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Forest meets felon in John Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce

The old riddle goes: If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a sound? The new one might go: If a tree falls in a forest and no one’s there to hear it, is it worth writing a book about? The Golden Spruce by John Vaillant, […]

Apotcalypse

Armed pot growers invade public lands When we say “growing pot in national parks,” what do you think of? Aging hippie, beat-up VW minibus, little dope field a few yards up the hill from the camp site? Yeah, those were good times … but where were we? Oh yes. Well, times change: California’s Sequoia National […]

Hairy Otters Are Now Half-Gone (Wince)

Alaskan sea otters being added to endangered species list Suffering population declines that are baffling scientists, the sea otters of southwest Alaska are being designated a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, which entitles the furry marine mammals to stronger federal protections. Government biologists plan to investigate why their numbers have plummeted from tens […]

One Meeellion Years

Feds create million-year health standard for Yucca Mountain dump The U.S. government has no plan for getting out of Iraq, balancing the budget, or repairing a hemorrhaging health-care system, but nuclear waste? It’s got that covered for the next million years. Yes, responding to a 2004 federal court ruling that the previous standard of 10 […]

What does the accusation mean and how should greens respond?

James Schlesinger had an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal the other day called "The Theology of Global Warming" (paid subscription required, but really, don't bother). It's full of the usual skeptical blather -- if you're interested in the specifics, and in finding out why Schlesigner in particular is an unreliable source, I refer you to Chris Mooney.

I'm more interested in this general idea that global warming, and environmentalism generally, has become a "secular religion." You hear it a lot. It's become a favorite talking point on the right. (And let's be honest: When you hear anti-environmentalist talking points, it's coming from the right. I wish it weren't so, but it is.)

What should a green make of this charge?

I think it's strategically brilliant. It's a way for the leadership on the right to reach two constituencies simultaneously:

From Panties to Pledges

Eco-panties The world’s fascination with panties dates back to, oh, probably whenever panties were invented. At U.K.-based GreenKnickers.org, they make them from organic materials or oddball secondhand dresses. You got your eco, you got your panties — what’s not to like? Like Grizzly Adams, but crazy Photo: Timothy Treadwell. Self-proclaimed “kind warrior” Timothy Treadwell lived […]

Eating locally — part three.

For those of you who read the hundred-mile diet post and are hungry for more, The Tyee published the latest from J.B. MacKinnon and Alisa Smith about two weeks ago and I'm now getting around to linking to it.

In the third installment, J.B. provides a little more detail about what exactly they have been eating and offers up a few recipes for Breakfast Fritters, Hundred-Mile Pesto, and Fanny Bay Pie in the hopes to challenge you to try a Hundred-Mile Meal.

For the appetizer lovers, here's a little morsel to whet your appetite:

... There are a lot of Big Issues associated with the food system, and there will be time to write about several of them here as the Hundred-Mile Diet continues. The point of this dispatch is to forget about the politics and . . . rhapsodize. Eating locally is a grand adventure. It has taken us to 40-year-old family fish shops and introduced us to people who have grown their own soy beans for homemade tofu. It has left us calling our mothers to find out how to wash and cook whole-grain wheat. Best of all, every time I open the refrigerator to come up with something for dinner, I feel like a pioneer.

To the join them on their journey, go here.

Legalize it, don’t criticize it

The U.S. is the only developed nation that does not cultivate industrial hemp as an economic crop. The Industrial Hemp Farming Act could change that -- if it's passed.

Given the Bush administration's retrograde attitude toward pot (which yes, yes, I know, has nothing to do with hemp), I highly doubt this bill has a chance. But I could be wrong.

Joel Makower has the details.

Controversial judge sides against enviros on mercury regs

Janice Rogers Brown is already proving her worth on the federal bench. Last week, she and her colleague David Sentelle of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia blocked an effort by environmental groups to halt implementation of the Bush administration's much-maligned mercury rules.

Judiciary committee chair to question SCOTUS nominee about commerce clause

Those who read our piece on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts know that one of greens' principle concerns about him is his interpretation of the commerce clause. In short, the commerce clause, which gives Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce, has been broadly interpreted and used as the foundation for a great deal of important environmental legislation. If SCOTUS chooses to interpret it more narrowly, much of that legislation could be challenged. (This is what was at stake in the case of the "hapless toad that, for reasons of its own, lives its entire life in California" -- i.e., doesn't cross state lines.)

Meanwhile: Arlen Specter (R-Penn.), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, is sick and tired of SCOTUS questioning -- nay, mocking! -- the reasoning Congress uses to pass laws. He just sent Roberts a letter saying as much: "members of Congress are irate about the Court's denigrating and, really, disrespectful statements about Congress's competence." Denigrating and disrespectful statements about Congress! Say it ain't so.

In particular, Specter asked Roberts about his his opinion of two cases -- U.S. v. Lopez and U.S. v. Morrison -- that turned on the commerce clause. (Both were narrow judgments finding that Congress had overreached.)

Why should you care about this? Well, Specter says he plans on asking Roberts about this stuff at his confirmation hearings. And that's somewhat surprising -- Republican leadership had been saying that Roberts shouldn't have to answer questions on individual issues. (I'd be curious to find out if Specter is off the reservation about this.) So while ineffectual Democrats will have no luck finding out what Roberts really thinks about an issue central to environmental legislation, Specter might just find out for them.

(You can read more about this, and Specter's letter, on Greenwire if you have a paid subscription, which you probably don't.)