Latest Articles

Anti-Earth Week

In response to Rep. Dick Pombo's absurd Earth Day website, the House Democrats have put together a site of their own: Anti-Earth Week. It details four anti-environmental bills that will go before the House in just this one week (and, naturally, touts the Democratic alternative).

Pretty clever.

(hat tip: reader BM)

An Inconvenient Truth: More reaction

More reactions are trickling in to Gore's movie. Arianna Huffington loved it, and loved Gore in it. In fact, she thinks the U.S. political class could learn a few lessons from him:

... we get a seemingly endless lineup of fear-driven candidates who, with each new election cycle, become a little more wrinkle-free, a little more foible-free, a good bit less interesting -- and considerably more idea free. They are so programmed to avoid the pitfalls of actually standing for something, we might as well have robots running.

Whether Al Gore ends up running in 2008 or not, he is modeling the way our public figures, and especially our would-be presidents, should be operating -- from the heart and true to themselves. Standing for something more important than just winning, and more powerful than the fear of losing.

At The New Republic, the normally snarky Franklin Foer was positively moved:

Americans and Climate Change: Signs of action

"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 second half of the introduction to part one, which notes a few signs that change may be underway.

A Random Act of Mindfulness

Random House to bump up use of recycled paper For you fogies who still read books made of … what do they call it? … “paper,” here’s some good news: Leading U.S. publishing company Random House announced this week that it plans to increase the recycled-paper content of its books to 30 percent by 2010. […]

Better Late Than Clever

Democrats unveil plan to cut dependence on oil imports Yesterday, Senate Democrats presented a proposal to cut U.S. dependence on oil imports 40 percent by 2020. The Clean EDGE Act contains nary a mention of increased fuel-economy standards, gas taxes, or other such excessively bold proposals; instead, it proclaims that ethanol will save us all. […]

My Name Is Prince and I Am Gunky

Exxon Valdez disaster still screwing up Prince William Sound Wildlife in Alaska’s Prince William Sound is still threatened by oil spilled from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. According to a new study by researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service, some 100 tons of oil still pollute the sound shoreline and are potentially accessible […]

Chase to the Cut

House passes bill to speed up salvage logging A bill that would speed up salvage logging in national forests after fires and other natural disasters has passed in the House. Currently, a careful review of wildlife and forest health is required before timber can be salvaged and sold after catastrophes; proponents of the heftily named […]

Pat Michaels slanders Al Gore on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes

I just sent the following email to Fox News and Pat Michaels:

Local or organic? It’s a false choice

This essay was adapted from the book Organic, Inc.: Natural Foods and How They Grew. A couple of years ago, I visited an organic vegetable farm in southeast Minnesota, not far from the Mississippi River. Nestled in a valley that sloped down from rolling pasture and cropland sat Featherstone Fruits and Vegetables, a 40-acre farm. […]

Where’s tomorrow’s water?

We Canadians can be a prickly sort. So I for one wasn't particularly surprised to see that large majorities of us are opposed to selling water to the U.S. (This is the same country that's gotten extremely wealthy -- and abandoned its Kyoto commitment -- by selling the U.S. as much tar sand oil as we can make.) Still, Jim Margolis' recent article at The American Prospect has some interesting bits.

Now looms a U.S. invasion Canadians take more seriously. This one is real, and its target is more tangible -- their water. They think we're coming after it. They're right.

It isn't that the water wars are the talk of the nation; they were rarely mentioned in the recent federal election campaign. But the dispute bobs beneath the surface, a regular topic of conversation among the political elites. From the left, the Council of Canadians calls for a national water policy that would prevent "bulk water exports and diversions." From the right, former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed predicted that, "the United States will be coming after our fresh water aggressively within three to five years."

One newsmagazine here, Macleans, had a cover article last year about the American desire for Canadian water. And you can get an idea of the coming talking points from the right by the tone of the article:

But Canada, the most water-rich nation on the planet, wants no part of this new world. And that puts our priorities on a collision course with the needs of our biggest trading partner and most essential ally. Already the White House has mused about the need to open the Canada-U.S. border to water exports, and dozens of communities are lining up to reform a 96-year-old treaty that limits the amount drawn from the Great Lakes. This country is in a position to provide a solution that would yield enormous economic and humanitarian benefits for the entire continent, even the world.

Wow! Sign me up! After all, we're talking about feeding the hungry, feeding the poor, right?