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Green votes

Will Rogers has a hopeful editorial in the NYT today, pointing out that despite the relative silence of the mainstream media on the story, environmental initiatives won broad support on Nov. 2.

Across the country, in red states and blue states, Americans voted decisively to spend more money for natural areas, neighborhood parks and conservation in their communities. Of 161 conservation ballot measures, 120 -- or 75 percent -- were approved by voters. Three-and-a-quarter billion dollars were dedicated to land conservation.

Such measures won support in areas where Kerry won and areas where Bush won. Seems to show that there's a broad consensus about conservationist issues generally, a consensus that overlaps but is not tied to support for the Democratic party.

More on this subject soon.

He made his bed …

... and now he's sleeping in it.  And boy, it doesn't look comfortable.

Last week French President Jacques Chirac took a public swipe at Tony Blair, saying he'd gotten nothing in return for his unstinting support of George W. Bush.  "I am not sure," said the francophone dryly, "that it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favors systematically."

Meanwhile, Blair has been under immense pressure at home -- from his party, the opposition party, even the Queen -- to prod the intransigent Bush on the subject of global warming. Surely, the reasoning goes, Blair should get something for tying his political fate to Bush's when other leaders wouldn't.

Well, no.  Today The Independent reports that Bush "reprimanded" Blair for making such a fuss over global warming, according to "senior Washington sources." Among other things, Blair has been planning to make global warming a central topic at the G-8 Summit in January. For this he is ... "reprimanded."  Ouch.

Blair has never wavered in his public support for W, but after such high-handed treatment, you gotta wonder if he's starting to have violent dreams.

The last thing enviros need now is a bout of radicalism

Enviros made unprecedented efforts to sway the 2004 election with legitimate tools: advertising, fundraising, rallying, knocking on doors. It didn’t work. Apparently that fact is not sitting well. The top response in a poll asking Grist readers where green-minded folks should direct their energy in the next four years was “armed resistance” — by a […]

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Umbra on Wal-Mart

Dear Umbra, Why is Wal-Mart evil? This is really a request for more information. I have often heard that the company has a weak environmental track record, treats its employees poorly, and generally is Satan incarnate. However, when challenged on this position, I have no data. My opponents argue that shopping in bulk reduces packaging. […]

The issue with issues

Freelance writer Christopher Hayes spent the last seven weeks of the campaign talking to undecided voters in Wisconsin. He recounts his experiences in The New Republic (requires registration), and it is simply fascinating. And a little depressing. Most conventional wisdom about undecided voters is wrong, he says.

Sundae Drive

New hybrids are more powerful and sexy, if less efficient The next crop of hybrid vehicles is eagerly anticipated not only by energy-conscious geeks and early-adopter hipsters, but by regular ol’ Americans who like to have their apple pie and eat it too. Auto-industry flacks are predicting buyer excitement over soon-to-debut vehicles like the hybrid […]

The Tree Police, They Live Inside of My Head

Brazil opens environmental police academy in Amazon The environmental movement in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is arming itself, literally, for the fight against illegal mining, animal and plant piracy, and other crimes against nature. This week, Brazil’s federal government opened Latin America’s largest environmental police academy — 135 square miles of Amazon land devoted to training […]

Nom de Gloom

Do you hate the word “enviros”? At least one Grist reader does. He wrote in this week to reprimand us Gristers for frequent use of the abbreviated moniker: “Don’t you all realize that our avowed adversaries use that term as a pejorative to describe us? It’s their ad hominem dismissal of us as wackos.” As […]

Stick a Pork in It

GOP senators pack anti-environmental pork into huge spending bill Powerful Republicans in Congress fought valiantly against the “do nothing” label yesterday by trying to do an awful lot for their industry cronies. A number of senators endeavored to attach various anti-environmental provisions to a must-pass government-funding bill, including measures that would (take a deep breath) […]