Articles by David Roberts

New Wired green issue goes a little overboard

The latest issue of Wired -- the "green issue," now de rigueur in the magazine world -- has Al Gore on the cover, and the story on his "resurrection" is fantastic. It's one of the best things I've read on his post-2000 activities.

Some of the rest of the issue, however, is irritating -- nothing so much so as this risible chart by Josh Rosenblum, a rating of various environmental groups based on a set of scientific criteria known as How Much They Agree With Josh Rosenblum. The more green groups collaborate with private industries and support (as far as I can tell, any) high-tech responses to environmental problems, the closer they come to Wired true north. Any tension with business, or reservations about nuclear power or coal gasification ... well hell, that's just hippie.

And speaking of hippies: the "Rise of the Neo-Greens" practically bursts a blood vessel admiring the clever young fashionistas "triangulating between the hippies and the hip."

PSA: Net neutrality

There's great hue and cry in the blogosphere lately over "net neutrality." I won't attempt to summarize it here, as it's fairly complex. The best way to understand it is for you (and your friends) to watch this short video.

It's not strictly an environmental issue, but in the sense it that it could degrade your access to information, it is a threat to any progressive cause. Don't let the telecom bastards get away with it.

(via Dymaxion World)

Two canards down, lots to go

A new study done on behalf of the UK's Economic and Social Research Council is summarized as follows:

The role of radical activists and advocates of green technology has long been dismissed as out of tune with rational economic progress. Yet in practice they have often been a key source of ideas that have seeded new industries in areas like food production, housing and energy. Rather than dismissing such activists and their niche ideas as hopelessly idealistic, mainstream business and policy makers should recognise that they present a diversity of options for sustainability and learn from them.

Word.

Put it on the shelf beside the classic from MIT's Stephen Myer, "The Economic Impact of Environmental Regulation" (PDF), summarized as follows:

More details on the Ford/TerraPass partnership

Attentive Daily Grist readers already know that Ford Motor Co. and carbon-offset company TerraPass have formed a new partnership (the official announcement will come tomorrow, but there are details on the TerraPass blog).

The companies have set up a co-branded website where Ford owners can enter their make, model, year, and driving habits to find out exactly how much CO2 they produce in a year -- and buy carbon credits to offset it. Money from the partnership credits will go to the Ainsworth Wind Facility in Nebraska and the Haubenschild dairy farm, near Princeton, Minnesota (Ford chose those two products from TerraPass' portfolio, based on their marketability). Credits will come with a decal drivers can affix to their windshields.

Ford gets no money from the credit purchases; the partnership is part of a broader climate-change strategy for the company. While it has no plans for a broad advertising campaign, it will be giving educational brochures to dealers and linking to the site from several Ford product sites. TerraPass gets some money and promotion from Ford. The deal is exclusive for a short while (a matter of months), and after that TerraPass is free to make deals with other car companies; the contract itself is for a year.

I just got off the phone with Tom Arnold (sadly not the portly actor from Roseanne), the Chief Environmental Officer for TerraPass. The most startling thing he told me was that Ford approached TerraPass about this, not vice versa.