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Umbra on bathroom mold

Dear Umbra, Do you have any tips on dealing with the nasty black mold that appears in bathrooms without dousing it in highly toxic chemicals? Kirsten Dearest Kirsten, I read that hydrogen peroxide would work, so I tried it for you in the Grist Test Bathroom. The recommendation was to dilute the solution in a […]

Solar Tower

I'm sure I'm the last kid on the ecoblogospheric block to point to this, but in case anyone hasn't seen it yet: The massive Solar Tower project has found a home, in the Australian outback. If it really gets built -- and it's starting to look like it might just happen -- this thing will truly be one of the wonders of the world. For one thing, at 3,280 feet, it will be nearly double as tall as the world's current tallest structure, Canada's CN Tower. At the base of the hollow cylidrical tower will be 25,000 acres of solar "skirt." The air under the skirt is heated by the sun and rises naturally through the tower, powering 32 wind turbines inside it. It will generate as much power as a small nuclear reactor -- only it will be completely safe. The scale of the thing boggles the imagination. Check out this video artist's rendering (wmv file). Wow.

Brenda Way, artistic dance director, answers questions

Brenda Way. What work do you do? I founded ODC (originally the Oberlin Dance Collective) 35 years ago as a multidimensional arts organization — that is to say, not just for dance jocks. We moved to the Bay Area from Ohio and now own 33,000 square feet of dancing/teaching/performing space in San Francisco. My primary […]

Deathy death death

There's a little story in the Berkeleyan on a panel discussion of the "Death of Environmentalism." Shellenberger was there to defend it -- sounds like he got a pretty hard time:

Harte, who conducts research into the ecological impacts of climate change, objected primarily to the first half of the essay, "Environmentalism as a Special Interest." That section, in Harte's assessment, was "deficient in its logic" and "laden with what I would call postmodern gibberish" and "overly broad generalizations" about environmentalists. The authors, he added, provided "no analysis" of why Europe is moving aggressively to address global warming, while the United States is dragging its heels.

Norgaard took a dimmer view. "I didn't like Part 1 or Part 2," he said, adding that he found the entire critique "quite shallow." Norgaard, an "ecological economist," faulted the paper's authors for, among other things, bemoaning the movement's alleged failure to frame the issue in moral terms while relying heavily on polling data and focus groups in support of their arguments.

Gelobter was a bit more charitable, observing that "as a movement-building piece," at least, "the report has a lot going for it." Nonetheless, he was sharply critical of the authors' "denial" of activists who have gone before, and their refusal to build on earlier movement successes. "They are obsessed in their piece with ancestors," he said, "the better to kill them, I think."

Gelobter also took issue with the authors' methodology, which focused on interviews with some two dozen environmentalists from large, mainstream organizations. But those leaders, he said, do not reflect the full spectrum of environmental activists.

Update [2005-2-28 15:19:13 by Dave Roberts]: By the way, I take great umbrage to Grist being referred to as "the backwoods of the online." At five years and counting, I think we qualify as the old growth of the online!

The Congo Line

Congo Basin loggers work toward responsible forest management Several logging companies in southeastern Cameroon have joined an initiative conservationists say could help save the rainforests of the Congo Basin, the second largest area of tropical rainforests in the world. The African logging firms are working toward independent certification as responsible foresters, restricting their work to […]

A Stall for Volunteers

U.S. blocks binding mercury treaty U.N.-brokered international talks on mercury-reduction plans wrapped up last week. Instead of the legally binding global treaty favored by the European Union, the result was a plan to curb mercury emissions through “voluntary partnerships” among member countries, international organizations, and industries. “Voluntary” being the buzzword closest to the Bush administration’s, […]

Sue It, Don’t Spray It

Landmark Agent Orange case goes to federal court Did U.S. chemical companies commit war crimes by producing toxic dioxin-laced herbicide — known as Agent Orange — that the U.S. military used to douse more than 2 million Vietnamese and that still lingers on in their environment and food chain? That’s the question at the heart […]

Where there’s smoke, there’s inaction

In a boost for clean air and public health, an international tobacco treaty went into effect yesterday. Signed by 168 nations and ratified by 57, the agreement addresses advertising, packaging, smuggling, and taxes. More than two-thirds of the ratifiers are developing nations -- which are expected to account for 70 percent of smoking-related deaths by 2020.

One country that has signed, but not not yet ratified, the pact is -- wait for it! -- the U.S. "This treaty will save millions of lives ... the U.S. is missing the boat," says Kathryn Mulvey, executive director of Corporate Accountability International. "As both the global tobacco treaty and the Kyoto Protocol take effect with the U.S. on the sidelines, we are calling on our government to join with the global community in prioritizing people's lives over the profits of giant corporations."

Best of luck with that.

Confirmation bias

Via Dave Pollard, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from author/cognitive scientist/philosopher/my hero Daniel Dennett, which every blogger, activist, or hell, reader of words should have tattooed on back of their typing hands:

Law of Needy Readers: On any important topic, we tend to have a rough idea of what we believe to be true, and when an author writes the words we want to read, we tend to fall for it, no matter how shoddy the arguments.

Pombo and mercury

So, last week, the GOP leadership of the House Resources Committee -- in particular, Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) -- released a report (PDF) claiming that mercury has not been linked to deleterious effects on human health, and that most mercury in the U.S. environment comes from natural sources.

The science overwhelmingly contradicts Pombo. Amanda touched on this in the latest Muckraker. Today, Chris Mooney delves further into the details, in this column and this follow-up on his blog. To summarize: A substantial portion of the mercury load in the U.S. environment comes from coal-fired power plants, and mercury stunts children's neurological development. (Mooney also points to a new study (PDF) claiming that mercury-driven diminishment of child IQ costs the U.S. some $8.7 billion in lost productivity every year.) Fetuses are particularly at risk, which is why dozens of states advise pregnant mothers to avoid several kinds of fish. To claim otherwise, Pombo has to distort research by the EPA and the National Academy of Sciences and draw heavily from industry and conservative think tanks.

It's hard to know what to say about this. It isn't a "values" issue like, say, stem cells or family planning. The modern right has distorted science on those topics plenty, but at least in those cases they are defending deeply held religious or moral views. At least there's some sort of principle involved, however risible the methods.

But there's no principle here. No principle, and no legitimate scientific doubt. It's simply an attempt by national legislators to cloud public debate on behalf of one of America's biggest polluters (and GOP contributors) -- at the expense of unborn children. I don't really go in for the overstatement that characterizes many public environmental campaigns, but this does seem a pretty clear case of choosing money over children's health. It isn't the first time, but it is particularly brazen and transparent.