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Walking the halls

You know, people bitch a lot about the mainstream green groups, but how many other people could write a blog post about the ongoing battle over the Arctic Refuge that includes this sentence?

So we are walking the halls, trying to strengthen the resolve of people like Congresswomen Nancy Johnson, and to find a way to persuade the few remaining leaners to come our way.

Good luck, Carl.

(See also Pope's longer post on Congressional shenanigans.)

Our fearless leader is interviewed; the masses swoon.

Our fearless leader Chip Giller is profiled and interviewed in the latest issue of Evergreen Monthly. If you can get past the slightly bizarre photo (he fairly glows with eco-goodness! or was it raining light...?), it's a good read.

DaimlerChrysler’s SMART division not doing well.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news.

Daimler-Chrysler, which manufactures the very chic SMART cars, posted some dodgy 1q earnings today. The bad news is that the SMART division (smart GmbH) appears to be struggling.

The press release doesn't say much:

Stuttgart/Auburn Hills, 04/28/2005 - First-quarter unit sales decreased by 7% to 247,000 vehicles, while revenues were 11% lower at 10.4 billion euros. The operating loss of 954 million euros (Q1 2004: 639 million euros) was affected by expenses of 800 million euros relating to the realignment of the smart business unit. At smart there was an operating loss from ongoing business activities.

...nor does this (subscriber-only) WSJ story:

Mercedes's results are also burdened by Smart, a unit of the division that has been losing money since it started churning out its colorful, two-passenger cars in 1998. DaimlerChrysler earlier this month announced a restructuring of Smart that includes a reduction of the unit's model line and the canceled development of a diminutive sport-utility vehicle. The restructuring is expected to cost DaimlerChrysler as much as €1.2 billion this year, the company has said.

More below the jump.

Umbra on whether to eco-retrofit an old car

My husband is an environmentalist. He wants one of the new alternative-fuel cars, but I have a dream to surprise him for his birthday with a 1970 muscle car (a Malibu or something like that) from his youth, which I would retrofit with a biodiesel or natural-gas engine. My questions are: 1. Should I put […]

Men pollute so they can take over the world

Men: Can't live with them. Can't overpopulate without them.

A new study of Swedish fishermen suggests that pollution alters the ratio of chromosomes in sperm. But the news isn't half-bad: those in the study -- which focused on exposure to POPs, or persistent organochlorine pollutants -- harbored more Y chromosomes than X. Which means, if any of them settle down with a Swedish fisherlass, they might just create more boys than girls.

Dudes, we're on to you. Pollute this place with your "mercury's good for you!" logic and feeble regulations. Mess with your own sperm. Then make more of you to inherit the earth.

Hell, you can have it.

You Just Keep on Pushing My Love Over the Borderline

Former Iron Curtain may become continent-spanning greenbelt The fabled Iron Curtain that separated Western Europe from the communist countries of Eastern Europe was once one of the most dangerous places on earth. But in the post-Cold War era, a coalition of conservation and community-development groups has ambitious plans to transform it into a string of […]

Access of Evil

Gas drilling limited by equipment, workers — not access to federal land To hear the Bush administration tell it, domestic energy production is limited by lack of access to federal lands. Vice President Dick Cheney is galled that “large parts of the Rocky Mountain West are off-limits.” But according to government records, industry experts, and […]

Strongarm of the Law

Supreme Court rules that pesticide makers are liable for damages The U.S. Supreme Court has acted to restore a measure of sanity to the world of pesticides and weed-killers. In the 1990s, lawyers for big chemical companies pushed a novel interpretation of the 1972 federal law governing pesticides: By submitting pesticides for approval by the […]

Louisiana environmental advocate forced out of job by state attorney general

After scoping out an ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge last month, Willie Fontenot, a community liaison officer for the Louisiana attorney general’s office for 27 years, found himself faced with the option of forced retirement or getting the boot. A longtime environmental-justice advocate, Fontenot had been accompanying a group of master’s students from Antioch New […]

Woodpecker long thought extinct shows back up!

Chris Mooney is following the breaking story of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. Everyone thought it was extinct, but apparently one has been spotted (grainy video here). Cool!

Start here and keep scrolling.