idle eliminationist rhetoric was only directed at the anti-war crowd!
(via Wolcott)
-
Roger Mustalish, Amazon researcher and protector, answers questions
Roger Mustalish. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I’m president of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research Foundation, a U.S. nonprofit with offices in West Chester, Penn., and in Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado, Peru. What does your organization do? ACEER’s mission is to promote environmental conservation by being a catalyst for awareness, […]
-
Who’s on the Right Side of the Road Now?
Brits change habits to save gasoline; Americans don’t Starting in 2008, new drivers in Britain will be tested not only on the anxiety-producing three-point turn, but also on their ability to drive in a manner that conserves gasoline. The country hopes to produce a new generation of eco-aware motorists who accelerate and brake smoothly and […]
-
The Songhua Remains the Same
Pollution from November spill in China still taints downstream waterways Months after a factory explosion in China dumped benzene and other chemicals into the Songhua River, thawing ice is releasing a second wave of toxins into downstream waterways near Khabarovsk, Russia. More than half a million residents of the city have been advised not to […]
-
Roger That
Roger Mustalish, Amazon researcher and protector, answers Grist‘s questions Imagine strolling along a walkway that weaves through the treetops of a lush Amazonian cloud forest in Peru. Construction on this canopy classroom will begin this summer, thanks to Roger Mustalish and the nonprofit he runs, the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research. As InterActivist […]
-
Solar Eclipsed
Solar providers can’t keep up with growing demand Solar power may not yet be ready for the big time: The current spike in oil prices is causing a surge of interest in home solar, but supply of polysilicon (the stuff solar panels are made of) is unable to keep up with demand. It used to […]
-
We’d Do Anything for Love (But We Won’t Do That)
Republican gas-price pander disgusts even pander-lovin’ American people Hollywood producers like to say that no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people. Hollywood producers, meet Senate Republicans. Their latest gas-price gambit, coordinated by Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) — a legislator who puts the “less” in “hapless” — seems to have […]
