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A chat with Maryland Sen. Paul Pinsky on the Healthy Air Act

Last week, Maryland passed the Healthy Air Act, thereby joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative -- the eighth Northeast state to do so. (The Baltimore Sun has more coverage.) It was the rare victory for environmentalists.

I got in touch with state senator Paul Pinsky (D), one of the bill's sponsors, to get the backstory. Our exchange is below the fold.

Will cleantech turn mercenaries into missionaries?

Lately, politicians from Tony Blair to comrade-in-arms George Bush have raced to embrace green technology — at least on the surface. But is there substance behind their carefully crafted words? Venture capitalists are seeing green. Image: iStockphoto. Well, while government funds may be slow to swing around to so-called “cleantech,” venture capitalists are suddenly sniffing […]

Fair trade palms

Loving thy palm grower as thyself, a growing number of churches opted last Sunday to celebrate Palm Sunday with palm fronds grown in conditions deemed both worker-friendly and environmentally sustainable.

As Brenda Meier, parish projects coordinator for Lutheran World Relief, told Religion News Service:

To have in our hand on Palm Sunday a palm that we know has been harvested in an ecologically friendly way, in a way that's going to benefit the communities and the people who harvested them, adds that much more depth to our celebration of Palm Sunday.

Amen, sister.

Rage against the (hybrid) machine

Some California drivers are getting all steamed up that they have to share the carpool lanes with single-occupant hybrids, like the Toyota Prius and Honda Civic, under a new state program. Some of the complaints, of course, should be taken with a grain of salt. Said one fumer in an online discussion group: "These [drivers] barely go 65 mph and allow no one to pass them on the right... Talk about road rage!" Uh, dude, that's not road rage -- that's whining.

A bit of here, a bit of there

With an ever-growing list of things I want to blog about, I'm inspired by Dave's inconsequential post to encourage him to grow his hair long again embark on my own post o' randomness.

So with no further ado:

If I were an artist -- which I most definitely am not, until "adults drawing like six-year-olds" becomes the new rage -- I would want to put my talents to use at something like disappearing zine. The artist renderings of rapidly-disappearing species are very cool, in a depressing-as-hell sort of way.

The Daily Grist Headline Battle Royale: Match 7

Ladies and gentleman, we have a tie! Last week, both "Tiiiiiime Is on Our Side, Yes It Is" and "Bait and Switchgrass" garnered 34% of the vote (until some smart aleck casts another).

Here are the next batch of nominees:

1. Guster's Last Stand: The barnstorming band that's changing the world, one campus at a time
2. Enthuse Your Curbism: Two new nature books for city slickers
3. Good Mennonite, and Good Luck: Discovery of oil in Belize leads to craziness all around
4. Waddle They Do Now?: Global warming also affects -- noooooooo! -- penguins
5. We've Got Poll, and We're Super Bad: Polls find Americans worried about energy and climate problems

Vote!

Two matters of absolutely no consequence

An item in the recent Grist List set off a firestorm of controversy, both inside and outside Grist. I refer, of course, to the purported status of Thandie Newton as a "B-list movie star." One staffer argues that Newton's presence in the year's Best Movie Oscar winner vouchsafes her A-list-ness; similarly, a British reader asks, "Doesn't a BAFTA win qualify one as an A-list star?"

Well, no.

Halloween VIV: The Inconvenient Truth

I finally got around to watching the trailer for the new Al Gore/global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Oy.

Umbra on global warming

Dear Umbra, The many articles on global warming conclude with something about the inherent complexity and uncertainty of the issue. So exactly what is the evidence for (and against) arguing that the current warming trend is inside the scope of normal fluctuations? What is the evidence for (and against) arguing that the trend is caused […]

Readers talk back about Obama, radicals, religion, and more

  Re: For Those About to Barack Dear Editor: I used to have a great deal of respect for Barack Obama, but no longer do. He voted for the egregious bankruptcy bill and Dick Cheney’s hideous energy bill — neither are even remotely progressive pieces of legislation. Everyone is getting on the biofuels bandwagon, which […]