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Oil spill spotted

Looks like Katrina may have caused an oil spill after all.

BusinessWeek on Katrina

The America-hating commies at, uh, BusinessWeek have a must-read article on Katrina and the implications for U.S. policy.

The major lesson policymakers should draw from the catastrophe is just how vulnerable the U.S. is becoming to natural disasters and energy disruptions. In fact, some experts say, Americans have been mistakenly lulled into thinking terrorism is the most pressing threat -- and they argue that the relentless focus on staving off suicide bombers has left crucial gaps elsewhere.

Here are their policy recommendations:

• Restore natural buffer zones
• Limit development in the most vulnerable areas
• Get serious about climate change
• Make a Presidential appeal
• Increase energy diversity
• Boost energy efficiency

Read the whole thing.

(via David Corn)

Interview with mayor of New Orleans

Everyone, and I mean everyone, should listen to this interview with the mayor of New Orleans. Any hint of political tact is gone -- he's just angry and confused by the criminal indifference and incompetence that are consigning thousands of his constituents to disease and death.

It's painful to hear, but utterly necessary.

Vote for grassroots efforts around the globe

This morning we received an email from the Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area in Vanuatu. Apparently, Vanuatu is a tiny Pacific island that runs on batteries (all praise the Energizer Bunny!). The problem is that many people dump their used batteries into the ocean, which among other things damages coral reefs. This is where the Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area comes in, by encouraging villagers to use rechargeable batteries.

And their campaign has made them a finalist in the The World Challenge, which is brought to you by BBC World & Newsweek, in association with Shell. From The World Challenge website:

It is a competition aimed at finding individuals or groups from around the world who have shown enterprise and innovation at a grass roots level. This competition is all about finding entrepreneurs whose projects are making a difference to communities.

Voting is open until October 16th, and the Nguna-Pele Marine Protected Area obviously wants you to vote for them. But, before you do, you may want to review the other efforts taking place around the world, which include:

Rebuilding New Orleans

As the immediate crises in New Orleans slowly resolve themselves over the next weeks and months, talk will inevitably turn to rebuilding. Over at Worldchanging, Alan AtKisson offers the first version of what he promises will be a developing, evolving piece of work about how to rebuild New Orleans in a bright green way. In a very grim time it's a nice ray of passion and optimism. Highly recommended.

Update [2005-9-2 12:12:20 by Dave Roberts]: See also this optimistic take on rebuilding by Ari Kelman over on TPMCafe.

White House to greens: We should totally do this again some time

Say anything. Uncle Sam wants you … to cooperate on conservation. Not only that, he’s willing to listen. At least that’s what he says. Earlier this week, St. Louis hosted the White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation. The invitation-only event was modeled after Teddy Roosevelt’s 1908 Governors’ Conference, which brought all the country’s governors, Supreme […]

Hybrids in HOV lanes may do more harm than good

I don't often agree with New York Times columnist John Tierney, but on this I do. The idea of opening up HOV lanes to hybrid cars is getting bandied about quite a bit, and is already a reality in Virginia and California. But as enticing as the idea may seem, I think it's a mistake.

In Virginia, carpool lanes are getting more and more clogged with drive-alone commuters in hybrid cars. But in terms of saving energy, it's more important to keep HOV lanes flowing freely for transit, vanpool, and (perhaps) carpools than to fill them with drive-alone commuters -- even if they're driving efficient cars. As more and more hybrids enter the vehicle fleet, the HOV-clogging problem will only intensify. Plus, hybrid owners may quickly come to perceive driving in the HOV lane as a right rather than a privilege, making it harder to reclaim those lanes for transit. On top of all that, politicians have a disturbing tendency to lower standards, allowing bigger and less fuel-efficient hybrids to use the lanes. So it's a bad idea to begin with, and the slippery slope makes it seem worse and worse.

Turning HOV lanes into HOT lanes -- "high-occupancy/toll" lanes free to buses and carpools, available to others for a toll that's dynamically priced to keep traffic flowing -- is a better option than opening HOV lanes to hybrids. Both ideas increase the number of cars on the road, but HOT lanes at least have the advantage of keeping transit moving smoothly while introducing the not-so-radical notion that freeways aren't really free.

The most potent argument against HOT lanes is that they're really "Lexus Lanes" -- i.e., rich people will pay to use them but everyone else will be stuck in traffic. Admittedly, the optics of HOT lanes aren't great. But hybrid owners tend to be a well-heeled bunch too, so giving them free access to the HOV lanes still has social and class implications. And besides, according to this Q&A (scroll down to the bottom) studies of HOT lanes in California say that:

Although roughly one-quarter of the motorists in the toll lanes at any given time are in the top income bracket, data demonstrate that the majority are low and middle-income motorists. The benefits of the HOT lane are enjoyed widely at all income levels.

I don't take that as definitive -- but it certainly suggests that the well-off wouldn't be the sole beneficiaries of HOT lanes.

That’s Why We Have to Assassinate Them

Foreign officials offer policy critiques — and aid — in Katrina’s wake International politicians and pundits are pointing to possible links between global warming and Hurricane Katrina and criticizing the environmental policies of the Bush administration. German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin caught heat from colleagues for the Tuesday timing — but not the substance — […]

The Big Greasy

New Orleans floodwaters a stew of sewage and toxic chemicals Toxic chemicals contaminating the New Orleans floodwaters may be less of a short-term health hazard than plain ol’ poop. Federal officials have declared a public health emergency for the Gulf Coast, fearing that viruses and bacteria from sewage in the floodwaters could cause a major […]

The Coastest With the Leastest

Coastal-ecology degradation contributed to Katrina’s destructive force Far from being solely a “natural” disaster, Hurricane Katrina’s impact was compounded by human alterations of the Gulf Coast ecology. Complex levee and canal systems built to protect New Orleans from being flooded by the Mississippi River, and to improve the river as a shipping channel, have also […]