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Readers talk back about shade-grown coffee, composting toilets, veganism, and more

  Re: Buzz Alterin’ Dear Editor: You say that shade-grown is not a make-or-break aspect of coffee choice. It is if you want to see the Baltimore oriole. The species is declining by 4 percent a year because the trees it needs are being replaced by coffee plantations. Monoculture coffee plantations are a disaster for […]

Dismember the Maine

Rural Maine residents divided as spring-water bottler moves in An international corporation descending on a rural town, bent on extracting natural resources. Africa? South America? Nope: New England. Nestlé Waters North America Inc., purveyors of Poland Spring water, is prospecting for new sources of “blue gold” in the western Maine wilderness. Some fear the pumping […]

Heavy Metal Bummer

U.S.-owned plant contaminating Peruvian communities with heavy metals There’s heavy metal in Peru, but not the mullet-and-fake-satanism kind. Children in a Peruvian Andes mining town have high levels of toxic heavy metals in their bodies — and the likely source is an 83-year-old smelter owned by the St. Louis-based Doe Run Company. An independent study […]

Arrested Development

FBI arrests six from around the country for green-themed crimes It’s one of the biggest-ever busts for “ecoterrorism” (we’ll take the scare quotes off when someone gets hurt, thank you very much): On Wednesday, federal agents arrested six people in five states and indicted them on charges related to a string of property crimes in […]

At Least You Didn’t Kill Kyoto

Grist offers one last chance to clear your conscience Well, friends, this is it: the very last chance you’ll have to write off the wrongs of 2005 and enter 2006 with a fresh, clean slate. Over the past two weeks, donations and confessions have come pouring in, as Grist Indulgence-buyers have relieved themselves of guilt […]

Google Transit

I was going to write something about the just-debuted Google Transit -- a very cool new tool from Google that aspires eventually to have all the nation's local transit information in one easy-to-use tool -- but Jeremy Faludi went and did it for me. So go read that.

Montreal in a nutshell

Good quote:

"You are watching 163 nations do an elaborate dance to try to make progress when the United States is sitting in the middle of the road trying to obstruct," said Alden Meyer, a representative of the Union of Concerned Scientists, a group that has long criticized the Bush administration's climate approach.

"It's getting to be like Charlie Brown with Lucy holding that football," he said. "Every time, at the last minute, the U.S. pulls it away."

Syriana thoughts

My review of Syriana will be published tomorrow, but in the meantime, a few stray thoughts and links that didn't fit in it.

First: Go see it. Really.

Second, director Stephen Gaghan is a smart, articulate guy, and gives good interview. Check out this interview on AintItCool. Also worth reading is the transcript of this interview of Robert Baer (the ex-CIA agent whose book See No Evil inspired Gaghan) by Robert Siegel.

Third, several reviewers seem aggravated by the complicated, hard-to-follow plot. They think it reduces the chances of mainstream success, which is probably true, that it reduces the chances that the movie's message about oil will sink in, which may or may not be true, and that it reduces the movie's artistic merit, which is certainly not true.

Gaghan has said he made the plot convoluted and confusing on purpose. It's an artistic choice certain to reduce the movie's popularity, but I think it works. It tosses the viewer into action that seems like it's already ongoing -- like we missed the beginning and it will continue after we're gone, like we're getting a peek into places we're not supposed to see. Several strong and contradictory points of view fly past, making it hard to discern what's really going on, but that's how the world is. Gaghan said:

I would travel around the world, I would meet people, and they would seem so certain of their point of view. Just articulate, brilliant, knowledgeable. An hour later, I would meet somebody articulating the exact opposite position. Brilliantly, nuanced, certain. And it was scary. Scary.

Lots of people don't like to be scared and confused, so I can understand not enjoying the experience, but it's a mistake to think it reflects some sort of failing on Gaghan's part.

Fourth, I would take issue with the conclusion of Oil Drum's Super G:

TIME’s vengeful mother of the year

Seems "Mother Nature" is likely to be TIME Magazine's Person of the Year for 2005.

Fast facts about avian influenza

3 — types of influenza virus (A, B, C)1 1 — type that can cause pandemics (A)1 1 — A-virus subtype currently freaking the world out (H5N1)1, 2 0 — successful vaccines against H5N1 avian flu currently available3 18 — people infected by avian flu in Hong Kong in 1997, the first case of direct […]