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Reporter Michael Grunwald gabs about his new book on the Everglades

For about 5,000 years, the waters of the peninsula we now call Florida flowed south into the Kissimmee River. The Kissimmee emptied into enormous Lake Okeechobee, which in turn spilled over into a vast, shallow sheet that slid slowly along the nearly flat expanse of south Florida to the ocean. This was the complex and […]

Now they’re burning coal to make ethanol

TheWatt and Treehugger both flag a story in the Christian Science Monitor that makes my sense of uneasiness about biofuels even ... uneasier.

Here's the deal: An ethanol plant that opened last year in Iowa is burning 300 tons of coal a day. You heard me: coal. And it's not an isolated case:

The trend, which is expected to continue, has left even some ethanol boosters scratching their heads. Should coal become a standard for 30 to 40 ethanol plants under construction -- and 150 others on the drawing boards -- it would undermine the environmental reasoning for switching to ethanol in the first place, environmentalists say.

It's a farce to call ethanol a clean, renewable fuel if it involves burning coal, right? What do you have to say for yourself, ethanol industry? What could you say, what ... term could you use, to answer these terrible charges?

Wait for it ... wait for it ... feel the love coming ...

TIME cover story on global warming

The cover story of this week's TIME magazine is on global warming. The title: "Be Worried. Be Very Worried." I agree with Chris that this is a huge deal, and further evidence that the issue of global warming is nearing a tipping point in public consciousness. The Battle of the Skeptics is over. They lost. Now talk will turn in earnest to what we can do about it.

Unfortunately, I can't read the whole story because I'm not a TIME subscriber. (Any intrepid Gristmill reader out there want to send me a copy?) It's also at the top of CNN.com right now, though, and they've got a short summary.

There's also a TIME/ABC poll on attitudes toward global warming, which reveals the same old grab bag of muddled opinions. Take this:

Almost half (49%) say the issue of global warming is "extremely important" or "very important" to them personally, up from 31% in 1998. When asked about the causes of rise in the world’s temperatures, 31% feel it is caused by the things people do, 19% feel it is due mostly to natural causes, and 49% feel it is a combination of the two. Almost seven-in-ten (68%) Americans think the government should do more to address global warming, according to the poll; however, 64% think scientists disagree with one another about global warming.

As I said here, what these kinds of polls reveal more than anything is that public opinion on this subject is amorphous and fluid. It is open to persuasion, ready to be shaped by strong leadership. More than anything, that's what this country is crying out for right now: strong national leadership.

Giant power sucking sound

Here's one problem that should be relatively easy to fix: appliances that use power even when they're not in use. The Economist has a nice summary of the problem:

Strange though it seems, a typical microwave oven consumes more electricity powering its digital clock than it does heating food. For while heating food requires more than 100 times as much power as running the clock, most microwave ovens stand idle--in "standby" mode--more than 99% of the time.

Apparently, somewhere between 5 and 13 percent of residential power is consumed by appliances that nobody is actually using. Hmph.

Green architects speak

Two nice interviews with architect/designer types: Our own Amanda Griscom Little chats with Richard Cook and DesignBoom talks with Cameron Sinclair. Interesting stuff.

(both via TH)

Exxon-Valdez anniversary

Today is the 17th anniversary of the Exxon-Valdez oil spill. Some bloggy thoughts and reflections here and here. AP stories here and here.

Big climate haps in the Emerald City

It's been a pretty extraordinary couple of days here in Seattle -- "climatepalooza," as Mayor Greg Nickels jokingly dubbed it.

Yesterday I went to a small private luncheon with Seattle's movers and shakers. The purpose was to honor both the Green Ribbon Commission's work and visiting author Elizabeth Kolbert. I got to meet the mayor, who was genial and optimistic, reinforcing my sense that he's a bit of a Forrest Gump figure in all this. He got a good idea -- the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement -- from his staff, jumped on it, and now has gotten carried away on a tsunami he doesn't pretend to control. I give him full credit for recognizing and riding the wave. It's a case of accidental greatness, but accidental greatness is greatness nonetheless. His name is on its way to the history books.

Kolbert -- obviously nervous and uncomfortable with public speaking -- spoke briefly. She said she hopes Seattle is able to achieve these goals and that others emulate it, because if not, "all hope is lost." Everyone laughed nervously. She didn't.

A proud day for Seattle

I just came from a press conference wherein Seattle mayor Greg Nickels unveiled the recommendations of his Green Ribbon Commission on Climate Protection. This is the first big step in Seattle's attempt to comply with Kyoto -- a mission which, via Nickels' U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, now involves some 219 cities (and counting).

I'll have more to say about this event and some others in the past week shortly. For now I just wanted to share something said by former Vice President Al Gore (you'll have to forgive me for paraphrasing -- I didn't record it). He talked of two possible futures ahead of us.

In one, our children ask, "Why? How could they let this destruction happen?"

In the second, they say, "Thank God they had the moral imagination and courage to rise above their limitations and tackle this problem. And it all started in a city between the mountains and the sea. It all started in Seattle."

I'm not much for civic cheerleading, but today I'm pretty damn proud to be a Seattleite.

Media Shower: Another weekly roundup

Well, I'm off to the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival soon for a weekend bonanza of green films. I don't have much time to write, so here's another weekly recap:

How do you grow up on a doomed planet?

Last night I went to a screening of Ice Age: The Meltdown. To be honest, I went more in fan-of-goofy-animated-movies mode than environmental-editor mode. But one of the first lines was: "This global warming thing is killing me." The rest of the movie centered on an escape from the flood that was going to doom the movie's cuddly creatures.

It turned out to be good fun, of course, and had the requisite happy ending (oops, sorry). But I started wondering, as I listened to the kids around me gasp and laugh, what it would be like to grow up in a world where all you hear -- even in cartoons! -- is that the whole planet is doomed. I guess this ties in with Dave's beef with the new global-warming ads.

How does all that fear possibly help, and how can the so-called grown-ups among us change the message? Should we?