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Oil production’s peaking? Snag a Hummer

Memo to self: Keep up with the Wall Street Journal's daily Oil-News Roundup.

Two choice nuggets emerged today. First, there's this discussion of Royal Dutch Shell's latest quarterly earnings report:

Royal Dutch Shell, the world's fourth-largest publicly traded oil company, reported a tiny, 3% increase in first-quarter earnings from a year ago, but said the high cost of sucking oil and natural gas out of the ground could delay some exploration projects, especially long-term developments, including one planned for the Gulf of Mexico. Shell also said it could no longer promise to replace 100% of the reserves it depletes this year. [Emphasis added for the benefit of peak-oil enthusiasts.]

Next, on the auto-biz front, there's this:

Just as large retailers enter the market

Although a recent Wall Street Journal report properly touts the impressive upward trend of organic-food sales, data cited in the story show that the actual rate of growth in organic sales is falling slightly, just as mega-retailers poise themselves to enter the organics market.

From Beauty to Burgers

Miss environmentality The newly crowned Miss Rhode Island has taped up her boobies, Vaselined her teeth, and strutted her stuff in a swimsuit and heels — all in the service of fighting global warming. The tiara’d staffer for the Harvard Green Campus Initiative says it’s all part of her plan to push the issue in […]

An assist from an angler scribe

I must admit I reach first for the sports page in the morning. The headlines on the front page of the Washington Post these days are just too depressing to be the first things I face.

So imagine my surprise last weekend when I found biting environmental-policy commentary in section E. Never one to read fishing or hunting commentaries, the pictures of bloviating politicians smack in the middle of renowned wildlife columnist Angus Phillips' column caught my attention.

Titled "Party Talk Leaves Plenty of Room for Action," Phillips absolutely dismantles a Washington press event on the Potomac (literally -- there were optional canoe trips) to announce the everything's-voluntary-and-we-won't-really-fund-it National Fish Habitat Action Plan.

Showing that he could have a second career as a political reporter, Phillips concludes with:

Green-Up on Aisle Six

Supermarket chains now offering store-brand organic foods The hippies-and-yuppies stereotype that’s long stuck to organic food may soon fade, as mainstream supermarket chains in the U.S. introduce hundreds of store-brand organic products. Supermarket organics can cost 10 to 15 percent less than national-brand organics, while still adhering to the same federal standards. Consumer demand is […]

It’s All Happening at the Zooplankton

New species of deep-sea zooplankton discovered Scientists have found 10 to 20 new species of zooplankton deep in the Atlantic Ocean, including teeny-tiny shrimp-like creatures, gooey jellyfish-esque plankton, and swimming worms. Zooplankton form the base of many ocean food chains and act as carbon sinks by feeding on carbon-laden plant phytoplankton and then sinking to […]

The Artful Roger

Roger Mustalish, Amazon researcher and protector, answers readers’ questions For Roger Mustalish, head of the Amazon Center for Environmental Education and Research, a trip to Peru’s Amazon rainforest is, to quote the ubiquitous credit-card ads, priceless. (And by entering Grist‘s sweepstakes, your trip to Peru really could be price-less!) As InterActivist this week, Mustalish chats […]

Read and Green and Urban All Over

Plans for an eco-city in China inspire a green neighborhood in London The world’s largest eco-city is soon to be built in China, on an island at the mouth of the Yangtze River near Shanghai. Dongtan, being developed by London’s Arup Urban Design, will consist of village-style neighborhoods and will emphasize pedestrian-friendliness, renewable-energy generation, and […]

Dirk du Soleil

Interior nominee Kempthorne backs away from plan to sell U.S. forests Senate confirmation hearings began yesterday for Interior Secretary nominee Dirk Kempthorne, and oh, the fun that was had. One hot topic was the Bush administration’s proposal to fund rural schools by selling thousands of acres of public land; the Dirkster, who supported sale of […]

What we can learn from anti-smoking advocates

Jamais Cascio -- late of Worldchanging, now ensconced in a snug new blog home -- has an intriguing post up arguing that there are parallels between the climate-crisis debate and the smoking debate of yore, and furthermore that those pushing the climate-crisis issue have much to learn from anti-smoking advocates.

I think he's right on both counts. But I also think he's being rather optimistic about both the parallels and the lessons. Consider this: