Latest Articles

African life spans, II

A couple days back I posted on an amazing graph of the drop-off of life spans in Africa. Bona fide Africa expert Ethan Zuckerman has a long post up, clarifying and expanding on the graph. It turns out that the graph is perhaps a tad misleading, as it chooses precisely those countries where AIDS has hit the hardest. Of course Ethan doesn't mean to minimize what is an epic tragedy, but he does provide a more balanced picture of what's happening on the continent. Give it a read.

Small farmers and organic

Via WC, a study by the International Fund for Agricultural Development concludes that organic farming offers farmers in developing countries higher earnings and a better standard of living. The higher earnings come from organic product being worth more (duh), and the better standard of living comes from the higher earnings and the not being poisoned with herbicides and pesticides.

I was looking around in there for some reason why the conclusions wouldn't transfer straightforwardly to small farmers in developed countries. The answer seems to lie mainly in transition costs -- since developing world farmers don't really use expensive technologies and chemicals anyway, it's a pretty easy jump to organic (the main impediment being certification and other paperwork).

But still. I'd like to see some sort of similar study done in the U.S. How long would it take for a small U.S. farmer (we still have a few right?) to make back the money he/she spends transitioning to organic? Presumably the data's out there somewhere, but as a rushed, overworked blogger, I think I'll just conclude by asking readers if they know where to find it. (It's called a bleg.)

If you mainstream it, they will come

I took two tidbits away from this interesting Clint Wilder piece on framing clean energy (via Sustainablog). Here's the first:

In opinion research conducted last year in Rhode Island, the Clean Energy States Alliance and marketing consultancy SmartPower found that the label of "clean" energy had a much more positive public reception than "green" (too political), "renewable" (too niche), or "alternative" (too much of an implication that its users must adopt a new lifestyle).

These kinds of things are small but important to know for everybody who writes or talks about environmental issues. Little bits of repetitive framing add up. For my part, I'm going to make a habit of using "clean energy" instead of the alternatives.

Here's the second:

But even when viewing clean energy as positive for the environment, the public was skeptical of its ability to replace fossil fuels.

...SmartPower ran a public information campaign, including TV ads narrated by actor Peter Gallagher spotlighting renewable-powered houses, hospitals, and factories with the tagline, "Clean energy: It's real. It's here. And it's working." The result? A thousand new customers switched to the local utility's green power option in 100 days, and the number of people who agreed that clean energy is as reliable as fossil fuels jumped from 40% to 51% in the same period.

That's a pretty extraordinary shift in opinion in response to one ad campaign.

I draw the same lesson from this that I drew from the news that 75% of people consider themselves "green shoppers" -- there's broad interest in green issues out there. Mainstream America is sniffing around at organic food and clean energy. Folks don't know if the stuff is ready for prime-time, and they're not yet willing to go out of their way (or pay lots more) to support it, but once they're convinced it's legitimate they are willing to take the leap. (See: Prius, Toyota)

There's a huge market waiting.

Polluter Actually Pays

Illinois power plants will spend half a billion on pollution controls A 1999 lawsuit against Illinois Power has ended in a proposed settlement of more than $520 million, most of which will go to installing new pollution controls. The suit charged that Illinois Power had violated the Clean Air Act by upgrading several plants without […]

Half a Bridge Over Troubled Water

EPA proposes stronger protections on lead in drinking water The U.S. EPA has proposed strengthening protections against lead in drinking water for the first time since 1991. The move comes in response to the recent brouhaha in the Washington, D.C., area, where residents were not informed of widespread lead contamination until years after it was […]

Oh You Nasty Soy

Brazil solves problem of illegal GM soy production by legalizing it In a victory for biotech conglomerates everywhere, lawmakers in Brazil last week lifted a ban on the growing of genetically modified crops in the country, and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to quickly sign the changes into law. Brazil is now […]

Cap Dancing

EPA skewed analysis in favor of cap-and-trade mercury regs, GAO says The U.S. EPA misrepresented the analysis of its plan to regulate mercury emissions from U.S. power plants, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office reported yesterday. The EPA’s proposal, released last year, explored two approaches to limiting emissions of the neurotoxin. The one largely favored by […]

CommonBits

Do check out CommonBits, a cool site set up by Grist friend Jeff Reifman to distribute alternative media files (videos, PDFs, etc.). You can download most stuff directly, or via bittorrent, and you can set up RSS feeds for a variety of different tags, to keep up on what's being posted. Great, great idea. I hope it takes off.

Bush EPA nominee Steve Johnson garners praise and sympathy

Stephen Johnson. Photo: Energy Star. The next chief of the Bush EPA wasn’t expected to have more than a dewdrop’s chance in hell of widespread acceptance in the disgruntled environmental community. So it came as a surprise on Friday when the president tapped respected scientist and 24-year EPA veteran Stephen Johnson to captain the agency, […]

The right question

I appreciate the sentiment that Jon expresses here. I'm sure he'd agree that there's no single "right question," so I guess we need to ask: Right for what purpose?