Latest Articles

Petal Pusher

Entrepreneur sees vast potential for organic flower industry Gerald Prolman is a man with an organic-flower plan. The California entrepreneur is not only after a significant chunk of the $20 billion-a-year cut-flower industry in the U.S. — he’s hopeful that cultivating demand for organic bouquets will transform grower practices in Latin America and Africa, where […]

Bombay Watch

Bombay bans plastic bags, saying they can clog drains and cause flooding Plastic bags are maddeningly ubiquitous and ugly as sin, but did you know they can cause flooding? According to India’s Maharashtra state government, millions of bags clogged up drains in Bombay’s slums during monsoon season, dramatically worsening the epic late-July flooding that killed […]

Tastes Like Chicken

Hong Kong becomes major outlet for trade in rare species Hong Kong has become a linchpin location for smuggling rare species into China, according to some opponents of the trade, who fear that huge demand may wipe out many animal and plant species. In just one notable raid, police discovered that numerous boxes of alleged […]

What the Tuck?

Governator appoints industry flacks as state eco-regulators California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) earned green esteem early in his tenure, but as important regulatory appointments take on an increasingly pro-industry tinge, his cred is starting to fade. The latest is Cindy Tuck, chosen to chair the state’s Air Resources Board after working for more than 15 […]

The Sum of Squall Fears

What’s the link between hurricanes and global warming? The devastation wreaked on the Gulf Coast this week by Hurricane Katrina is sure to reignite debate over hurricanes and global warming. The science linking the two is ambiguous and complex, but the need to spur action on climate change is urgent. Would activists be justified in […]

Worldchanging editor discusses optimism and technology

[editor's note, by Dave Roberts] This is part one of a three-part interview. Part two is here and part three is here.

In April, I sat down for a long, wide-ranging conversation with Alex Steffen, executive editor of the (now newly incorporated and redesigned) Worldchanging.com. Gristmill readers likely need no introduction to Worldchanging, an online salon of activists and thinkers dedicated to the proposition that "another world is here" -- that the tools and techniques we need to reverse the global malaise already exist and await only our imagination and willpower. If it isn't on your daily reading list, it should be.

Originally, I was going to run this interview alongside a rather ambitious long-form piece of my own, but as time has passed -- and I really can't believe how much time has passed -- it's become clear that said piece is indefinitely postponed. Since I have a baby due [checks calendar] three days ago, it's unlikely I'll soon have time to return to it.

Lest it get even older, I'm going to go ahead and run it here. There's lots of good stuff in it, but it's very long, so I've broken it into three parts -- I'll publish the first today and the others in coming days.

In part one, we discuss optimism, technology, and the open-source movement.

Indian movies need to take up the plastic-bag fight

Plastic bags may be banned in the Indian state of Maharashtra due to concerns that by clogging the city's drains they contributed to the floods that swept the coast last month and brought life to a halt in buzzing Bombay. There are protests from the predictable quarters; apparently, 20,000 people in the state are employed to painstakingly manufacture thin bags that are good for carrying one coconut for ten yards before stretching out and leaving you with a bag with a hole in it but no coconut.

Will Gucci be next?

Now that Chanel's off limits.

McDonough

Nothing new in this short profile of William McDonough, but as a confirmed McDonough fanboy, I feel obligated to link to it.

Nothing he wants to go affirming to the UN

Uh oh, this doesn't sound good.

The Bush administration, whose pro-business policies on climate change have long rankled environmentalists and U.N. delegates, has done it again. The United States is pressing to scrap a proposal to have world leaders gathering in New York next month express "respect for nature."

Eh, pardonne moi?

That phrase was included in a draft statement of principles to be agreed to by 175 heads of state and government attending a Sept. 14 United Nations summit on poverty and U.N. reform. The statement invited leaders to embrace a set of "core values" that unite the international community, including respect for human rights, freedom, equality, tolerance, multilateralism and respect for nature.

Is there some confusion in the Washington Post offices? Is this some kind of treaty? Mandated CO2 emissions cuts? Banning of toxic chemicals? Compensating poor nations for the effects of climate change?

The offending phrase would place no fresh legal or financial burdens on U.S. taxpayers...

WTF?!

...but the Bush administration voiced concern that it would distract attention from the main goal: reforming the United Nations.

WTF!?

Um, wait, so, 175 nations are gathering in New York to work on U.N. reform. To start off, they want to affirm their shared principles. Bush is okay with this. Human rights? Sure. Equality? Yup. Multilateralism? Ah, what the hell.

Respect for nature, though? C'mon. Let's not go off the rails!

Ric Grenell of the U.S. mission to the United Nations said the phrase "is too broad a subject, and if we had to define the multiple ways the U.S. government respects nature, the document would be too long and way off its original intent."

Oh, gosh, the ways we respect nature ... don't get us started!

No, really. Don't. We mean it.