Articles by David Roberts

We can expect to see much more of this

A different take on the energy issue:

If America is to continue to climb the curve of technological advance, hopefully culminating in a society powered by the ultimately cheap, clean and flexible source of energy -- nuclear fusion, which would give us transmutation of the elements as a "spinoff" -- we must continue to seek out, extract, and refine the petroleum gifts of the Earth. As the prices of oil and gas advance, and ordinary people find it increasingly difficult to heat their homes and drive their cars, they will grow very tired of the self-righteous pseudo-moralizing of the save-the-Earth crowd. At some point, when hundreds or thousands of Americans have died of exposure to the cold and the shortfall of petroleum has precipitated a nationwide depression, anyone who dares to suggest that further energy exploration, extraction, or refinement is unacceptable for some moss-and-dirt-worshipping reason will find himself ornamenting the end of a rope.

And you thought idle eliminationist rhetoric was only directed at the anti-war crowd!

(via Wolcott)

Daschle and Obama on energy and climate change

You can ask questions:

Curious George and Jack Johnson

A little while back, on a whim, I downloaded Sing-A-Longs & Lullabies for the Film Curious George, a set of songs by crunchy-mellow-surferdude Jack Johnson. I haven't seen the movie and I don't own any other Johnson albums, but my kid went through a Curious George phase, so I figured he might like it.

I'm somewhat embarrassed to reveal that he's not the only one. In the shower the other day I found myself humming:

Farmers markets

We're all fairly familiar with the environmental and economic benefits of farmers markets -- they prevent food from traveling long distances, they keep money in the regional economy, they encourage organic farming, they keep land in the hands of local farmers and out of the hands of sprawly developers, etc. etc.

But as I strolled around the Ballard farmers market today, I was most struck by the social benefits.