Latest Articles

Umbra on utility carts

Dear Umbra, I live less than a half-mile from a supermarket, and prefer to do my errands by foot. Any thoughts on where I could buy a top-of-the-line utility cart? I’m willing to pay a premium for something lightweight, smooth-rolling, stable, foldable, and durable (or if not durable, then easy to recycle when it breaks!). […]

“Quiet places are the think tank of the soul.”

Here's an interesting story in the Seattle Times about a professional sound recorder struggling to preserve the little quiet spot he found in Olympic Nat'l Park.

Uninterrupted natural quiet is so rare Hempton thinks many people under the age of 30 have never heard it. "Whenever someone tells me they know a quiet place, I figure they have an undiagnosed hearing impairment, or they weren't really listening. Most people believe they know what natural quiet is, but they have not had the experience; it is not the same thing as sitting in an empty theater, a church, a library.

"We spend our lives in containers. Cars. Buildings. Planes. Natural quiet is in open, living space. It's alive."

Technology could be used to monitor wildlife preserves

As this story in the Seattle Times suggests, the effectiveness of a wildlife refuge is directly linked to how well you can protect what is inside it: "... an international black market ... fuels the illegal slaughter of an estimated 500 eagles each year in southwest British Columbia alone, and an unknown number in Washington state."

Many nature preserves around the world have little or no protection, making them essentially worthless as preserves. There are not enough funds to hire an army of forest rangers to be everywhere all the time. The biggest problem with any system that relies on guys randomly driving around in pickup trucks is that 99.9% of the time nothing is happening, and when something does happen, it happens where the rangers aren't. Preventing poachers from killing hundreds of eagles is better than prosecuting them after the fact.

Maybe we should be using technology to protect the planet instead of destroy it? Like E.O. Wilson once said:

The race is now on between the technoscientific forces that are destroying the living environment and those that can be harnessed to save it.

Milenko Matanovic, community-based planner, answers questions

Milenko Matanovic. What work do you do? I run a nonprofit organization called Pomegranate Center. We specialize in involving people in creating gathering places, thereby integrating art into the fabric of the community. We help develop plans for neighborhoods that are safe, humane, environmentally excellent, and filled with character. I founded Pomegranate Center in 1986 […]

Many feigned regret, but ultimately the pork pulled them in

I've written about negative reactions to the energy bill from mainstream green groups, the Apollo Alliance, newspaper editorial boards, and libertarians. I'm sure I could find more -- denunciations of the special-interest-giveaway fest are thick on the ground.

What about the converse, though: Who is reacting positively to this bill? Who will defend it?

The industries that directly benefit from the manifold subsidies and tax breaks, of course (see, e.g., the Nuclear Energy Institute). And the majority Republicans, who receive copious contributions from those industries and who will no doubt receive credit for "getting things done" (see, e.g., Domenici). But who else?

Well, how about that other party ... what's the name again? Demo-something?

Why did enough Dems support this bill to get it through? And are they happy about it? I investigate.

The Sweet Swim of Success

Lower Hudson River clean enough for dipping A dozen-plus locations along the lower Hudson River in New York state are once again fit for taking a dip, thanks to decades of cleanup efforts. Accounts of swimming in the Hudson date back to colonial times, but by the mid-20th century the river was an unholy stew […]

The Tiger of the Eye

Study links more destructive hurricanes to global warming Controversy about the connection between severe storms and climate change seems to follow inevitably on the heels of hurricane season. This year is no different: A report this week in the journal Nature will argue that global warming is a major cause of the rise in cumulative […]

Looney Tuna

Feds, pressured by industry, lax in warning public about mercury in tuna The Wall Street Journal today continues its series on toxic chemicals and human health by taking a hard look at some fishy dealings concerning tuna and mercury. For years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has known that canned tuna contains mercury. A […]

Comment on EPA’s Plan

EPA says race, income shouldn’t be environmental-justice factors

It may surprise some people to hear that the Bush administration’s EPA just drafted a strategic plan on environmental justice. Insidiously, and perhaps less surprisingly, advocates say, the move threatens to redefine that term into irrelevance. The agency’s new plan defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of […]