Latest Articles

Energy prices will force a reevaluation of how much elbow room we really need

The Ashland Daily Tidings has an interesting (though brief) article exploring what exactly might happen in their corner of southern Oregon if oil prices keep going up. It's good to see people thinking more about this. Not just because it will help people prepare for the adjustments needed should oil become progressively dearer -- but also because it might help shift people's thinking about what kinds of transitions might be possible, even desirable, even if oil prices flatten out or decline.

But I do think a word of caution is in order -- if energy prices do continue to trend upwards, we're going to have to take a cold and steely-eyed look at our proposed solutions to help people cope. Some of them, however well-intentioned, just might not cut it.

Two Prongs Make a Right

New coalition lobbies Big Auto to build plug-in hybrid cars Plug-In Partners is not, as the name might indicate, a swingers’ club. Rather, it’s a diverse national campaign — encompassing cities, electric utilities, national-security hawks, and others — pushing for plug-in hybrids: gas-electric vehicles with batteries that can be recharged via a regular wall socket. […]

Take a Toxic Load Off Annie

Environmental factors may cause many breast cancers, report says Up to half of all new breast cancers may be caused by environmental factors — including exposure to everyday chemicals — rather than heredity or lifestyle, a new report says. Released this week by the Breast Cancer Fund and Breast Cancer Action, “State of the Evidence” […]

Solution Finds New Problem

Republicans in Congress reanimate efforts to drill in Arctic Refuge Iran — the world’s fourth-largest oil producer — has threatened to cut oil exports if other nations impose economic sanctions to punish it for restarting its nuclear-power program. Some analysts say oil prices could spike to $100 a barrel if Iran stopped exports entirely. In […]

Dropping Acid

EPA asks companies to phase out toxic chemical PFOA The U.S. EPA, having recently discovered that P stands for “protection,” has asked DuPont and seven other chemical companies to phase out use of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), a chemical used in the manufacture of Teflon cookware, stain-repellant fabrics, microwave popcorn bags, and other scarily ubiquitous household […]

Another pundit on the take

Is every conservative pundit on the take?

Today Paul D. Thacker reports in The New Republic that Fox News columnist and junkscience.com proprietor Steven Milloy -- stalwart defender of tobacco and fossil fuels -- has been receiving hefty payments for years from, uh, tobacco and fossil-fuel companies.

However, unlike other news outlets that have dumped pundits after finding out they're receiving money from the subjects of their columns, Fox has been looking the other way (to put it charitably). Thacker concludes:

Perhaps the real reason the news organization tolerates Milloy is that his pro-industry, anti-environmentalist views dovetail nicely with those of its political commentators. Still, this misses an important distinction. Objective viewers long ago realized that Fox News has a political agenda. But, when a pundit promotes this agenda while on the take from corporations that benefit from it, then Fox News has gone one disturbing step further.

It’s biofuel realities that matter, not airy scenarios

All due respect to the intrepid folks at ThinkProgress, but I think this defense of biofuels falls a bit short. There's this:

First, developing a biofuel economy can actually help reduce hunger and poverty by diversifying agricultural and forestry activities, attracting new farmers, and investing in small and medium enterprises. Increased investment in agricultural production has the potential to boost incomes of the world's poorest people.

In what world does "investment in agricultural production" benefit "the world's poorest people"? The trend for the last half-century has been for agricultural investment -- read, subsidies -- to go to mega-agribusiness. If biofuel really catches on, if a robust global market develops, is there any reason at all to think that the same huge corporations won't dominate it?

I was browsing through this month's Atlantic Monthly; in the first 20 or so pages, I saw two advertisements touting the magic of ethanol. Guess who paid for the ads? Siemens and Archer Daniels Midland. Not exactly "small and medium enterprises."

And this:

Millennium Ecosystem Assessment

Over on Alternet, Traci Hukill has a nice and fairly comprehensive piece up about the U.N.'s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. Worth a read.

Only concrete alternatives will cajole people out of the suburbs

Often, the first step to helping people make better choices is showing them that there are choices.

One of the biggest and most important -- albeit frequently overlooked -- steps toward combating global warming, improving public health, reducing air pollution, and restoring a sense of community and fellow-feeling to American life is changing the structure of our communities.

Right now, conventional wisdom is that the choice is between suburbs -- big houses, plenty of privacy and safety, big, cheap retail readily available -- and tight, cramped, dangerous, dirty living in a city, with corner stores the only source of provisions. This perception is off, but it's not that far off. There are still too few concrete examples of dense, safe, mixed-use walkable communities with all the conveniences of the suburbs.

So, forthwith, Dave's Two-Step Plan for Cleaner, Safer Communities:

Umbra on video games

Dear Umbra, After reading some heart-rending, gut-wrenching articles on global warming, I’ve decided that I want to do something about it. I’ve started by vowing never to buy a car, or get a driver’s license. But I happen to love video games. Nothing is going to make me stop playing my video games. As I […]