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Evangelical leaders sign up to battle climate change

Last week I wrote a post called "Jesus Interruptus" (a title that failed to elicit the encomiums it deserved, ahem), about efforts by a group of evangelical leaders to prevent the National Association of Evangelicals from making a formal statement on global warming. Later that day, I was contacted by Paul Gorman, executive director of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, who said I'd gotten the story all wrong, that the NAE had never planned to issue a statement, and, somewhat cryptically, that I should keep my eyes peeled for news on Wednesday.

Well, here it is Wednesday, and here's the news:

Despite opposition from some of their colleagues, 86 evangelical Christian leaders have decided to back a major initiative to fight global warming ...

Among signers of the statement, which will be released in Washington on Wednesday, are the presidents of 39 evangelical colleges, leaders of aid groups and churches, like the Salvation Army, and pastors of megachurches, including Rick Warren, author of the best seller "The Purpose-Driven Life."

"For most of us, until recently this has not been treated as a pressing issue or major priority," the statement said. "Indeed, many of us have required considerable convincing before becoming persuaded that climate change is a real problem and that it ought to matter to us as Christians. But now we have seen and heard enough."

This is excellent news -- and I say that as someone able to find the cloud in any silver lining. It's debatable how much power conservative Christians actually have in Republican politics -- as opposed to, say, big business -- but they are certainly perceived to have great power. And they are perceived to be as conservative as conservative gets. This move could decisively dispel (finally!) the illusion that global warming is a partisan issue.

As snowy peaks get warmer, ski industry tries to stave off extinction

With the Olympics starting this week, all eyes are on the slopes of Turin. But skiing and snowboarding could disappear from our collective culture in about 50 years, if global-warming forecasts ring true. In a lot of popular ski areas, there simply won’t be any snow. It’s all downhill from here. Photo: stock.xchng. It’s already […]

Tierney: Market = fairy godmother

I don't mean to spend half my time discussing New York Times columnists that my readers can't read, really I don't, but ...

John Tierney has a truly stupid column running today. In it, he describes his plan for energy independence, which is: do nothing. There is a great deal of dimwittery encased in the short piece, but I just want to make one small point, about this:

Natural gas

I missed this when it came out, but Michael T. Klare has a great piece in The Nation about "The Geopolitics of Natural Gas." It's short -- I recommend reading the whole thing. A few tidbits:

Taking care of our own

Ah, I feel so proud:

Shortcomings in aid from the U.S. government are making New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin look to other nations for help in rebuilding his hurricane-damaged city.

Nagin, who has hosted a steady stream of foreign dignitaries since Hurricane Katrina hit in late August, says he may seek international assistance because U.S. aid has not been sufficient to get the city back on its feet.

(via ThinkProgress)

SD Senate passes drunk-cyclist-friendly bill

For all of you holding your breath (and your beer) for the day drunken cycling and horseback riding are finally sanctioned in South Dakota as a safer alternative to drunk driving, the latest update in the saga is that the state Senate passed a version of a bill on Monday that's just what the die-hard cyclist ordered.

Breaking news: Customers like hybrids that save gas

A Wall Street Journal story (yes, I know you can't read it, and I am truly sorry, deep in my heart sorry) attempts to explain the relative failure thus far of the Honda Accord Hybrid. It contains this tidbit:

A four-cylinder Accord EX sedan with automatic transmission is rated at 24 miles per gallon in the city, 34 highway. The asking price, with leather seats, is $25,500. The Accord Hybrid's asking price, for 2006, is $31,540 with freight charges. The rated mileage for the redesigned car is 25 miles per gallon in the city, and 34 highway.

I guess not much more needs to be said, huh?

As many folks have pointed out, financial savings are only one of many reasons folks might buy a hybrid. Just as important -- more important, I suspect -- are issues of identity. Driving a hybrid is an expression of values.

So Honda makes a hybrid that's virtually unidentifiable as a hybrid (you have to squint at the bumper), that offers little-to-no fuel savings. It just accelerates a little faster.

W, as the kids say, TF?

What’s the most energy-efficient crop source for ethanol?

Biofuel is the hot topic lately in the green blogosphere. There's legitimate dispute about the political and environmental wisdom of plant-based fuels, but at the very least everyone should be starting from a valid, shared set of numbers (oh, to dream).

In an attempt to offer up such numbers, I'm going to ... rip off somebody smarter than me. Namely, Lester Brown, founder of the Worldwatch Institute, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, and author of the recently released Plan B 2.0, which is the best big-picture summary of our environmental situation I've ever read (and I'm only 2/3 through it!). The entire thing can be downloaded for free from EPI's site.

There are two key indicators when evaluating various crops for biofuel: fuel yield per acre and net energy yield of the biofuel, minus energy used in production and refining. This table (taken from Chapter 2) compares crops based on the first indicator:

T-shirts are all sold out!

GM's Live Green, Go Yellow PR campaign to greenwash its ethanol efforts is off to a roaring start -- namely, "overwhelming demand" quickly exhausted its supply of free T-shirts. But never fear: "Please try again later -- they'll be back soon!"

The campaign tries to spin some good news out of GM's monumental financial woes. GM has already sold 1.5 million "flexible-fuel vehicles" -- principally those that burn an 85% ethanol mix -- largely thanks to a loophole in CAFE fuel-economy regulations that grants FFVs "extra credit." GM's truck-heavy vehicle mix has needed all the extra CAFE credit it could get in recent years, so it's on track to sell 400,000 FFVs in 2006, and all but two of the 11 FFV models are trucks. GM and Ford spent recent years riding high on booming truck sales, using loopholes to barely stay inside CAFE regulations without having to actually improve fuel economy.

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