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Save South Central Farm

Over at Daryl Hannah's vlog, dh love life, she's posted an "emergency episode" about the plight of the South Central Farm that Dave blogged about recently.

Watch it now. (Damn, those fruits and veggies look good!)

Americans and Climate Change: From science to values I

"Americans and Climate Change: Closing the Gap Between Science and Action" (PDF) is a report synthesizing the insights of 110 leading thinkers on how to educate and motivate the American public on the subject of global warming. Background on the report here. I'll be posting a series of excerpts (citations have been removed; see original report). If you'd like to be involved in implementing the report's recommendations, or learn more, visit the Yale Project on Climate Change website.

Below the fold is the beginning of the report's second chapter, which is about transitioning the climate-change debate away from science talk and toward values talk. The first part focuses on the role that religious communities could or do play. I must admit I found some of it irksome -- evangelical leaders said openly that their members are more likely to trust business leaders, don't want to hear about gloom and doom, and don't want to hear that they will have to sacrifice. Um ... these are not exactly praiseworthy biases. Perhaps instead of asking everyone else to cater to them, evangelicals should change them. But don't let me skew your perceptions -- read it and let me know what you think.

John Suttles, Southern environmental lawyer, answers questions

John Suttles. What work do you do? I’m a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill, N.C. How does it relate to the environment? For the past 20 years, the Southern Environmental Law Center — the biggest environmental organization headquartered in the Southeast — has used the full power of the […]

How to talk about global warming, by Bill C.

Reuters reports some talking points on global warming from former prez Clinton:

Going With the Flow

Underwater turbines to be tested in New York river Avoiding the bickering over wind power and biofuels, a Virginia-based company is seeking clean energy in the watery deep. Within a few weeks, Verdant Power will submerge turbines in New York’s East River to draw energy from the tides. The first phase of the project will […]

Fly by Nitrogen

Threatened California butterfly hurt by cars and helped by cows The bay checkerspot butterfly population on Northern California’s Coyote Ridge is threatened with “drive-by extinction,” according to conservation biologist Stuart Weiss. Car commuters to Silicon Valley and other sources of pollution deposit up to 20 pounds of nitrogen per acre on the ridge every year, […]

Kicked in the Arson

“Eco-terrorists” indicted in connection to Vail ski-resort arson Four people — dubbed “eco-terrorists” by the authorities, who aren’t at all trying to scare you — were indicted Thursday and face eight counts of arson in connection to fires set at a Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998. A communiqué apparently released by the arsonists said […]

Update on Chinese eco-village project

In the April issue of Sustainable Industries, April Streeter gives an interesting update one the Huangbaiyu eco-village project green building guru William McDonough has been involved with. Sounds like things are tougher than expected.

Instead of being a demonstration model for sustainable growth ready to be replicated throughout the country, Huangbaiyu appears to be a village in limbo.

New study: Nitrogen availability may constrain biomass accumulation in presence of increased CO2

An article in the April 13 issue of Nature, "Nitrogen limitations constrains sustainability of ecosystem response to CO2" (subscription required) reports on a six-year study of the role of nitrogen on biomass accumulation when CO2 concentrations increase.

Our results indicate that variability in availability of soil N and deposition of atmospheric N are both likely to influence the response of plant biomass accumulation to elevated atmospheric CO2. Given that limitations to productivity resulting from the insufficient availability of N are widespread in both unmanaged and managed vegetation, soil N supply is probably an important constraint on global terrestrial responses to elevated CO2.

Umbra on the cost of organics

Dear Umbra, How come it’s so expensive to go organic? I could swing it by myself by eating a bare minimum of food, but I’m charged with feeding consume-mass-quantity types who favor the traditional American diet, and they eat meat. I would be in debt buying just half the monthly food consumption. One would have […]