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O Brother, Where Wal-Mart Thou?

Environmental lawsuits stymie Wal-Mart’s attempts to colonize California Retail Brobdingnagian and perpetual defendant Wal-Mart, having carpeted much of the U.S. in Supercenters, has its sights set on one of its last potential growth markets in the country: California. But the Golden State has proved a stormy climate for the hungry giant; dozens of lawsuits have […]

Waste

On Energy Priorities, a short but interesting piece on France's struggles with nuclear waste. The good bit:

Every day, about ten shipping containers arrive on trucks at the Soulaines-Dhuys storage facility outside Troyes, in the province of Ardennes, 180 kilometers east of Paris. On board are barrels of waste that isn't radioactive enough to be stored at Marcoule. Every year, 15,000 cubic meters of waste contaminated with uranium, plutonium and tritium arrive here.

The 350-acre site is like an above-ground Yucca Mountain. Construction cranes hover above a hundred bunker-like cement blocks already filled with barrels encased in concrete. In 60 years, the cranes' job will be done, the 400-bunker facility will be full, and the entire facility will be covered with a concrete lid. What then?

The Soulaines-Dhuys site will enter a 300-year surveillance phase. After that, the plan is to observe the site until the stored waste loses its radioactivity.

The initial 300 years is just the beginning. Even moderately radioactive plutonium retains hazardous for 24,000 years. Skeptics wonder if future generations will follow the plan -- or even remember where the site is located.

Is it smart to rely on a form of energy the byproduct of which requires 24,000 years of constant, careful monitoring? Honestly.

Chew on this

I received a letter from freelance illustrator Kirk Werner in response to my post on gum pollution. Werner wrote to tell me about his latest work, a children's book about gum littering written by Sherry Garr and titled a Grist-worthy Gumfounded. The Gumfounded website offers some peeks into the book and the main character Tia, who steps in gum and begins sticking to all types of litter, which she drags all the way to school. The duo is also planning to add books on air pollution and water conservation to the Tia series.

Eco-label watchdog Urvashi Rangan answers questions

Urvashi Rangan. What work do you do? I’m an environmental-health scientist and policy analyst at Consumers Union. I also manage two public-education websites. Consumers Union also publishes Consumer Reports magazine, and I do dip into the testing and publishing side of the organization, but my work is mostly on the public service, technical policy, and […]

A truly green house

This news bit is a little late, but still worth noting: Last month, an independent team made up of designers from Seattle architecture/design firm Mithun won first place in an international sustainable housing competition in Roanoke, Virginia, with their design for a house powered by--of all things--spinach. The house (the design is pictured at left) will be built this summer in Roanoke, along with other contest winners.

The C2C Home Competition, which drew 625 entries from 41 countries, was inspired by William McDonough and Michael Braungart's work on cradle-to-cradle design principles. They ask designers to go beyond pollution prevention to creating objects and processes that nourish and replenish our communities, using materials that can be recycled indefinitely.

The team's house takes energy from the sun and uses spinach protein sandwiched between glass to generate electricity for the entire neighborhood, turning the house into a supplier rather than a consumer--a house that acts more like a tree than like a machine.

Umbra on having kids, revisited

Dear Umbra, What do you feel is the one issue of personal responsibility regarding the environment that people ignore the most? VaughnJackson, Tenn. Dearest Vaughn, Reproduction. But what can you do? As I said the other time I touched this topic with a 10-foot pole, we don’t make childbearing choices based on politics. If we […]

The real meaning of “roadless”

While shilling for drilling during last week's Senate debate over the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) claimed that oil development would have a negligible effect on the area: "When we talk about the roadless areas we have available for exploration, we mean it. We do mean that we are going to put down an ice road that will disappear when the summer comes."

Bizarrely, as Felicity Barringer of The New York Times points out, roadless might not mean what you think it means.  

"[T]he term 'roadless' does not mean an absence of roads," Interior Department officials wrote in a recent environmental impact statement about drilling in another region of Alaska. "Rather, it indicates an attempt to minimize the construction of permanent roads."

The sheer inventiveness of the Bushies' Orwellian contortions is awe-inspiring.

An open letter to Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska

Dear Sen. Stevens, This week you got your wish: a 51 to 49 vote against the Cantwell amendment and in favor of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Caribou in the Arctic Refuge. Photo: Ken Whitten, Wilderness Society. The crude minds have spoken. Finally. You told your colleagues and anyone else who would listen […]

Response to “Death”: Part V

Today is Part V of Ken Ward's response to "The Death of Environmentalism," in which he concludes by laying out concrete steps the movement could take to mount an appropriate response to the danger of global warming. It's a bold strategy -- curious to hear what readers think of it.

Don't forget to read Part I, Part II, Part III, and Part IV.

Californication

Washington state House OKs bill adopting California auto-emissions rule The Washington state House this week passed a bill calling for adoption of California’s strict auto-emissions rules. If the Senate follows suit and the governor signs off, Washington would follow in the footsteps of six other states that have opted to follow California rules instead of […]