Articles by David Roberts

Honda diesel bunny game

So, remember when we told you about that surreal ad Honda UK made for their new, lower-emission diesel engines?

Well, now they have a game to go with it, and it is, if possible, even more surreal.

Vertical farming

A reader sent me a link to the very intriguing idea of vertical farming:

The concept of indoor farming is not new, since hothouse production of tomatoes, a wide variety of herbs, and other produce has been in vogue for some time. What is new is the urgent need to scale up this technology to accommodate another 3 billion people. An entirely new approach to indoor farming must be invented, employing cutting edge technologies. The Vertical Farm must be efficient (cheap to construct and safe to operate). Vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world's urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.

It took humans 10,000 years to learn how to grow most of the crops we now take for granted. Along the way, we despoiled most of the land we worked, often turning verdant, natural ecozones into semi-arid deserts. Over 60% of the human population now lives vertically in cities. The time has arrived for us to learn how to grow our food that way, too. If we do not, then in just another 50 years, 3 billion people will surely go hungry, and the world will be a very unpleasant place in which to live.

Totally speculative and a long, long way from practicable, but: Awesome.

Of course, I meant to blog about it yesterday, and man, the blogosphere never sleeps, so BoingBoing and Alex beat me to it. Alex, as is his wont, includes beaucoup related links to ideas on urban sustainability. Check 'em out.

Klare on Simmons

We've mentioned Matthew Simmons' book Twilight in the Desert a couple of times (see, e.g., here). His thesis is that, despite what they say, the Saudis do not actually have any spare oil reserves. Their production is near its peak and will soon start declining.

If true, this is pretty bad news, because oil supply and oil demand are already closely matched, and if anything disrupts supply, the world will turn to Saudi Arabia to make up the slack. If they can't ... well, things could get ugly.

Today in the invaluable Tom's Dispatch, Michael Klare -- author of Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency -- takes a close look at Simmons' book. Give it a read.

It’s gonna be ugly.

On Monday, the Supreme Court meets for the last time before its summer break. Several high-profile cases will be decided, but the real nail-biting anticipation is reserved for the possible retirement of Chief Justice William Rehnquist, which would create the first vacancy on the court in 11 years. (Bill Kristol has speculated that it might be O'Connor, not Rehnquist, who retires next week, but popular conservative blog Redstate says nope, it's Rehnquist. These things are hard to predict.)

Thus far the White House has been mum about possible replacements, but names are a'floatin'. There's a great analysis of some possible candidates in this TNR piece.

Scuttlebutt in the progressive blogosphere has it that Bush will nominate the most outrageous far-right candidate possible, just to pick a fight and fire up his base. That is, after all, what he does. The conservative blogosphere relishes such a fight.

Everything I've seen inclines me to believe it's going to get ugly. Stay tuned.