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Post No Bills

Eco-activists arrested for protesting near bank chief’s home Three activists with the Rainforest Action Network were arrested and fined earlier this month after posting signs on telephone poles and trees near the home of J.P. Morgan Chase CEO William Harrison. Designed to look like Old West “wanted” posters, the fliers read “Wanted — William ‘Billy […]

Global Spillage

Pollution from around the globe taints U.S. air and water Even as battles rage in Washington, D.C., over controlling air pollution from domestic sources, dirty emissions from overseas are complicating the problem. Some 30 percent of the ozone in the U.S. may be drifting in from other countries, says NOAA scientist David Parrish. Dust from […]

Things to Do in Denver When You’re Ill

Newmont Mining fights off lawsuit over mercury pollution in Peru Continuing its energetic pursuit of the Worst Global Corporate Citizen Award, Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. is headed into legal battle with Peruvian peasants suffering long-term health consequences from mercury contamination around one of the company’s gold mines. In June of 2000, a truck carrying canisters […]

Response to “Death”: Part I

We're going to try a little experiment here. Recently we received a response to "The Death of Environmentalism" from longtime green activist Ken Ward. We're going to publish it here in the blog, in sections -- one section a day, throughout the week.

In today's introduction, Ken agrees with The Reapers about the problems facing the green movement, but calls their proposed solution "foolishness." Your responses are welcome in comments.

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

Norton and the 1002 — I mean the Arctic Refuge

In her New York Times op-ed ballyhooing the Bushies' plans to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Gale Norton uses an interesting new tactic.  

I'm not talking about arguing that the drilling footprint would be small. (Though she's quite crafty about making that claim, noting that "the world of Arctic energy exploration in the 21st century ... is as different from what oil exploration used to be as the compact supercomputers of today are different from the huge vacuum tube computers of the 1950s. Through the use of advanced technology, we have learned not only to get access to oil and gas reserves in Arctic environments but also to protect their ecosystems and wildlife.")

Rather, I mean her repeated reference to the "1002 area," which she describes as "a sliver" of the refuge. Some enviros get pissed when the refuge is referred to as ANWR, believing that the acronym depersonalizes it and strips it of evocative power. (If you can't manage to get out all four words, they say, shorten it to Arctic Refuge.) The administration, in referring to the tract where drilling would take place as the "1002 area," sucks even more life from it. Really, how riled up are the masses going to get about protecting a four-digit sliver?  

Norton manages to squeeze five mentions of "1002" into a brief 650-word op-ed. This is just the beginning of a new admin framing strategy. Expect lots more 1002 in the future.

(Media Matters for America, in a post from earlier this month, refutes some of the refuge-related arguments put forth by Norton, other admin officials, and their cronies at Fox News.)

Author and oil-spill expert Riki Ott answers questions

Riki Ott. What work do you do? What’s your job title? For the past seven years — 1998 to 2004 — I researched and wrote a book, Sound Truth and Corporate Myth$: The Legacy of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Now I’m an author/activist/scientist on book tour. Titles: Well, I have been bestowed numerous titles […]

Umbra on hybrids vs. veggie-oil cars

Dear Umbra, I currently drive a 2002 Toyota Prius that gets about 40 to 42 miles per gallon on the highway, which is where most of my driving takes place. However, I’ve recently become enamored with biodiesel vehicles, and specifically with straight vegetable oil (SVO) vehicles. I’m interested in investing in an SVO system fueled […]

Get your assessment

Get a sneak peek at the massive Millennium Ecosystem Assessment before its official launch on March 30 in nine cities around the world. Billed as the most comprehensive assessment ever of the world's ecosystems and the impacts of those ecosystems on human health, the four-year study was written by 1,300 experts from 95 countries with another 900 serving as editors and reviewers. The hope is that like the consensus-driven Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the pains taken at inclusive and comprehensive scientific assessment will bring more political as well as scientific heft to the conclusions.  With the report embargoed until its release March 30, it is hard to say more. But there is something for everyone in this effort.

An open letter to Nicholas Kristof

Nic,

Look, I think it's a great thing that the environmental movement is taking a hard look at itself, and I'm as critical of some of its tactics and rhetoric as anybody. But your latest op-ed is a lazy, risible piece of shit.

Be Cool — eventually

I saw Be Cool last night. It's the sequel to Get Shorty, and as you would expect, it's not nearly as good. But there are enough spirited, funny moments -- mainly involving bit characters played by The Rock and Andre 3000 -- to make it worth the price of admission. Barely.

One of the running jokes in Get Shorty was that Chili Palmer (apparently the only character John Travolta plays well) got stuck with a minivan. After he becomes a successful movie producer, and thus an arbiter of cool, everyone in Hollywood starts driving minivans.

The jokes is basically repeated in Be Cool, except this time he gets stuck with a Honda Insight (guess Honda outbid Toyota for product placement).

It's obvious why the minivan is funny -- it's associated with soccer moms and suburban squares. But it's worth pondering why the hybrid is funny.