Articles by David Roberts

The activists among us should remember that there’s plenty to do together

I hope everyone's been following the discussion on animal rights and environmentalism. I continue to be impressed with the decency and thoughtfulness of the community that's gathered here.

Frogfish said most of what needed to be said. The unit of analysis for conservationism is population; for animal rights it is the individual. If you ask me, animal rights is morally bankrupt in the absence of environmentalism -- not the other way around.

But we should all remember: parsing the logical and ethical differences is a matter for thinkers. For doers, for activists, the job is to get things done. That means rallying people around the things they agree on, not emphasizing those that divide them.

A prescient speech

Kevin Drum reprints an extraordinary speech from Al Gore in 2002 that makes, among many others, the point I tried to make here.

He says:

A proposed bill would double fines on certain businesses in the state

Yesterday I got a press release from the Sen. James Inhofe (R-Mongo) Senate Environment Committee Crap Factory© (SJISECCF) touting a new bill Inhofe is pushing that would amend the Clean Air Act "to strengthen penalties on major emission sources in the most polluted areas of the country that fail to meet clean air standards by the attainment deadlines under the current Clean Air Act."

"Hm," I thought, "that actually sounds worthwhile."

"Hm," I then thought, "what am I missing?"

From Vixens to Vodka

If you’re going to starve yourself skinny, why not go vegan? Call us crazy, but maybe a bevy of bone-thin women swaying listlessly on stage is not the best advertisement for a vegan diet (our first thought: woah, somebody needs a hamburger!). Memo to Vegan Vixens: show Americans they can be fat and lazy and […]