Latest Articles

The Road to Hell Is Paved With ‘Hood Intentions

Census estimates show U.S. population shifting to exurbs As the U.S. population rises, more and more people are moving into compact, smartly planned, energy-efficient cities. Ha! Ha! Sigh. Actually, the fastest-growing areas of the country are fringes: suburbs and semi-rural areas on the edges of expanding metropolitan regions. “It’s not just the decade of the […]

It’s Déjà Ew All Over Again, Again

Sighting of ivory-billed woodpecker questioned by new batch of experts Ivory-billed woodpecker, we hardly knew ye. And then ye came back and we acted like we’d known ye all along. But now it turns out there may be no ye to know after all: In today’s issue of the journal Science, leading North American birder […]

It’s Déjà Ew All Over Again

Drill-happy senators go after the Arctic Refuge yet again It seems like just three months ago that oil-thirsty congresscritters were pawing at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge like horny adolescents buzzed on wine coolers. Oh, wait, it was just three months ago. The effort to drill in the refuge “keeps coming back like a recurring […]

Multiple Chemical Sensitivities can drive sufferers into poverty as well as ill health

Consider the trappings of modern life: Calvin Klein Eternity, gasoline, Gore-Tex, Aveda hairspray, paint, particle board, polyurethane iPod cases. Is this the face of the future? Photo: iStockphoto. Now imagine that you’re allergic to virtually all of them. Environmentalists usually think about chemical toxicity as either a dramatic local crisis (Bhopal, Love Canal) or the […]

Bush Sticks Dirk in Interior

Enviros decry Bush’s nomination of Kempthorne to lead Interior He’s a mountain-bike enthusiast, two-term governor, and object of fear and loathing among conservationists. And he just picked another one. Mere days after the resignation of Gale Norton as secretary of the interior, President Bush nominated as her replacement Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne (R), saying he […]

Speaking of new urbanism

From AP: "Fastest-growing counties suburban, rural"

"I think low density is the attraction," said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "People would rather make a long commute and have a big yard and a big house."

Sigh.

Houston kids living near a Superfund site tell their stories in pictures

Collage: Wassim Elmetni (age 11). “Many Diversified Interests” sounds like a line from a college application, or advice from a responsible money manager. In fact, though, it’s the name of a Superfund site in the Fifth Ward, one of the oldest and most disenfranchised neighborhoods of Houston, Texas. For the most part, children growing up […]

Pop songs about global warming

A while back, Jamais noted "Manhattan in January" (MP3), a cheeky song about global warming by Jill Sobule, written in response to Al Gore's now-famed presentation on the subject. Jamais asked, "Is this the first pop song about global warming?" Ever since then it's been nagging me, and I finally remembered why.

I give you "Sleeping In," by the Postal Service -- in particular I draw your attention to the second verse:

Bike Against! collective

I met Raphael, the head of this Bicycle Coop in Fort Collins. They have a number of volunteers who fix bicycles and make them available for needy people. They recently shipped an entire truckload of cycles to a poor New Mexico community, and set up a repair shop with donated tools. They also conducted some training sessions on maintenance.

They give bicycles away to any needy people. If you can afford a bicycle, they ask for a donation.

Poll finds melange of random public opinions on energy; nation reels

This poll will no doubt be used by a variety of groups for a variety of political purposes -- mostly good, since it might actually prompt some political action on the coming energy crisis. Whatever works.

But one fact hovers over polls like this, unmentionable in polite company. Not being polite, I'll mention it: The American people are pretty ignorant about the global energy situation -- like, let's face it, most of the world's people are, about most things. In light of that fact, what on earth is the poll supposed to prove?

Does the fact that most people think there's no energy crisis, but Bush isn't doing enough to address it, make that a coherent position? Does the fact that 3 out of 10 people think oil's going to run out within 25 years give that number any special weight? Some 89% think oil companies are to blame for our energy problems. Does that make it so?

Polls like this are thin, because on broad, complex, and not-very-often-discussed issues like this, the public just doesn't know. They rely on their leaders to know stuff like this, and to lead.

There's a chicken-and-egg quality to polling, where public officials cite polls to justify positions and policies, despite the fact that public opinion was basically shaped by those positions and policies.

Facts are facts. Leadership is leadership. We'll know it when we see it.