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Top 100 science stories of 2004

Discover Magazine's January 2005 issue features a list of the 100 most important scientific discoveries and developments of 2004. The number one story? Global warming. Called "Turning Point," the magazine's three-page feature says that climate change evidence became overwhelming in 2004, and recalls many of the year's headlines, including Russia's signing of the Kyoto Protocol, the premiere of the blockbuster movie The Day After Tomorrow, and Schwarzenegger's vow to defend California's limits on CO2 emissions. It claims hopefully that "it's only a matter of time before the rising tide of evidence washes over the last islands of resistance in Washington." Well, I don't know about that, but greenies should feel heartened to know that a good number of environmental stories are represented in the top 100. Perhaps someone out there is listening.

Going local

The Bush Administration's plan to put greater control of National Forests into the hands of local forest rangers is provoking cries of outrage from the environmental movement and Democrats, as reported by many publications just before Christmas. I share the discontent but, unlike many of my mainstream environmental associates, I am attracted to one rather un-green reordering of public-lands governance. Just not this one.

Is “Clear Skies” really so ghastly?

David Whitman, in a compelling article in the Washington Monthly, argues that Bush's Clear Skies initiative is getting a bum rap from enviros. (He also argues that the much-vilified Jeff Holmstead, the Bush appointee who heads the EPA's Office for Air and Radiation, doesn't wholly deserve his anti-green rep.) Whitman asserts that the bill would do some real good, and debunks the widely repeated claim that the proposal would permit more pollution than the Clean Air Act. (Turns out there was more than met the eye to that bit about a secret EPA PowerPoint slide asserting that Clear Skies would make compliance cheaper and easier for utilities.)  

Earthquake

Our hearts go out to all those affected by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in South Asia. For more info, visit Wikipedia. For links to firsthand accounts, visit WorldChanging. For ways to help, visit this blog.

In case you weren’t convinced about the horrors of dioxin …

just look at the face of Ukranian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko (before and after photos here).  Yikes. The bizarre case of his poisoning has brought renewed attention to this frightening substance, a byproduct of herbicide manufacturing, paper milling, waste incineration, and other nasty industrial processes.  

As BushGreenwatch points out, the Bushies are dragging their feet on curbing dioxin pollution, both domestically and internationally. "They've done nothing in regulations, and I don't see anything on dioxin moving on the federal level in the next four years," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice and an activist who made a name for herself by fighting for justice at Love Canal.

One might think this ghastly, high-profile assassination attempt -- complete with very public, physical evidence of the horrific damage dioxin can do -- could provide a needed kick in the pants. But don't hold your breath.  

Bushies gut national forest rules

Three days before Christmas, the Bush administration announced that it's making the biggest overhaul to forest-management rules in some three decades. The news made the front page of today's New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, etc. -- but ya gotta know it'll slip by unnoticed by a great many folks stuck in whited-out airports in the Midwest and teeming malls everywhere else.  

It's been a while since the Bushies pulled one of these announce-an-environmental-abomination-when-no-one's-looking stunts, but they returned to the tactic with a real doozy this time.  

"A key wildlife protection that has governed federal forest management for more than two decades will be dropped under new regulations announced Wednesday by the Bush administration, and requirements for public involvement in planning for the country's 192 million acres of national forest will be dramatically altered," write Bettina Boxall and Lisa Getter in the L.A. Times.  

With Leavitt on the way out, who’ll be next to head up the EPA?

Leavitt, left, accepts Bush’s nomination to head HHS and leave EPA behind. Photo: WhiteHouse.gov. There were plenty of “Leavitt or leave it” jokes when former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt (R) took the helm at the U.S. EPA just over a year ago. Many insiders didn’t expect him to stay long at the agency, figuring he […]

Vacation: not just for Europeans any more

As alert readers know, every year around this time, Grist takes a two-week publishing break, while we staffers try to get used to being away from a keyboard for a while. The finger-twitching usually dies down right about the time we have to come back.

The break starts Monday, and consequently posting will be very light, possibly (one can hope!) absent entirely.

We'll be back on Jan. 3, with some exciting developments for Gristmill. Stay tuned.

Green bytes

Some tips over at About.com on greening your high-tech purchases.

Wangari Maathai’s Nobel Lecture

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 2004: