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Gas prices skyrocket

The USA Today headline blares: $3 a gallon. But the paper is not alone. The reason everyone is talking about the surge in prices is that everyone is paying for it. Everyone is starting to employ their own personal favorite gas-saving tactics, but this means different things for different people.

Both MSNBC and the LA Times have reactions to gas prices today. Between the two they run the gamut, everything from people who aren't complaining at all to people who have decided that a bicycle (or a scooter!) is their mode of transportation from now on.

We’ve already collected nature quotes — how about some quotes on energy

And I don't mean oil futures ...

Dave got a lot of people to contribute their favorite quotes on nature last month. I was recently asked about famous energy quotes and drew a complete blank.

Can you, uhm, enlighten me? Leave your faves in the comments.

Smokey and Mirrors

Feds cut estimated economic worth of recreation in national forests During the Clinton administration, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that by the year 2000, recreation in national forests would contribute about $111 billion a year to the American economy. Now the Bush administration has slashed that estimate by a whopping $100 billion for 2002, down […]

From Lubes to Lemurs

Lube job Folks sometimes worry about sustainability during sex — just not the environmental kind. To make your pleasure greener there’s the Veg Sex Shop, a collection of vegan and eco-friendly sex toys, including a solar-powered vibrator and a dazzling variety of oils and lubes. Look on the bright side Global warming may result in […]

Consider This a Bear Hug

Fervent support from Grist readers brings a tear to our eye Really, you’re too much. Our two-week fundraiser is over, and more than 1,000 of you responded to our desperate, naked pleas for support, sending a remarkable $54,478.74 our way. You shot the mercury right out of our hackneyed fundraising thermometer, forcing us to stare […]

Diary of a Mad Black River

Millions of gallons of liquid cow manure flow into N.Y. river At some point last week — nobody’s quite sure when — one wall of an earthen reservoir on one of New York state’s biggest dairy farms collapsed, releasing some 3 million gallons of liquid cow manure into the Black River. “That stinks,” noted observant […]

A No Life on Lease

Court ruling blocks new oil drilling off California coast New oil and gas drilling off the California coast has been effectively thwarted, thanks to a federal court ruling last Friday. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered federal officials not to extend leases to energy companies on 36 central-coast tracts until environmental risks have been more […]

For This Relief Much Tanks

Big SUVs likely to keep guzzling gas under forthcoming fuel-economy plan The Bush administration is said to be abandoning efforts to set fuel-economy standards for huge SUVs like the Hummer H2 and Ford Excursion, which fall outside the weight classes covered by current standards. Those concerned about the warming globe, skyrocketing gas prices, and foreign-oil […]

Sprawl is often thought to erode social capital, but the evidence is mixed

In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam argues that the decline of social capital in the U.S. can be attributed partly to urban form. In other words, according to Putnam, sprawl is at least partly to blame for the present derth of bowling leagues. But is it really?

Putnam's arguments (summarized at the end of Chapter 12) are threefold.

1. "Sprawl takes time": more time alone in a car and less for civic engagement.
2. "Sprawl is associated with increasing social segregation," and that segregation has led to less community participation.
3. "Sprawl disrupts community 'boundedness'," and that physical fragmentation reduces social involvement.

Although Putnam's claim -- that sprawl erodes social capital -- is widely referenced, my survey of the evidence makes me suspicious. My objections are threefold.

Conservation easements and taxes

The Los Angeles Times reports today on the Bonnheim ranch, a recently minted conservation easement. There is some controversy over the ranch because its owners are permitting logging on the premises, which doesn't sound like conservation to many people in the area.

My high school English teacher had an expression: show, don't tell. The article is a powerful anecdote that reveals many of the issues surrounding land trusts and conservation easements, by giving just one example.

Whenever trusts or easements come up, my first thought is this: the agreement is forever, or at least it can be (if this is incorrect, someone please let me know). The up-front price of the land is the bargain of the century when you look at it that way. It surprises me that more land isn't bought and donated to easements or trusts, especially given the other financial incentives to do so, like tax deductions.