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The Apple Dumping Gang

Enviros say Apple’s iPod isn’t green New legislation introduced in the House of Representatives last week would establish a consumer fee on computer and television purchases to fund a national electronics recycling program. But activists say the real answer to the “e-waste” problem is increased responsibility from manufacturers, and many are focusing their ire on […]

They’ve Got Huge, Sharp … They Can Leap About … Look at the Bones!

FBI suspects eco-terrorism in latest case of something bad happening Two months ago, eco-terrorists were suspected of starting fires that destroyed or damaged 26 homes under construction near sensitive wetlands in Maryland. Turns out there were no eco-terrorists involved. But those same non-involved eco-terrorists may have struck again! The latest victims are apartment complexes under […]

Cuts Like a Knife, but It Feels So Wrong

Details of environmental cuts in Bush’s budget emerge Now that the nation’s water is all cleaned up, the Bush administration has proposed sharply cutting a federal assistance program designed to help modernize aging sewer systems and prevent toxic runoff into streams and rivers — from $1.35 billion in 2004 to $730 million. And now that […]

They’re Not Kidding

Anxious over declining population, Italy pays citizens to procreate While many environmentalists fret about overpopulation, Italians are fretting over the opposite. Despite the stereotype of its massive Catholic clans, Italy actually has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, a population set to shrink by a third by 2050, and the world’s highest percentage […]

Politicized science at U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Speaking of Chris Mooney, he draws my attention to something that is sure to be hitting the news in a big way tomorrow: The Union of Concerned Scientists, in their words, "distributed a 42-question survey to more than 1,400 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologists, ecologists, botanists and other science professionals working in Ecological Services field offices across the country to obtain their perceptions of scientific integrity within the USFWS, as well as political interference, resources and morale." Despite explicit word from USFWS administrators that they were not permitted to answer, 30 percent of the scientists did.

Many reported political interference, unwillingness to properly use the Endangered Species Act, intimidation, and a lack of proper resources. You can read a summary and find links to the full questions and answers here .

Mooney has more on a particularly hated and feared administrator, Julie MacDonald.

Expect to see more about this in coming days.

The actual for-reals last Crichton post

Readers are well aware that I was not impressed by Crichton's book or his footnotes. In the Boston Globe, Chris Mooney draws attention to another group of unimpressed folks: the very scientists Crichton cites.

New Ford hybrid SUV

Ford recently announced their second hybrid SUV, the Mariner. What I'm saying is, when's the hybrid minivan coming? There's got to be a huge market, no? Take me, for instance. As the patriarch of a growing clan of resource-sucking, overpopulation-contributing children, a minivan looms large in my future. I'd love to be able to show-off my eco-credentials while porting around my clan and their inevitable sports gear, musical instruments, academic awards, etc.

My god, I think I lost half my remaining manhood just by writing that sentence.

Anyway, if you're curious about the Mariner, the place to find more, as with all matters green and automotive, is Green Car Congress.

Update [2005-2-9 12:27:47 by Dave Roberts]: Ah, have y'all heard of this site "google"? It's quite nifty. Anyway, turns out there's already a hybrid minivan on the Japanese market (shocking, I know), and according to HybridCars.com, a hybrid Toyota Sienna may be headed for the U.S. market as early as 2007. Good to know Japanese automakers continue to kick our asses in this department.

Make all U.S. farming organic?

The Land Institute runs a program call the Prairie Writer's Circle, which brings together writers who cover sustainability issues in agriculture (and related issues). They distribute their op-eds free of charge. We get them frequently, and I always like them, but we rarely have the space or resources to get them up on the site.

However! Thanks the magic of blogitude, I shall start running the ones I like here. To kick it off, here's an essay about how all -- that's right, all -- farming in the U.S. should go organic within 10 years.

Jared Diamond’s Collapse traces the fates of societies to their treatment of the environment

I will always think of Jared Diamond as the man who, for the better part of the late 1990s, somehow made the phrase "east-west axis of orientation" the most talked-about kind of orientation there was -- freshman, sexual, or otherwise. His 1997 Pulitzer Prize-winning book Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies began with a simple question -- "Why did Pizarro conquer the Incas and not the other way around?" -- and then managed to tell, over the course of only 400-odd pages, the history of why humanity has turned out the way it has. For most readers (and there were millions), Guns was their first exposure to theories of geographic determinism. To broadly simplify, Diamond's book posited that human populations on continents with a primarily east-west orientation benefited from a more consistent climate and therefore developed more quickly than those living on continents with a north-south orientation. It had the kind of paradigm-shifting impact that happens with a book only once every few years, and it turned Diamond -- a professor of geography at UCLA -- into something of a rock star.

Libby, Libby, Libby on the Liable, Liable, Liable

W. R. Grace faces stiff federal charges over asbestos at Montana mine Mining company W. R. Grace & Co. was formally charged yesterday with knowingly exposing mine employees and residents of Libby, Mont., to asbestos and concealing evidence about its potentially dangerous health effects. The indictment marks the closing chapter of what U.S. Attorney Bill […]