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TIME columnist feels safe endorsing energy independence now that the cool kids are on board.

Let me be honest: I loath Joe Klein. To me he represents everything that's wrong with the smug, self-satisfied, head-up-its-ass D.C. media establishment. Beltway opinion-makers live in a bizarre bubble of "conventional wisdom" that consists almost entirely of what they tell each other at cocktail parties and on Sunday-morning cable shows. They are consistently, grossly, embarrassingly manipulated by those in power -- the very ones they're supposed to be afflicting.

You couldn't find a better example than Klein's current op-ed in TIME.

The World Less Traveled

Greens shun cheap air travel, point to impacts of industry A small but growing number of eco-conscious Brits are turning away from cheap airfares and looking to other means of transport or forgoing planned vacations altogether in hopes of reducing their personal environmental footprints. Overall, aircraft-related carbon-dioxide emissions make up some 5 percent of Britain’s […]

Play Economisty for Me

U.K.-based weekly Economist exhaustively analyzes global oil situation Market-lovin’ U.K. weekly The Economist has a cover package on oil this week. The major topic, of course, is the recent spike in oil prices. The grumpy Economist editors are bothered by what they consider some pervasive myths. First, “energy independence” is a chimera as long as […]

Ford Imperfect

Ford, G.M. sales down as buyers spurn SUVs and look for fuel efficiency Detroit automakers Ford and G.M. are cursing Prius drivers right about now. Sales figures and market share for both companies were down in April, as car buyers turned their fickle affections from gas-gulping SUVs to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles — specifically those […]

Plus Ca (Climate) Change …

Ancient empires crushed by changing climate — not that you should worry Elizabeth Kolbert continues her exploration of climate change in the second of a three-part series in The New Yorker. She begins with a look at the world’s first great empire, founded 4,300 years ago on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. […]

Umbra on channeling gray water to the garden

Dear Umbra, As part of my water-conservation strategy, I’d like to reuse the rinse water from my laundry machine to water the native plants, many of them edible, in my yard. I’ve heard concerns about the soap (biodegradable) damaging the plants. There are also potentially some regulatory hurdles involved. Can you shed some light on […]

Grist wins Webby Award.

So, a few weeks ago we mentioned that Grist was up for a Webby Award in the magazine category. Well, if you haven't heard, Grist is the People's Voice winner! Woo-hoo!

While our friends at AlterNet.org won the Webby Award, Grist got the vote of the people, which is what really matters. (What does a panel of judges know anyhoo?)

Needless to say, everyone at Grist appreciates all who supported us.

Deathy death death blah blah

The Week, the newsweekly you've never heard of, briefly covers the hoo-hah over environmentalism's doldrums.

Oil spills: peachy

I know it's two years old, but it's not every day you stumble across a defense of oil spills, so I thought I'd share it. Here's the conclusion:

The truth is, oil spills cause no long-term damage. Spills do not kill off animal species. The chance of oil spills is greatly reduced by new technology. There is no reason not to drill for oil anywhere. Now you know the truth. Go out and educate America.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go!

At least one member of Congress realizes the size of the problem.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Maryland) gave a series of speeches about peak oil on the floor of the House of Representatives. Mike Millikin of Green Car Congress -- who is, ahem, this week's Grist InterActivist -- discussed them here and here. Now (via Jeff), Global Public Media has an interview with Bartlett. It's absolutely fascinating -- the guy has obviously thought about and studied the issue extensively. It's rare to hear frank talk like this from a public official:

If we're going to get through this crisis period without an awful lot of pain, we're going to have to have the equivalent of a Manhattan-like Project. We're going to have to challenge, not just the American people, but the people of the world because the first thing we have to do is to have an enormously conservation effort so that we buy time. ... Not only do we need to meet the demands of our economies, we need to have a surplus of energy to invest in the renewables, an investment we have got to make. If we just let the clock run down we are going to face a very uncertain future with very traumatic dislocations. We should've started 25 years ago ... Putting it off is going to make it just more and more painful and more expensive.

Yup. Anyway, read the whole thing.

(If this were a Daily Grist story, I would title it "Roscoe Peak Oil Train." Lucky for you it's not.)

Update [2005-5-3 14:21:42 by Dave Roberts]: OMG, and I just noticed this bit. When he's asked what his colleagues' reaction has been to his speeches, he says:

They’d like to know more about it. It’s not something that they even thought about before. Most people have assumed, I have no idea why you would assume that, that oil is forever.

"Most people," perhaps, but the leaders of our country? Truly we are in good hands, no?