Latest Articles

How many kids do I have to have to get your attention?

What's up? Usually when I tout procreation, there's no end to the scolding. But my guest post on Sustainablog has generated almost nothing. The Treehuggers were not similarly restrained.

The opportunity costs of not taking mass transit

Anyone who has watched someone pull a bonehead maneuver on the road only to pull up next to the driver and see that he or she is on a cell phone can attest that it's hard to multi-task while driving. And given the uphill battle to get people out of cars and using mass transit, some of the benefits of ditching the car could use some (re)framing. For example:

• Mass transit cuts down on the opportunity cost of transit. It frees the rider up to do anything, from preparing for the day at work to just getting your head together or decompressing after a stressful day, instead of having to be alert and focus on yet another task: navigating rush-hour traffic.
• Mass transit is the logical next step in an industrialized society, since it furthers the division of labor by allocating the task of moving people around to those who are best at it. Not everyone is a great driver.
• Mass transit has none of the overhead costs present in cars.
• You can't sleep and drive across the country at the same time.

Granted, there are some things inherent in driving that are irreplaceable and not transferable to mass transit. There's a certain romance about driving from coast to coast, and a certain excitement that comes from shifting a manual transmission into fourth gear. The majority of driving, though, is neither of these. It's mundane, point-A-to-point-B drudgery through rush-hour traffic, which mass transit can easily match or improve upon.

A report from the scene.

Grist reader Ed Brown attended today's memorial service for Gaylord Nelson and sent this short report. (Thanks Ed.)

-----

Gaylord Nelson was on Richard Nixon's "enemies list." When asked why, Nelson is said to have replied, "I'm not sure -- but it's possible he heard me trying to play the trumpet in the Clear Lake (Wisconsin) high school band."

Bill Meadows of the Wilderness Society introduced a memorial service for Senator Gaylord Nelson with that story, this afternoon in the state capitol rotunda in Madison, Wis., noting that the same Clear Lake band had just played a prelude, with a very good trumpet player. This peculiar mixture of national politics and small town minutiae, political power and personal grace, captures the character of the man: former governor and senator from Wisconsin, but best known as the father of Earth Day.

Reminiscences from the speakers were impressive. Melvin Laird, secretary of defense during the Vietnam era, former VP Walter Mondale, Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, and Nelson's daughter Tia, now a conservationist and political force in her own right, showed us a man who was great because he was gracious -- who led the nation not only in the environmental movement but in civil rights and family legislation as well. But what most impressed me, an ordinary member of the public, was the people with whom I was sitting . Some had met Gaylord -- no one called him "Senator" or "Governor" -- some had not. But all had been influenced to care more for the earth -- and do more about environmental problems -- because of this great and gracious man.

And it occurred to me that the secret of his life and his success was this: He could move in the halls of power, but he could do so in a way that moved ordinary people to come along with him. And that was how he got things done. May we find another leader, or two or three, like him.

Lord knows, the work isn't done.

--Ed Brown
careofcreation.org

They’re everywhere!

I can't go outside anymore in Seattle without seeing a Toyota Prius -- actually make that several. To escape the onslaught, I ducked into a movie theater this past weekend to watch War of the Worlds. Just as I was thinking it would be just me, Tom, Dakota and a few alien friends, Mr. Prius showed up on the big screen to remind me that he's watching me. Is there no escape!?

Or, try a lab burger.

Several Gristmillians, myself included, believe that going veg is one of many ways to help prevent climate change. That belief is now supported by British scientist Alan Calverd, who wrote in the journal Physics World that "carbon emissions could be slashed by an incredible 21% overnight if we all stopped eating meat" (via edie news centre).

Can't kick the animal flesh habit? Then maybe you want to look into lab burgers -- that is animal tissue engineered in a laboratory:

Writing in the journal Tissue Engineering, Matheny said scientists could grow cells from the muscle tissue of cattle, pigs, poultry or fish in large flat sheets on thin membranes. These sheets of cells would be grown and stretched, then removed from the membranes and stacked to increase thickness and resemble meat.

Using another method, scientists could grow muscle cells on small three-dimensional beads that stretch with small changes in temperature. The resulting tissue could be used to make processed meat such as chicken nuggets or hamburgers.

Sounds appetizing doesn't it? I'll stick with good ol' plant-based foods thank you.

Diamond chronicles how a small southern town made environmental history

When Margie Eugene-Richard won the Goldman Prize last year, it was a stunning public recognition of decades of struggle. Richard -- the first African-American to win the award, which some refer to as environmentalism's Nobel Prize -- had waged a 30-year campaign against Shell Chemicals with fellow residents of Diamond, La. Like the proverbial David, the African-American, working-class neighborhood took on a Goliath -- and won.

GE ecomagination commercial features model miners

To promote the recently launched -- and somewhat idyllically named -- Ecomagination campaign, GE has been running a series of commercials highlighting its green initiatives. One in particular, focused on clean(er?) coal, has sparked a good deal of debate over its use of sexy models to excite more than the imagination, if you will.

Josh Ozersky of The New York Times describes the 60-second commercial:

As the spot begins, we hear Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons" and see shadowy figures, identifiable only by their helmet lights, walking into a coal mine. (The helmet light, like the physician's reflector, remains indispensable to commercials that don't have a lot of time for explanations.) At first, this ad looks like a paean to labor - the song after all, is a workingman's lament - and we see several strong and stylized male figures that bring to mind W.P.A. murals. But soon the hot female miners appear, carefully soiled and seductively oiled up. The commercial, we see, is visually indistinguishable from a Victoria's Secret ad, right down to the blue filters and hubba-hubba slow motion.

And that's the point: "Thanks to emissions-reducing technology from G.E. energy," an amiable narrator tells us, "harnessing the power of coal is looking more beautiful every day." For G.E., it's a simple setup and punch line. Jonathan Klein, a company spokesman, said, "In 'Model Miners,' the goal is to communicate that G.E.'s emission-reducing technology can make coal a more appealing energy source."

Ozersky, as well as other columnists and a handful of letter-writers, note that it's a bit more complicated than that.

As for me, I just like looking at beautiful people. Is that so wrong?

View the "Model Miners" spot as well as GE's other commercials here and decide for yourself.

Umbra on lawn mowers

Dear Umbra, OK, I hate lawns. But for a number of reasons, I have to move into a town where lawns are the law, and mowing a necessity. Can you give me the scoop on the most eco-friendly lawnmower that will still cut decently? (No, I can’t have goats.) My old reel lawnmower never did […]

Beyond the Pail

Dealing with big-city garbage is big business for small towns As landfills top off and shut down near big U.S. cities, taking in the trash is becoming a profitable enterprise for smaller towns hundreds of miles away from metropolises. Despite local concerns that landfills may cause long-term environmental problems, trash-industry execs insist communities are taking […]

One Tree Shill

Sierra Club touts new Ford hybrid SUV The Sierra Club has long criticized Ford Motor Co. for its environmental offenses, primarily the industry-worst average fuel economy of its fleet. So members may be surprised when Ford’s hybrid Mercury Mariner SUV is prominently featured in an upcoming club newsletter and on SierraClub.org. When the green group […]