Articles by David Roberts

A smidgen more madness

Oh, what's that? You're still hankering for nuclear madness? OK, here's a digestif:

As the use of nuclear power expands, it will become increasingly ineffective at combating global warming, warns a report by an independent think tank published today.

The Oxford Research Group argues that a worldwide shortage of high-grade uranium ore will force new nuclear reactors to exploit increasingly lower-grade ores for their fuel. Because that requires more energy to extract, the process will result in ever-greater amounts of climate-wrecking pollution.

Nuclear insanity

So, I've been thinking about a non-shrill way to discuss this, but ... the world has gone insane. Batshit insane.

First of all, Bush is going to sign a deal with Vladimir Putin to establish broad cooperation between U.S. and Russian domestic nuclear industries. In practice, this means that Russia gets billions of dollars to store thousands of tons of our nuclear waste. Even Bush supporters seem a little mystified -- the U.S. has balked at this kind of deal for about a decade. Why? Let us count the ways:

• Russia has long supported Iran's nuclear program (not to mention North Korea's); it has resisted, and continues to resist, U.S. pleas to support economic sanctions on Iran.
• Russia is notoriously lax about the nukes and spent nuclear fuel already littering the country. It's one of the major security threats Bush has neglected while pursuing his dimwitted messianism in the Middle East.
• Putin is increasingly flagrant in his drive to reverse democratic reforms and reassert totalitarianism in Russia. Needless to say, there was no nationwide referendum on Russia becoming the world's nuclear dumping ground.

So why this deal, and why now? I'll give you one guess. No, I'll tell you: Bush wants Putin's support in our coming drive to war with Iran. He needs votes in the U.N. This is early maneuvering.

So, OK, that's insane. But this is even insaner:

California Connected on organic and Wal-Mart

A nifty PBS show called California Connected recently did a special on organic food, focusing on Wal-Mart's decision to get into the organic-food market. It's unusually substantive and thoughtful (at least relative to cable tv fare). Check it out.

Importing coal

Here's a story you don't hear about much: