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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Biofuels are bad news for biodiversity
Biofuel policy will give 'negligible' carbon cuts Someone in Europe is finally starting to realize the potential of biofuels to destroy carbon sinks and the biodiversity inside them:
For transport, improving energy efficiency of vehicles should be the first priority. If biofuels are to be part of the energy solution, the EU must ensure that those produced by clearing rainforests and protected habitats [carbon sinks along with associated biodiversity] will never be sold in Europe.
Their rather predictable solution is to put in place a system of "sustainability safeguards." In other words, extend their already moribund bureaucracy in an attempt to insure that all biofuel entering all ports in all of Europe is grown sustainably [without destroying carbon sinks and biodiversity].
It won't work. The reasons it won't work are unending.
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Gore/Lohan feud
Caught Gore on Leno last night. Jay compared the efforts to stabilize the ozone layer to global warming. It's a pretty good analogy: International cooperation combined with some new technology has gotten that particular environmental disaster under control. Maybe there is hope after all. I think Gore has realized that the American entertainment industry may be more powerful than the military industrial complex.
Gore mentioned his feud with Lindsay Lohan and that he might consider a nude scene in his next movie if "the script had integrity and it advanced the story."
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Deactivated cylinders
The competition to own the biggest truck on the block has finally reached its zenith. The Detroit News tells us that pickup truck sales continue to "crater."
GM and Ford Motor Co. announced plans to cut North American vehicle output in the third quarter to pare their stocks of unsold [pickup] trucks.
"That market is sitting back a bit," said Gary Dilts, senior vice president of sales at DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group. "But the core of the truck business -- a very large percentage -- will remain, because they need that kind of vehicle."Garbage in = garbage out. A small percentage of people who buy these trucks actually need them.
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The $36,000 baby rebate
Robert Samuelson has written a birth dearth article for the Washington Post, as has Daniel Gross for Slate. Birth dearth articles appear on a fairly regular basis and are almost indistinguishable from one another. Typically they are initiated when some industrialized nation with low fertility rates announces a game plan to goad its women into having more babies, or when another book on the subject hits the market. In this case it is Vladimir Putin who has proposed that Russia pay women a lump sum bribe of $36,000 to have a child.
