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The Toxic Avoider

EPA failing to get health data on scads of potentially harmful chemicals The U.S. EPA hasn’t collected data on the potential risks of tens of thousands of toxic substances, putting the public at risk, says a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Under the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which regulates industrial chemicals, the […]

Lend Me Your Gears

Car sharing slowly but surely taking off in cities worldwide Car sharing is gradually gaining ground around the globe, and the future looks bright for a concept once derided as a green fever dream. About 300,000 people worldwide now participate in car sharing; it’s taken off especially well in European nations like Germany, the Netherlands, […]

Bad for the Fish, Good for the Grist Swim Team

Warmer waters put wildlife under deadly stress along Pacific Coast Freaky environmental anomalies along the Pacific Coast from central California to British Columbia may devastate the region’s wildlife, scientists say. Ocean temperatures in the area are 2 to 5 degrees higher than usual this summer; no one’s sure why, but scientists suspect a lack of […]

Sewage in the kitchen?

Well, perhaps just the methane from the sewage, to cook our food.

This vision, swinging dramatically across the olfactory spectrum, is part of sustainability architect William McDonough's plan for seven new Chinese cities. The Chinese government has taken McDonough's book Cradle to Cradle on as policy for what he calls the "Next City." Read more at BBC.

Mayors meet at that other Sundance for greener cities

Mayors from over 45 cities met this week in Sundance -- Sundance, Utah, that is -- to brainstorm on ways to make their cities greener and build on the momentum created by Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels' recent initiative to cut cities' greenhouse emissions, which he discussed with Amanda Griscom Little in Grist.

The Sundance Summit gathered mayors from some of the "usual suspects" (Seattle, Burlington, Berkeley) as well as some not-so-usual suspects (Des Moines, D.C., Pittsburgh, and two cities in Texas). The Summit featured talks by Al Gore, a representative from the Chicago Climate Exchange, and an attorney from the NRDC.

From the Seattle PI article:

"All of our major big boxes have to do green roofs," [Chicago Mayor] Daley said at actor Robert Redford's Sundance mountain resort just east of Provo. "When big boxes come to see us, we change their architecture. ... Everything's a planned development."

Making big boxes change their architecture? Imagine!

If these initiatives take root, and if I'm reading Dave's Sustainablog post correctly, this is an example of ecological "handprint" as opposed to footprint. It's also probably closer to the order of 1 percent reduction of "insult to the earth" rather than .000000000000167 percent.

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.)

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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.