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Babes in EV-land

Last night on NPR (she sayeth, firmly establishing her nerd credentials), I heard a story about protests intended to save GM's electric car, the EV-1. About 80 of the cars have been sitting on GM's lot, destined for the scrap heap. The highlight of the civil unrest yesterday seems to have been the arrest of "Baywatch" actress Alexandra Paul, who intoned in that screechy celebrity way, "This is about clean air."

Apparently these protests have been going on for a couple of months. But the GM flak made a reasonable-sounding claim: there wasn't all that much demand for EVs, and the industry is putting its energy into more promising technologies like hydrogen.

I'm all in favor of clean cars. But without knowing all the intricacies of EV history, I'm wondering if GM might have a point. Sometimes prototypes just suck.

Green chic

Looks like Newsweek has caught on to green fashion. Nothing groundbreaking in the story, but it's nice to know the trend has grown enough to cross big media's radar. Also see this story on Edun, the new socially conscious fashion line being started by U2 singer Bono and his wife.

Looks like hippies are on the outs, and the smartly-dressed green is in. Sorry hippies! Feel free to protest your own obsolescence in comments.

Peak oil

A nice "Peak Oil" primer on Treehugger.

See also this collection of oily links from Dave Pollard.

Take action — well, okay, write a letter to your Congressfolk — about the Arctic Refuge

Tomorrow the Senate will likely vote on the budget resolution and the Cantwell amendment, which would keep ANWR Arctic Refuge drilling out of it. Via the Wilderness Society, you can urge your senator to vote against it, and your representative to keep the House budget resolution free of such nonsense.

Related stuff over on Cascadia -- particularly an interesting bit on the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

Farm subsidies, or, I told you so

Last month, when Bush first released his 2006 budget and made a big show of saying he would cut farm subsidies (so brave! so fiscally conservative!), I called bullshit on it. One theory going around was that in cutting the USDA's budget, Bush knew that powerful backers would preserve farm subsidies, and what would end up getting the ax? Food stamps.

Over at Tapped, Sam Rosenfeld finds evidence that this is exactly what's happening, from the Congressional Quarterly (not online) and this AP story. Read it and weep puke:

Senior Republicans in both the House and Senate are open to small reductions in farm subsidies, but they adamantly oppose the deep cuts sought by Bush to hold down future federal deficits.

...

Instead, Republican committee chairmen are looking to carve savings from nutrition and land conservation programs that are also run by the Agriculture Department. The government is projected to spend $52 billion this year on nutrition programs like food stamps, school lunches and special aid to low-income pregnant women and children. Farm subsidies will total less than half that, $24 billion.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said the $36 billion food stamp program is a good place to look for savings.

"There's not the waste, fraud and abuse in food stamps that we used to see. ... That number is down to a little over 6 percent now," he said. "But there is a way, just by utilizing the president's numbers, that we can come up with a significant number there."

Taking food out of the mouths of low-income pregnant women and children to preserve corporate welfare for millionaires. It warms the heart.

The Death of Something Other Than Environmentalism

Monarch butterfly populations see sharp decline this season Cold, wet weather in the U.S., illegal deforestation in Mexico, and strong herbicides used on genetically altered crops in the U.S. and Canada are, warn scientists, threatening the survival of the monarch butterfly. Researchers say the number of monarchs that made it to their forested, hilly wintering […]

You Published Kenny!

Activist Ken Ward opines on what the green movement really needs Gristmill — Grist‘s leafy green blog — this week is publishing a five-part response by longtime green activist Ken Ward to the essay “The Death of Environmentalism.” He starts out by agreeing with aspects of its diagnosis, but later this week he’ll be diverging […]

Ichi, Ni, Son!

Japanese town to pay cash to women who bear third child Even as world population balloons (6,424,599,962 and counting), some countries that have been experiencing declining birthrates, such as Italy and Japan, are worried — and not just about loneliness. The elderly worry new generations will be too small to support them, and the business […]

Cap and Betrayed

Bush administration releases weak mercury rules The U.S. EPA is releasing its plan to reduce mercury emissions today, and even jaded environmentalists are appalled. “This is … the most dangerous, dishonest, and illegal air-pollution rule I have ever seen come out of the agency,” said ex-EPA official and Natural Resources Defense Council attorney John Walke. […]

Dramatizing the “death” of environmentalism doesn’t help urban people of color, or anyone else

“Death” is such a harsh term — can’t we say “transition to a happier place”? Adrienne Maree Brown. Photo: Sophia Wallace. Or, how else can I put this … You don’t have to fall out of the tree. Just climb down and join us on the ground. Let’s talk. If you work on environmental issues, […]