Articles by Biodiversivist
My real name is Russ Finley. I also have my own blog called Biodiversivist, which contains articles in addition to those submitted to Grist. I live in Seattle, married with children. Suffice it to say that although I am trained and educated as an engineer, my passion is nature. I very much want my grandchildren to live on a planet where lions, tigers, and bears have not joined the long and growing list of creatures that used to be.
All Articles
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A letter to Science ponders what $700 billion could do for the natural world
A letter to the editor from Jaboury Ghazoul, in the Jan. 23 issue of Science, tries to put into perspective the $700 billion bailout:An estimated 10 million species populate the earth. To ward against extinction, we could equitably award $70,000 to each and every one of these 10 million species from our $700 billion cash injection. The intertidal bryozoans of Scotland's West Coast would alone receive more than $3 million. In Borneo, the 350 or so species of dipterocarp trees could form a union to demand existence rights, using their $25 million to lobby for viable landscape mosaics in which they could persist alongside competing land uses ...
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Advertising Standards Authority in U.K. banned a Renewable Fuels Association ad
Last year, when oil prices were peaking, OPEC President Chakib Khelil told an Algerian newspaper that "the intrusion of bioethanol on the market" was responsible for 40 percent of the rise in oil prices -- an asinine, unsubstantiated remark that nobody believed.
The Renewable Fuels Association saw this as an opportunity to promote their own environmentally destructive product with equally asinine, unsubstantiated remarks in an open letter to OPEC. However, George Monbiot complained to the Advertising Standards Authority in the U.K., who subsequently banned the ad. He didn't like their use of the word "sustainable."
I'm not aware of an American equivalent of the ASA, but we sure could use one.
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Diesel technology has peaked
I just encountered a typical lay media puff piece about the 2009 diesel Jetta, which won the Green Car award this year.
Did you know that the next generation of diesel-powered cars and SUVs is 98 percent cleaner than diesels sold just two years ago?
No, but I also didn't know that the older models were that dirty!
Did you know these new clean diesels offer 23 to 43 percent better fuel economy than the same vehicle with a gasoline engine?
Sounds impressive! Until you go to the EPA green vehicle website and discover that the gasoline version with a standard transmission gets an air pollution score of 9 compared to this car's 6.
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One thousand new species discovered this decade
Watch the slide show to answer the riddle. Check out the dragon centipede and night stalker while you’re at it. No mention of the who-knows-how-many species that have gone extinct in same decade — species that will never be discovered.
