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An in-depth response to “The Death of Environmentalism”

In December 2004, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope distributed this response to the essay “The Death of Environmentalism.” Get the backstory here. There Is Something Different About Global Warming Dear Environmental Grant-Maker: You may have recently received a memorandum entitled “The Death of Environmentalism” by Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus. Carl Pope. I was […]

Where the environmental movement can and should go from here

Adam Werbach presented this speech at the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco on Dec. 8, 2004. Further discussion of the issues he raises can be found on 3Nov.com. And read more on the debate over environmentalism’s prospects here. Adam Werbach. I am here to perform an autopsy. Autopsies begin with these words. Hic locus est […]

Umbra on which plastics to avoid

Dear Umbra, Since you only mention #1 plastics as being safe, I’m assuming I should throw out the #4 I just purchased? SylviaAnn Arbor, Mich. Dearest Sylvia, I confused and frightened and annoyed many of you on the issues of food and plastic. I’m sorry — #4 is OK, as are #2 and #5. Honestly, […]

Howl’s About That?

Enviros celebrate 10th anniversary of wolf release Today marks the 10th anniversary of the reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park, an area from which they were eradicated by the 1920s. The transplant experiment, meant to help restore wolf populations protected under the Endangered Species Act, stirred strong feelings, both positive and negative, in 1995, […]

Please Pass the Hemp, Billy

DEA drops resistance to hemp food products Hemp may be the new soy. Recently, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency quietly ended its attempts to ban hemp oil and sterilized industrial hemp seed in food products. (Yes, these products are taken from the Cannabis plant, but no, they won’t even get your little brother high.) “It’s […]

And to Sprawl a Good Night

Urban sprawl imperils species, report says If you needed one more reason to hate urban sprawl, we’re happy to help: It’s imperiling species left and right. According to a report by the National Wildlife Federation, Smart Growth America, and NatureServe, the next 25 years will see more than 22,000 square miles* of habitat lost to […]

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.