Articles by David Roberts
David Roberts was a staff writer for Grist. You can follow him on Twitter, if you're into that sort of thing.
All Articles
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Pope
Carl Pope explains why the U.S. is not yet Syria. I think he means it to be optimistic.
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Hypocrisy again
Over on Treehugger, Lloyd Alter claims to have enjoyed this Wall Street Journal piece by Dan Akst (yes, yes, subscription only). I can't say I did.
Since you can't read it, I'll summarize: People who build "green" houses that are huge and isolated are hypocrites.
It's a bit mystifying to me why this genre of writing is so prevalent. I suppose it's fun to point out that a preachy celebrity drives a Hummer, or that the head of an environmental group flies all over the country to give talks, or that some recycling suburban mom commutes 50 miles to work. For pundits, charges of hypocrisy are nigh irresistible, since they require no thought, research, or analysis. "Look, person says A and does not-A! Gotcha!" It's easy.
But is hypocrisy really that important? To the point that seemingly the bulk of writing on environmentalism begins and ends there?
I think not.
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Michael Fumento gets dropped.
Another rightwing pundit has been dropped by a media outlet after it was revealed that he was taking payments from private interests in exchange for columns.
Who was the corporate paymaster this time? Monsanto.
Scripps Howard News Service (SHNS) announced Friday that it severed its relationship with Michael Fumento -- a senior fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute -- for taking payments in 1999 from agribusiness giant Monsanto. The payola was revealed by BusinessWeek Online, which also broke the story that columnist Doug Bandow had accepted bribes from Jack Abramoff. Copley News Service subsequently dropped Bandow.
Incidentally, if any wealthy interests out there are interested in a column about, say, the evils of suburbia, drop me an email and I'll send you my rates.
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From Slings to Scouts
Green pickle sling Putting a whole new spin on the wet T-shirt contest, Low Tee makes tight-fitting men’s swimsuits out of recycled vintage tees. Buy an existing banana hammock or send in an old favorite shirt to be converted — not too old, mind you; see-through isn’t a pleasant Speedo look. Photo: Rex Bonomelli.Click to […]
