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Robyn Griggs Lawrence, editor of Natural Home & Garden magazine, answers questions

Robyn Griggs Lawrence. What’s your job title? Editor in chief, Natural Home & Garden magazine. How does it relate to the environment? Working under the tagline “Living Green, Living Well,” our magazine’s mission is to show mainstream America that living lightly doesn’t mean giving up a thing — that they don’t have to go live […]

So Peaceful

NYT-fest

My home computer is completely on the fritz, so I can't do my usual slavish weekend work (darn it). However, let me echo ironmanbretta's comment that everyone should browse the New York Times op-ed page. There's this piece by Beyond Oil author Ken Deffeyes, which points out that the debate over the Arctic Refuge is somewhat beside the point, since global oil production is going to start declining soon anyway, regardless. There's this piece by Thomas Homer-Dixon and Julio Friedmann, which urges exploration of "a combination of gasified coal plants and geologic storage." There's this piece by Oliver Sacks on how much he hearts his hybrid (mentioned by Chris the other day). And of course, as mentioned by Geoff below, there's this piece by Tom Friedman, revisiting his "geo-green" schtick. (Watch for an interview with Friedman in the pages of Grist in coming weeks.)

What should we take from all these? If nothing else, it appears that conventional wisdom is finally coming around to the notion that the age of oil is ending. Bush's short-sighted energy policy -- which is hurting this country's security, its economy, and its reputation -- is finally penetrating the Beltway Bubble's consciousness. Despite my occasional contempt for the cozy Beltway politico-media scene, this is an unambiguously good thing. Now it remains for the green movement to be smart about this, positioning themselves as ahead of the curve rather than on the sidelines shouting "not enough! not enough!" More on that later.

Geo-green, geo-green, geo-green

Tom Friedman wrote another geo-green column this weekend, presumably hoping that repetition begets action. The piece does not cover new ground for Friedman or the argument but is useful for keeping the issue on the front burner. It is both fitting but also a bit concerning that he twice quotes Peter Schwartz, the scenario writer (and occasional Hollywood script consultant) behind the Pentagon climate change report that got so much attention after mentioned in Fortune.

Clean-car dominoes

Clean-car dominoes keep falling. This week, it's Canada, with Oregon next.

On Wednesday, word came that the Canadian government and the big automakers have signed an agreement to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from new vehicles. The previously announced target of a 25 percent reduction in new-car emissions by 2010 has apparently been nixed. In its place is a specified number of tons of gases that automakers must keep out of the atmosphere through improvements to new cars, as MacLeans reports.

The number of tons, according to one report, is roughly equal to the old 25-percent target. Unfortunately, that's a hard claim to assess, because the details of the agreement are still secret.

The 25-percent target has always been important, and ambitious--more ambitious than the 30-percent emissions reduction written into California's clean-car standards because the latter standard has a deadline of 2016. The year 2010 is just around the corner in a gigantic industry that takes many months to usher new technologies into mass production. So even if this agreement turns out to be watered down, it's likely that it at least matches the California standard.

An InterActivist corrects the record and devoted readers ladle on the love — some of them, anyway

  Re: It All Comes Out in the Walsh Dear Editor: I would like to set the record straight. Bill Walsh identified the American Chemical Society as one of 1,000 “trade associations defending the rights of polluters.” Walsh said he has a collection of “voodoo dolls” representing the “flacks” for these associations and after reading […]

He Shoots Horses, Doesn’t He?

Trophy-hunting enthusiast appointed to head Fish and Wildlife Service Nothing gives one an appreciation for the challenges facing endangered species like, uh, hunting and killing said species. With that verity in mind, the Bush administration has appointed Matthew Hogan as interim head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Director Steve Williams resigned earlier this […]

Funny, but Not Baja Funny

Gray whales in Baja sanctuary threatened by development Five years ago, conservationists in Baja Mexico won a difficult battle to prevent a salt production plant from setting up shop near the San Ignacio Lagoon, a winter refuge for migrating California gray whales. But the Mexican government’s shift toward industrialization has some local residents gearing up […]

Conquered in Concord

New Hampshire Senate approves stricter mercury rules than feds At risk of getting stuck with a number of toxic mercury hotspots under the Bush administration’s new mercury cap-and-trade rule, New Hampshire’s Senate approved a bill yesterday to adopt rules more stringent than the feds’ and to ban the state’s two coal-fired power plants from trading […]

Critics question World Bank’s role as carbon trader, fossil-fuel funder

For as long as it’s been around, the World Bank has been prone to mission creep. Established 60 years ago to rebuild war-torn Europe, it morphed into an institution whose raison d’etre was to help developing countries advance, then refined its focus on poverty alleviation and sustainable development in the 1980s and ’90s. During that […]