Latest Articles

Green humor

As I believe I've mentioned, environmentalism is never funny.

Environmentalists, however, are the source of endless amusement. To wit: here's a set of jokes that's been making the eco-rounds:

Jeff Jarvis on Current TV and the new iPod

For a different perspective on Al Gore's recent speech and cable TV network, Current TV, head on over to the BuzzMachine to read what Jeff Jarvis has to say.

While I won't go into his critique of all things Al, other than to say he's critical of the former Veep for not embracing the Internet more, he did make one suggestion I've meant to blog about:

Finally, at the end, Gore returns to the internet.

Indeed, Current TV relies on video streaming over the Internet as the means by which individuals send us what we call viewer-created content or VC squared.

Not to nitpick, but streaming is usually outbound, not inbound. And I find it odd that you still call these people "viewers" if they're supposedly programming the network. Aren't they your journalists and programmers? Aren't you supposed to be the viewer now?

And he still complains about the internet because there's not enough bandwidth for full-motion video. Try Bittorrent, Al. Try video iChat. Try video on those new iPods.

For those who did not hear the latest news, Apple is now selling a video iPod. If you've been toying around with the idea of participatory journalism, your potential audience just got a whole lot bigger.

Now wouldn't it be interesting to have someone make a clip about the iPod's non-replaceable battery, which destines it and its constituent toxic heavy metals for a premature trip to the landfill, to play on said iPods.

DDT myths

You may not have noticed, but the Right is fairly obsessed with propagating the notion that environmentalists, by getting DDT banned in 1972, are responsible for the deaths of millions of poor in the developing world. This is the kind of thing that people with, um, lives tend to ignore. It travels around underground on right wing sites until it slowly seeps into conventional wisdom.

It's bullsnot, though. For a brief primer on why, see Tim Lambert.

This carpool’s rockin’ … come knockin’

As I was leaving work last night, a bus blew past me with a big, colorful ad on the side. "Freewheeling," said the type at the top. The photo showed a van on a bare stretch of road, with a beautiful sunsetty skyline beyond. Then the tagline: "Vanpooling is your trip, your way."

Um, really? I thought vanpooling was 12 other people's trips, and you have to wait your turn, and it takes forever, and is sort of smelly.

I wish I could get over that notion. Because I do believe in sharing rides. And the Washington DOT website makes it look so darn bucolic. I admire their attempt to sex up vans, I really do. I wish them the best of truck.

Gore says he won’t run

And adds this:

"My country is extremely attentive to the slightest increase in a risk from terror, and that's appropriate," he said. "But why should we be so tolerant of risk where the future habitability of our planet is concerned?"

Sigh.

Tight federal budget prevents old-growth timber sales

The Oregonian today reports on an unexpected consequence of a tight federal budget: The U.S. Forest Service doesn't have enough money to prepare timber sales in old-growth forests.

From the article:

[T]he administration and Congress are starving the U.S. Forest Service of money to plan sales of the big trees, and fight the inevitable appeals and lawsuits by their defenders. Forest managers say they are no longer pouring their shrinking funds into thankless conflicts they rarely win.

"We can't afford expensive timber sales -- the kind where controversy is engendered," said Gary Larsen, supervisor of the Mount Hood National Forest. "We're trying to find those where people can agree on the benefits."

Nifty: We can save money and old-growth in one step. How come it took so long to figure this out?

Dept. of irony

This is hilarious. Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Tex.) is holding a fundraiser for beleaguered ex-House Speaker Tom DeLay (R-Tex.). Where, you ask?

The Petroleum Club.

Poetry.

From Cracking Up to Cream Pie

Gloom and doom with a sense of … hey, wait a minute Some Grumpy Grumpersteins out there think environmentalism is never funny. TBS aims to prove ’em wrong with Earth to America! — an exclamation-pointed, star-studded night of comedy about the planet’s plight. That bit on new-source review is gonna kill. Turning Japanese, we really […]

Readers talk back about school choice, organic rules, bike commuting, and more

  Re: Storm Front and Center Dear Editor: If we could only make politicians and multinational firms understand the direct relation between forest clear-cutting and floods, we might be able to prevent — or at least reduce — the damage caused by tropical storms and hurricanes. Hurricane Katrina is one good example of many stupid […]

Civil servants quit or get canned for bucking bad environmental policy

In Nick Turse's astonishing list of Bush administration casualties -- civil servants who have quit or been fired for bucking administration policy -- are numerous entries of interest to greens. Here are a few: