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Seeking dough from the breadbasket of America

Congrats to the newly-greened states of Massachusetts, Colorado, New Hampshire, and Idaho, and the District of Columbia!

To the rest of you out there: Get cracking! Connecticut, Maryland, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, you only need one more vote, so make it happen.

And here's a shout-out to the breadbasket of America: Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Iowa, Missouri, you put the heart in heartland -- now show everyone you heart Grist by donating now!

And if you're donating from outside the U.S., make your provisional donation where it's needed most -- Mississippi and South Carolina still have goose eggs in the Donations column, and Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas still need at least 10 votes to go green. Where is the love?

Our fundraising appeal is half over, and we're at nearly half our goal, but we're trying to raise $50,000 here, people! So, if you're from a state that's already green, keep giving.

We don't want to guilt you into giving us your green -- ok, yes we do -- but all of Grist's award-winning content is delivered to your inbox completely free of charge! That's right; no annoying registration pages, no pop-up ads, and no annual fee. Want to keep it that way? We thought so.

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Behind the Filipino floods

Want to get smart in a hurry on the environment in the Philippines, where illegal and legal logging are widely blamed for last week's devastating flooding? Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based NGO, has just published a short primer on environment, demographic, and health conditions there. The brief presents a good overview, and it also provides specific suggestions for integrated population-health-conservation programs.

Stay tuned to the PRB website for further info on these issues in the Philippines. Their population-environment team -- headed by Roger-Mark De Souza -- has just returned from working with the first Filipino national conference on population, health and environment (PHE), attended by more than 250 officials, experts, donors, and media (including a representative from the President's Office) that resulted in a National PHE Declaration signed by congressional staff and mayors.

Green building resources

For those interested or involved in green building, two important websites: Ecospecifier and the Green Matrix, both portals with tons of information on green building techniques, materials, and resources.

(Via Treehugger and EnviroPundit.)

Left and love

We would be remiss if we did not point out that our intrepid editor Kathryn Schulz has a forceful, eloquent, and quite beautiful meditation on love and politics running in The Nation.  Go ye and read it.

Mongo and Found uncover the hidden pleasures of reduce-reuse-recycle

Flo and Channing, a pair of occasionally employed, twentysomething hipsters in lower Manhattan, live well. At least, they eat well. They favor sushi and vegetarian pizza and soy milk and artisan bread, and they also like to indulge in custard pastries, chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate croissants, and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. They're especially fond of waffles. And they eat it all for free. All they have to do is spend a few hours each night lurking outside restaurants, rescuing their favorite menu items from the trash. "Sometimes, people see what we're doing and say, eee-yew, how gross," says Flo. "Other times they offer to buy us a meal. We just say, no thanks, we have plenty of food here."

A clear eye from Britain

Leave it to the British Independent to cut to the chase and succinctly summarize the environment-ravaging agenda of a second Bush administration and its cronies in Congress. Even the title of its article succinctly summarizes it: "Bush sets out plan to dismantle 30 years of environmental laws."

Reporter Geoffrey Lean notes that three laws in particular are in the admin's sights:

1. the Clean Air Act,
   
2. the Endangered Species Act (as Amanda Griscom Little has reported), and
   
3. the National Environmental Policy Act.
   

Hate something

Via Green Car Congress, the story of a Honda U.K. ad for new, quieter diesel engines, featuring a catchy ditty sung by Garrison Keillor that's becoming so popular there's talk of releasing it as a single. It's pretty amazing. You can watch the ad here.

Lakoff worship

George Lakoff, framing guru and pundit to the (lefty) stars, is officially hitting the halls of power. Tomorrow, he will meet with House Democrats, who are desperate for someone, anyone to help them craft a winning message.

The danger, of course, is that Lakoff's work on framing, which actually has deep roots in cognitive science, will be watered down to the point that it's just about a new collection of catchphrases. To wit:

He has suggested that same-sex marriage should be referred to as "the right to marry." Trial lawyers like vice presidential nominee John Edwards should instead be called "public protection attorneys," and the term environmental protection, which brings to mind big government and reams of regulations, should instead be termed "poison-free communities."

Lets hope the Dems take the underlying message to heart, and don't just view this as a soundbite buffet.

Bjorn again

Bjorn Lomborg has an editorial in yesterday's L.A. Times, presenting -- in extremely rudimentary form -- the results of his already notorious Copenhagen Consensus. While the composition of Lomborg's group and its specific conclusions have been harshly criticized -- in particular see John Quiggin's blog here, here, here, and here, and also this Disinfopedia entry -- it's worth saying that the enterprise itself is entirely worthy, if done properly and honestly.

It is true that aid money is not spent rationally. If it were possible to get a serious, empirical accounting of the world's problems from a wide variety of experts and use it to rationalize and prioritize spending, every enviro should be foursquare behind it, even if some enviro priorities get bumped down the list.

Sadly, Lomborg's enterprise bears little resemblance to that ideal.

Up the Leak Without a Paddle

New documents point to Union Carbide culpability on Bhopal Since the Bhopal disaster in 1984, Union Carbide Corp. (UCC), owner of the leaking chemical plant, has denied responsibility, saying that its Indian subsidiary (Union Carbide India Limited, or UCIL) was solely responsible for the plant’s design and management. But newly uncovered documents cast doubt on […]