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Is FishScam.com a scam?

I was reading the April 10th edition of The New Yorker this morning (for the cartoons, I'll admit). As I was flipping through the pages searching for the next illustration, I came across this full page ad that featured a message that caught me completely off guard.

The smaller text reads as follows:

Environmental scares about trace amounts of mercury in fish rely on a study of island natives who eat huge amounts of whale meat. However, scientists who study heavy fish-eaters find no health risks from mercury. So unless you're lunching on a Moby Dick sandwich, there's no reason to worry.

Fish is good for you. Baseless anxiety (or whale blubber) isn't.

No health risks from mercury? No reason to worry? Now, I don't eat fish, so I haven't researched this issue myself, but something fishy seems to be going on here.

Head on over to FishScam.com to get the background on this campaign. I'd be interested to read what y'all think of this.

The barnstorming band that’s changing the world, one campus at a time

Singing a new song: Guster rocks out for eco-awareness. Photo: Ian B. Johnson.   After welcoming some 1,500 fans to a concert at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Wash., last week, Ryan Miller — the curly haired front man of pop/rock band Guster — asked the audience if they had noticed that he […]

Cape Wind, R.I.P.

The much-debated Cape Wind project off the coast of Cape Cod has effectively been killed by an amendment to the Coast Guard budget bill.

After all that debate among the locals, it was a parliamentary gimmick in Washington, D.C., that put to rest what would have been the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., and one of the biggest wind farms in the world.

(Amanda wrote about Cape Wind here.)

Edens Lost & Found

Check out Edens Lost & Found, a four-part PBS series (and book, and newsletter, and curriculum) about how four cities -- Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Seattle -- are working to transform urban environments to integrate nature and improve quality of life. Apparently the first two episodes have already aired; Los Angeles and Seattle are coming up this Spring. Sounds interesting. Check your local listings.

Current TV: Make your own Yaris TV ad, and more

So you think you've got the chops to produce a television commercial after making your own Chevy Tahoe ad? Well, let's see how well you do when you have to shoot and edit it yourself! Still up to the challenge? If so, head on over to Current TV where they're seeking submissions for viewer-created ads for the Toyota Yaris.

What would you do with your Yaris? Now, you don't have to own a Yaris to take on this project. Just make a V-Cam commercial about what you would do with your Toyota Yaris. The operative word here is "you." Make it personal, engaging and compelling. Where would you go? Who would you take? What would you take with you? Whatever you do, have fun and let your freak-flag-fly. There. Now go make something.

Now, before you get all subversive, check this out: the Yaris supposedly gets up to 40 mpg on the highway, according to the Toyota website. Oh yeah, if your piece airs, you earn $1,000.

If you'd rather watch than create, Current has added several new enviro pieces to their Earth pod:

Media Shower: Green is the new black

Taking a cue from Alex over at WorldChanging, I'd like to point out all the print pubs covering enviro issues.

Global Public Media

I'm sure everyone but me already knew about this, but Global Public Media is a kick-ass site that contains interviews with all sorts of smart people about a range of issues relating to a "post-carbon world." It's eaten about half my day so far. Right now I'm learning about permaculture and the central importance of soil from David Holmgren. Visit at your own risk.

Peak oil: catastrophic or merely unpleasant?

On EnergyBulletin, permaculture-guy Toby Hemenway does his part to cool off some of the more overheated peak oil apocaphilia. He doesn't deny the basic physical facts of peak oil, but he says for peak oil to be truly catastrophic, the following five propositions must be true:

1. Our demand for oil is unchangeable and is not significantly affected by price.

2. We are so badly addicted to oil that we will watch our civilization collapse rather than change our behavior.

3. Significant oil conservation is not possible in the time frame needed.

4. Even with conservation, demand will be more than oil plus alternatives can possibly meet.

5. Society is so fragile that it cannot withstand large shocks.

In fact, Hemenway says, all five are false.

He makes a good case, and I don't really dispute it. But if someone did want to dispute it, I think it would go something like this:

Outsourced linky post

Over at Peak Energy, Big Gav has one of his patented long, link-filled, impossible-to-summarize posts, covering several things I wanted to mention, thus saving me the trouble. Go read it.

From Thandie to Tahoe

Newton’s first law of vandalism On a scale of one to WTF, we rate this a solid WTF: Greenpeace activist leaves anti-SUV sticker on random land yacht; random land yacht turns out to belong to B-list movie star Thandie Newton; Newton takes anti-SUV message to heart, buys Prius, writes impassioned letter to fellow celebs urging […]