Articles by David Roberts

Conservative columnist says he was taken down by environmentalist conspiracy

Ah, seems environmentalists just don't know their own power!

Disgraced conservative columnist (and frequent biotech-booster) Michael Fumento -- recently canned by Scripps Howard News Service after revelations that he accepted grants from Monsanto, which he never disclosed to his readers or to Scripps -- says he's the target of a "witch hunt" run by [ominous music] the greeeens.

It's no coincidence, you see, that he came under fire after conservative Doug Bandow admitted he wrote columns for lobbyist Jack Abramoff in exchange for cash. Fumento mutters darkly:

Bandow was long a critic of environmental activists, and when he went down a light bulb lit up over their heads.

They realized they might eliminate more of their critics by simply accusing them of being paid corporate shills, and then siccing the media on them to see what they could dig up. They assembled an "enemies list," giving it to reporters at publications including the New York Times and Business Week. I have locked horns with green groups for the past 15 years and earned a spot on that list.

Close reading of the rest of the column reveals rather little -- and by "rather little" I mean "zero" -- evidence for the existence of the alleged enemies list, much less for the light bulbs and subsequent environmentalist conspiracies.

Perhaps he doesn't want to reveal too much. After all, they're watching him ...

Sigh

I wish, instead of being a poor writer, I was a rich writer. Then I'd build a house like this. (Check out the slideshow.)

Values

From what I've seen, everything Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus have produced consists of one part genuine insight, one part confusion, and one part banality, presented with a breathless air of revolution, an undertone of smug satisfaction, and a generous dollop of self-promotion.

Garance Franke-Ruta's long, dense piece in this month's American Prospect more or less confirms that assessment. It's not about the Death stuff, but a broader project to map the current values of the American public and help progressives figure out how to appeal to them. The reapers are opening an American branch of the Canadian consumer-research firm Environics -- bringing the extremely sophisticated research tools used by the private sector to the public sector (where conventional polling is woefully inexact).

The basic picture is this: For the past couple of decades, "values" have come to eclipse, and in many ways serve as a proxy for, issues of economic self-interest. This has left the Democrats out in the cold. So what are those values?

Here's the nut:

We’re all going to die

Wow, well ... shit.

This piece in Fortune, adapted by Eugene Linden from his book Winds of Change, is a front-runner for the most depressing thing I've ever read. I don't see how anyone could read it and feel anything other than depressed paralysis.

I guess you should read it, if depressed paralysis is your thing. Me, I'm headed to Costco to buy some bottled water, canned food, and a rifle.

(hat tip: Bart A)