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Red and Blue Make … Green?

New York announces historic power-plant agreement Yesterday, New York Gov. George Pataki (R) and Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (D), whose ambition to replace Pataki is no secret, stood amicably side by side to make a joint announcement. If that news wasn’t shocking enough in itself, what the Dynamic Bipartisan Duo announced was pretty impressive too: […]

The Fabulous Baker Boy

President to bake up crisp decisions, answer environmental issue In an interview with The Wall Street Journal — his first newspaper interview since winning re-election — President Bush pledged to, among other things, renew the push for his long-stalled energy bill and aggressively promote nuclear power, saying he looked forward to “making good, crisp, sound […]

Waste to energy

Folks in the U.S. tend to be convinced that technology will save us. Traditionally, environmentalism has opposed itself to this tendency, scolding that technology is, in fact, the source of all eco-evil. I would suggest that, while technology's record is, shall we say, mixed, this is the wrong way to go, both substantively and politically. More on that subject later.

I certainly count myself a technological optimist, so I get excited about every story like this: Today, Treehugger gives the rundown on two new machines that make energy from waste. The first creates (brace yourself for some technical jargon) a really ginormously strong tornado that batters the waste into power. The second does something that even the Treehuggers don't pretend to understand -- "a thermal depolymerization process" -- to squish virtually any carbon-based waste into three products: "high-quality oil, clean-burning gas, and purified minerals that can be used as fuels, fertilizers, or specialty chemicals for manufacturing." They're pretty psyched about it:

That sounds weird, but imagine this: If this thing works, most toxic waste problems would disappear--and so would imported oil. According to its manufacturers, if the U.S. were to convert its agricultural waste alone into oil and gas, according to Discover magazine, it would yield the energy equivalent of 4 billion barrels of oil annually. Four billion barrels! That's nearly as much as we import each year.

Yes, yes, it's still in development, might not pan out, might have unforseen side effects. But still: Neat.

Climate models

A favorite rhetorical tactic of global warming skeptics is to point out that climate scientists use models, which they imply are less scientific than the hard data used by other disciplines. This is, on its face, dumb. Every scientific field uses data to develop models, uses models to predict future data, and where there are discrepancies modifies either the data collection methods the models (or both). Climate science does the same. There are, however, interesting and unique features of climate models, and the indispensable RealClimate offers a quick synopsis thereof. It's slightly technical, but good reading nonetheless.

How Stella Got Her Mangrove Back

Enviros push for green reconstruction in wake of tsunami As tsunami relief efforts continue and plans for rebuilding begin, enviros hope sensible ecological practices will be taken into consideration. World Wildlife Fund on Monday called for careful coastal planning as reconstruction efforts get underway, as well as an end to over-logging in the region and […]

Embargoing, Going …

Discovery of Cuban oil deposits raises hopes for eased restrictions With the recent hardening of U.S. trade policy toward Cuba, analysts are now speculating that one thing could help ease the restrictions: Oil, that is. Black gold. Texas tea. Two Canadian companies have discovered oil in Cuba’s waters off the Gulf of Mexico, announced President […]

Water, Water Everywh … Hey, Where’d the Water Go?

Agriculture needs to start conserving water, badly A new study by David Pimentel in the journal BioScience backs its call for greater agricultural water conservation with some disturbing statistics. Worldwide, agriculture uses some 70 percent of the freshwater supply. The ginormous Ogallala aquifer, which supplies water to a fifth of all irrigated land in the […]

Oh You NAS-ty Boys

NAS report on safe perchlorate levels creating controversy A National Academy of Sciences panel report on safe levels of perchlorate — an ingredient in rocket fuel, firecrackers, and road flares — in drinking water has some enviros up in arms. The report, released yesterday, suggests that levels of perchlorate about 20 times higher than the […]

Bloggy Style

Instead of yelling at us, yell at each other! Here at Grist HQ, we receive lots of letters from readers, more than we can possibly print in our Letters to the Editor section. We love hearing from you — but wouldn’t you like other readers to hear you as well? If only there were some […]

Priorities for a Healthy … zzz …

Via Jon Stahl I saw the launch of Priorities for a Healthy Washington, a coalition of Washington state enviro organizations. I looked over the site quickly and went on about my day -- it didn't make much of an impression.

Now Alex Steffen asks: Hold on, why can't enviros make a damn impression? The PHW site is business as usual, he says, "a great example of environmentalists once again describing the steak rather than selling the sizzle."

Check out the site, read Steffen's diagnosis and suggestions, and let us know what you think.