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This is what counts as tangible these days?

Another essay on the Death Stuff, by Mike Lee of the San Diego Union-Tribune. It's a reasonable summation, without much new. This bit is amusing, though:

But Grist.org recently reported one of the most tangible results of all the questions. The online magazine said several national environmental groups are paying for a high-level political strategist to help them rethink their message and methods.

If Mike had read the piece itself, I'm not sure he would have used the phrase "tangible results."

Two articles on Slate, one substantive, one funny — read the funny one.

Slate is running a piece by Paul Sabin on the Death Stuff. There's not much new there, but it links to us, so I'm linkin' back.

Much juicier is their hilarious article up about the celeb/green/media stuff we covered here, particularly Cameron Diaz's Trippin'. I must say, mocking celebrities is cheap and easy and kind of pointless.

But it's still pretty fun:

Indigenous British Columbia activists battle Weyerhaeuser

A note from Gristmill reader Japhet has prodded me to write about something that's been on my to-do list for weeks: There's a pretty amazing fight going down in a far-off corner of British Columbia. On the north coast, native residents of Haida Gwaii have been battling the provincial government over the old-growth forests on the islands -- blockading roads, seizing wood, and the like. It is, as Japhet says, a "collision of big business [namely Weyerhaeuser], indigenous people and government. Not much space left in that room." Indeed.

For background, read this story and this story. For the latest details, check the Rainforest Action Network blog (which Japhet runs), and also read these three posts by Eric on the Cascadia Scorecard blog. And there's always the Queen Charlotte Islands Observer, which is covering this quite a bit.

Go, Go, Gadgets

Green gadgets and a hydrogen-powered rock band are getting noticed In the past 35 years, there’s been no shortage of inventive inventions aimed at reducing eco-footprints; we’ve come a long way from the old brick-in-the-toilet trick. Today’s new refrigerators use about a third of the power as ones sold 30 years ago, and the U.S. […]

Is That a Fat Lady We Hear Singing?

The era of cheap oil is coming to an end soon; duck! Cheap oil is running out. A report from the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Naval Petroleum and Oil Shale Reserves puts the problem in stark terms: “The disparity between increasing production and declining discoveries can only have one outcome: a practical supply limit […]

Former journalist Stephanie Roth is battling against a gold mine in Romania

Stephanie Danielle Roth. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. The Apuseni Mountains of west-central Romania are rich in gold, iron, and history. The area’s gold once supplied the Roman Empire, and it is home to Rosia Montana, the country’s oldest documented mining settlement. But this past is threatened by the present: five years ago, the Romanian government […]

Umbra on the climate-change literacy of Umbra readers

Dearest Readers, Happy Earth Day. I have mixed feelings as I look forward to the planet’s special holiday tomorrow. Happiness on the occasion of anniversaries: Grist (six years), me at Grist (three years), Earth Day (35 years). Sadness, for this column shall be my last edited by my august editor, and we are having an […]

What the warming world needs now is art, sweet art

Here’s the paradox: If the scientists are right, we’re living through the biggest thing that’s happened since human civilization emerged. One species, ours, has by itself in the course of a couple of generations managed to powerfully raise the temperature of an entire planet, to knock its most basic systems out of kilter. But oddly, though […]

From the Center for American Progress

The House may vote on the Energy Bill today. As I keep saying, the bill is a real monstrosity, one that encapsulates, as the Center for American Progress puts it, "Everything That's Wrong with Congress in One Bill." Read their wrap-up. And weep.

(Also, don't miss this site.)

Op-ed by editor Chip Giller debunks

Looky here: Grist editor Chip Giller has an op-ed in today's Boston Globe.

The piece approaches the "Death of Environmentalism" debate from a new, hopeful angle. It argues that environmentalism as a narrowly focused D.C. lobby might be struggling, but across the country, a conviction that sustainability is integral to our quality of life and our economic competitiveness is very much on the rise.

OK, that sounds kinda dense, but the piece is actually quite snappy. Really!