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Chinese coal growth

NYT ran the latest in their "energy challenge" series on Sunday: "The Cost of Coal" looks at China's coal use and resulting pollution problems.

It starts off with a bleak portrait ...

One of China's lesser-known exports is a dangerous brew of soot, toxic chemicals and climate-changing gases from the smokestacks of coal-burning power plants

... and moves on down from there.

South Central Community Farm protestors evicted

It's official: the protestors at the South Central Community Farm have been evicted:

LOS ANGELES - Sheriff's deputies evicted people from an urban community garden to make room for a warehouse Tuesday, touching off a furious protest in which actress Daryl Hannah and others climbed into a walnut tree or chained themselves to concrete-filled barrels. At least 39 people were arrested.

Authorities cut away branches and used a fire truck lift to bring down the "Splash" actress and another tree-sitter, who raised their fists as they were removed. It was not immediately clear whether Hannah was under arrest.

...

At daybreak Tuesday, 120 deputies, some with batons and riot helmets, showed up to serve an eviction order that a judge signed last month. Deputies used saws to cut down the chain-link fence around the site.

And get this:

Disasters

From a press release:

Jetting off to global warming

This week's The Economist (paygate, although you may be able to get a "day pass") carries a special report on aviation's contribution to carbon emissions:

... flying a fully laden A380 [super-jumbo jet] is, in terms of energy, like a 14km (nine-mile) queue of traffic on the road below ... Aviation is a relatively small source of the emissions blamed for global warming, but its share is growing the fastest. The evidence is strong that emissions from jet engines, including the streaks of cloud (called contrails) they leave behind in the sky, could be especially damaging ... You can buy a hybrid car, switch to low-energy light bulbs in your house and eat locally grown organic food. But the dozen daily decisions on which you base your husbandry are trivial compared with the handful of yearly choices about that holiday or this business trip.

Even worse, air travel demand has grown by 75% since 1980 (my brief lifetime) and shows no sign of abating: Airbus projects that in 2020, just the increase in miles flown will equal all air travel worldwide in 1969.

Grist’s Webby acceptance speech

The Webby Awards ceremony took place last night, but since Grist "only" won a People's Choice award, we were not invited.

One amusing feature of the ceremony is that winners are allowed only five words for their acceptance speech. Arianna Huffington said, "Make blogs, not war." Prince, who won a lifetime achievement award, said, "Everything you think is true." Woah.

What should Grist's five words be?

Update [2006-6-13 12:37:51 by David Roberts]: Ah. I'm told we were invited to the ceremony, and just chose not to go. Maybe we couldn't think of a good acceptance speech!

World Naked Bike Ride, take three

The Third Annual World Naked Bike Ride hit cities across the world this weekend, bringing attention to cycling, cyclists' rights, oil use, climate change, and, well, nudity for a good cause.

Let’s Feed Them Some Oil Execs

Hungry polar bears eating each other We can’t think of anything funny to say about this: polar bears, deprived of their natural food by longer seasons without ice, may be turning to cannibalism. In the journal Polar Biology, American and Canadian scientists reviewed three cases of polar bear cannibalism in early 2004 in the Beaufort […]

Could a wind-energy art exhibit shape public opinion?

As an artist, Mark Beesley is drawn to subjects that others might find repellant. Beesley lives only a few miles from the Sizewell nuclear power station in Britain, and has occasionally made the plant the subject of his work. Despite his opposition to nuclear power, Beesley admits to a fascination with the plant’s design. “When […]

Eviction happening at South Central farm

Word has it that people are being evicted from the South Central Community Farm as we speak. Darryl Hannah is still up in her tree, but they're talking about bringing bulldozers in.

All you L.A. readers get down there. If you can't make it in, I'm told there's a sit-in in the mayor's office.

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (and the Next Day)

Daily Grist takes a two-day break There will be no Daily Grist on Wednesday or Thursday this week. We Gristian editors are retreating to our top-secret mountaintop redoubt to plot, scheme, conspire, and lay the groundwork for our inevitable world domination (and our impending office move; more — actually, much more — on that soon […]