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Shrinkage

A couple weeks ago, Chip worried about worries about shrinking populations. Specifically, he worried that countries with shrinking populations -- or in China's case, shrinking proportions of males to females -- will try to stimulate procreation (hey, get your mind out of the gutter), which makes an enviro's spidey-sense tingle. He wished that someone would make the argument that a declining population is not necessarily a bad thing, economically speaking. Today in the Christian Science Monitor, David R. Francis gives it a brief shot.

Some random thoughts on population below the break.

Mad about saffron

This weekend, after decades of planning, Christo opens a massive installation in Central Park. The Bulgarian-born "environmental artist," best known for wrapping Berlin's Reichstag in 1995, has draped 7,500 16-foot-tall structures in saffron-colored fabric to create The Gates. New York officials originally rejected the artist's plans in 1980 due in part to environmental concerns. So he modified the structures to sit on the pavement instead of in the soil, pledged to avoid paths with low-hanging branches, and shifted the two-week event from fall to comparatively quiet winter. Its materials -- including 5,290 tons of steel and more than 1 million square feet of fabric -- will be recycled, and proceeds from related merchandise will be donated to Nurture New York's Nature. Hundreds of thousands of tourists are expected, and everyone seems to be on the bandwagon now, with nearby hotels offering binoculars in every room and serving saffron soup.

But do I have to like it?

More Verdopolis

More Verdopolis coverage over at Treehugger. We'll have some of our own up later today.

Update [2005-2-10 16:45:41 by Dave Roberts]: Still more, from Will Duggan, who was excited that businesses are finding good reasons to go green, but ends with this:

Inspiring two hours, yes, but corrosively depressing that there was no American business leader to match the vision, passion, and humanity on display.

A Granholm Don’t Come for Free

Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm shows D.C. Dems how to do it With Beltway Democrats in a tizzy trying to figure out how to appeal to the working class, and Beltway environmentalists in a tizzy trying to figure out how to appeal to Beltway Democrats, both groups might want to check out the State of the […]

DNA Check, Aisle Seven

Scientists begin project to catalog life with DNA barcodes Of an estimated 10 million plant and animal species on Earth, less than a fifth have been identified and named. That might change, however, with a new bar-coding initiative launched today, which aims to use snippets of genetic material to characterize all living organisms in a […]

Gene Hackmen

Open-source biotechnology boasts first big success Though some enviros are opposed to genetic engineering of any kind, other critics have a more specific complaint about biotechnology: that restrictive patents held by companies like Monsanto and Syngenta impede research and development into biotech applications that could help developing countries or smaller, more specialized crops in the […]

Why Do Fish & Wildlife Scientists Hate America?

Fish & Wildlife Service scientists report political pressure, distortion When two public-interest groups sent a survey on scientific integrity to 1,400 scientists at the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, agency administrators warned the scientists not to respond — not even in their personal time. Now that 414 of them have defied the warnings, it is […]

Wave power

There has been a flurry of stories about wave power recently, and I keep meaning to blog about some of them. Luckily, Jamais Cascio has provided a nice entrée, via discussion of a new report from the Electric Power Research Institute. Conclusion: wave power may yet sneak past wind and solar as the most promising renewable energy source.

Enviros join chorus against class-action bill, but measure still likely to pass

Will class-action plaintiffs still get their day in court? The Erin Brockoviches of America could have a much tougher time going after polluters if the Class Action Fairness Act — which the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to approve last week — is signed into law. The bill, which will be put to a full Senate […]

Sustainable building in China?

Check out this article in Metropolis about sustainable building in China. The country's Ministry of Construction has announced breathtakingly ambitious plans to reduce all buildings' energy use by 50% by 2010 and to use PV and other renewable energy technologies to power 80 million square meters of building space.

The article notes that, if implemented, the building program would be the most ambitious in world history.