Latest Articles

This Is Your Train on Drugs

Environmental Defense and Ad Council debut edgy new climate ads You know what would really inspire us to turn off our thermostats, sell our cars, and fight global warming with all that we’ve got? Seeing a little girl almost get hit by a train. Or so seems to be the thinking of Environmental Defense and […]

Papua Goes After the Weasel

Indonesia to Freeport: Clean up mining operations or we’ll sue Indonesia has warned New Orleans-based mining giant Freeport-McMoRan that it will sue if the company doesn’t clean up its gold and copper mining operation in Papua — ideally in the next two to three years. Politicians and eco-advocates have charged Freeport with polluting streams and […]

Who Let the Catastrophe Out of the Bag?

Earth warming, ice melting, seas rising, umpteenth study says Cutting greenhouse-gas emissions could — maaaaybe — stave off a catastrophic rise in sea levels that in coming centuries could return the earth to conditions last seen 129,000 years ago. We would never have guessed, but fortunately scientists keep pointing it out — as in this […]

Breakfast at epiphany’s

Your morning repast: how much is it worth in oil? Chad Heeter investigates.

What would your global warming ad look like?

I'll be honest: The new Environmental Defense TV ads about global warming make me cringe. The public is conditioned at this point to view environmental groups as alarmists, and these ads could not possibly play more neatly into that stereotype. I mean, ominous music? A scary, deep-voiced narrator? A train heading toward a little girl? Seriously?

Who's going to do anything but roll their eyes?

If I was going to do a 30-second commercial, here's the script I'd use:

[Over very brief montage of smokestacks, hurricanes, and parched deserts.] Global warming's already here, and it's only going to get worse. In the next 20-40 years, everything's going to have to change: the way we get around; the way we produce our food; the way we power our homes and offices.

[Fade to bright montage of people in laboratories, wind turbines, farmers in fields, construction workers looking at building plans, high-speed trains, etc.] There will be difficulties we don't yet understand; professions we have not yet named; opportunities we have not yet begun to grasp. The next generation will be called on to create something entirely new: a prosperous, sustainable, healthy society. Let's unleash their energy. Give them the tools and knowledge they need.

Together, we can overcome the greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. Let's get started.

Hm ... that might be a little longer than 30 seconds. But you get the idea.

What do you think? What would your ad look like?

After the levees

The TPM empire -- aficionados of political blogs will know of what I speak -- has started a new blog: After the Levees, about post-Katrina New Orleans. Bookmark it.

What it takes

I'm reading Wendy Kopp's One Day All Children..., the story of the founding of Teach for America.

It's inspiring. If you ever wonder what it takes to launch a movement, here's some tips gleaned from her experience:

1. Have a great idea.
2. Think big.
3. Focus like a laser.
4. Work harder than you have worked before.

From page 38:

The work was piling up. My solution was to begin sleeping every other night.

Easy!

A virtual walking tour of Wisconsin’s Sokaogon Chippewa community

Three years ago, the Sokaogon Chippewa tribe of Northern Wisconsin bought the nearby site of a proposed mine, winning a 30-year battle to preserve their land and community. But this April, the mortgage comes due, and the tribe is still struggling to raise money to pay it off. Tribe member Tina Van Zile leads a virtual walking tour of her community, reflecting on the past fight for justice, her present frustrations, and her hopes for future generations.

On Hollywood’s downtrodden eco-chicks, and how they’ve changed

“A working-class hero is something to be,” said John Lennon. But for Hollywood, it’s more likely to be a working-class heroine — at least when environmental issues enter the picture. Charlize Theron in North Country. Photo: 78th Academy Awards® This year, Charlize Theron’s crusading miner-activist in North Country garnered an Oscar nomination, following in the […]

Sorry, optimists, it’s not your day

(Note: Due to previous misinterpretations of my sarcasm -- no, I do not actually believe that vegetarians are sinners -- I feel it necessary to mark all occurrences of sarcasm in the below post in bold.)

Gosh, there's just so much good news in the environmental world -- I feel it's my duty, in the name of balanced journalism, to bring you some bad news.

The U.K.'s Chancellor of the Exchequer -- I think I want that job just for the fancy title -- unveiled a budget yesterday that would exempt low-polluting cars from an excise tax. You would think this would be good news, but you would be wrong:

The only car that would qualify for the break, Honda Motor Co.'s Insight, hasn't been sold in Britain since it finished its five-year production run last year. ... No cars qualify for the exemption to the tax.

"I want to do more to encourage cleaner fuels and cars," said the Chancellor (presumed sarcasm mine).

Insidious, but clever, I must say.