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Courtesy of the Sierra Club

Even though you have haven't visited, you probably know where the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is located. You may be proud of the fact that you can point to area 1002 on the map and trace the migration of the Porcupine caribou herd. But what about your friends, neighbors, and inlaws?

There is still hope for them. You can direct them to the Sierra Club's thoughtfully prepared collection of maps of the Arctic Refuge using Google Earth. They're offering six maps in total:

1. The whole thing
2. Refuge boundaries
3. The "1002" area
4. Native American villages
5. Drilling across Alaska
6. The Porcupine Herd and other wildlife

(Via Boing Boing)

And in other Google Earth news: Fans of the game Risk can play by way of Google maps.

House moderates beat back Arctic Refuge drilling

Plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were dropped from the House budget reconcilation bill tonight. Credit goes to GOP Rep. Charles Bass of New Hampshire and 24 fellow Republicans who threatened to vote against the bill unless the drilling provisions was dropped.

It's not the end of the battle -- efforts are surely underway already to get the language back in -- but it's a surprising show of strength by refuge defenders. And yet another blow to poor, beleaguered Bush.

Who killed the electric car?

Currently in production is EV Confidential, a documentary "about electric cars, hybrids, hydrogen, and the future of transportation."

Word has it that Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) has picked up the North-American/English speaking rights and will release EV Confidential in 2006.

Watch the trailer here.

Divide and conquer?

It strikes me that Wal-Mart and Arnold Schwarzenegger are doing something similar: trying to peel eco-activists off from the larger progressive coalition. And while two data points don't exactly make a trend, it's something greens should be pondering.

Consider: Wal-Mart recently announced some high-profile and fairly substantial sustainability reforms. Meanwhile, as this collection of Alternet coverage amply demonstrates, they continue to screw workers, bust unions, skimp on health care, and drive out local businesses. Somewhere in some boardroom, the calculation was obviously made that the company could afford some sustainability, and that it would help deflect activist attention, but that other reforms would cut too deep into the bottom line.

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, has not been perfect on green issues, but has presided over some remarkably forward-thinking reforms, most notably California's landmark auto-emissions limits. Yet, as Kevin Drum points out, for the most part he's been a "standard issue business-pandering Republican."

Of course, Wal-Mart is getting bashed now more than ever, and Arnold's very expensive slate of state initiatives just got crushed, so the strategy doesn't seem to be working. But still, it's something to think about: If environmentalists get what they want (or at least some of it), should they overlook egregious misconduct in the areas of, say, labor and healthcare? How strongly do greens stand with the progressive coalition?

Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story

With the depressing news about the Arctic Refuge, I wanted to point to the inspirational story of Mardy Murie, mother of the American conservation movement, who played a central role in establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Act in 1960 and the Alaska Lands Act in 1980.

Arctic Dance: The Mardy Murie Story is "a collaborative effort by a group of passionate filmmakers, writers, musicians, and biologists to produce the definitive film biography of this exceptional woman. Directed by Bonnie Kreps and written by Charlie Craighead, the documentary is both an intimate portrait of a well-loved national figure and a poignant historical document."

You can learn more and watch a preview at the documentary's website.

(Via Greener Magazine)

Water proves good fodder for two new books, fact and fiction

My rubber boots are ankle deep in mud. An overhang of moss supported by a wedge of ice taller than I am — ice that has likely never before been exposed — is dripping water onto my hat. It is August 2004, and I am standing on the North Slope of Alaska, at a spot […]

Will Waters Never Cease?

Aussie firms extract both clean energy and drinking water from ocean Among our many environmental problems, two of the most vexing are dwindling freshwater supplies and a dearth of clean energy. Now two Australian firms think they’ve hit on a way to tackle both at once: a desalination plant that could convert saltwater to freshwater, […]

Nuke Rest for the Wary

Lawmakers slash funding for Yucca Mountain nuke dump In a season of setbacks for President Bush, Congress delivered yet another this week, cutting funding for the Yucca Mountain nuclear-waste dump well below the amount requested by the White House. House and Senate negotiators working on a funding bill for energy and water projects allotted $450 […]

Cabal and Chain

International Energy Agency predicts grim future Unless the industrialized world gets off its ass and starts weaning itself from oil, the future holds sky-high energy prices, a more than 50 percent rise in greenhouse-gas emissions over the next 25 years, and near-total dependence on a small cabal of Middle Eastern countries. This grim portent comes […]

Umbra on coffee

Dear Umbra, I am a seriously indulgent coffee drinker. Lately, there have been a ton of “green” coffee shops popping up. I like to support local coffee shops, and I want to believe that they are “shade-grown, fair-trade, organic,” but I’ve wondered if they are being honest. How do I know if they are legit? […]