Articles by David Roberts

Alternative giving

Via Joel Makower, check out the Alternative Gifts International (AGI) catalogue, for those of you who like giving holiday gifts but don't like filling up landfills.  Says Joel:

In a world sated with gizmos, gadgets, and geegaws, AGI offers the opportunity to give simply, elegantly, and effectively. It works with reputable nonprofit agencies that aid established projects around the world. Its annual gift catalog is an education in itself. Each of the gift opportunities included features background information about the problem and how even a small contribution can make a big difference. Categories include child survival, development, disaster relief, education, hunger relief, peace/justice, medical assistance, livestock, shelter, water, and women in development.

You can view the catalogue online or order copies to pass out to friends and family.

Chevron Texaco wins prestigious award

The Green Life, as part of their ongoing "take greenwash to the cleaners" series (countering corporate greenwashing efforts), has awarded Chevron Texaco their Greenwasher of the Month award. They have a fairly extensive piece comparing the company's eco-friendly advertising rhetoric with its actual behavior. Good reading.

Hybrid buses

A little while back, Seattle got a lot of "the future is now!"-type press for ordering a full fleet of diesel-electric hybrid buses, which cost $200,000 more apiece than their articulated diesel brethren. Unfortunately, according to the Seattle P-I, claims that they would get up to 40 percent better gas mileage have not cashed out. In fact, their gas mileage is roughly comparable to the old buses', although they are quieter, produce fewer emissions, and cost less to maintain. Guess the future is still in the future.

UPDATE: For a much longer and more informative take on this story -- to which there is less than meets the eye -- read what Alan Durning's got to say.

Politician instructs media on accuracy; timespace implodes on itself

You know the press is failing in its obligations when a politician has to instruct it on honesty and integrity.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg just sent a letter to the Washington Post taking them to task for bogus "he said - she said" journalism on the subject of global warming. The article in question, by Juliet Eilperin, discussed a recent study on heat waves caused by climate change. Says Lautenberg:

But the last half of the article is squandered on the views of Myron Ebell, an economist -- not a climate scientist -- whose "studies" at the American Enterprise Institute are funded by Exxon Mobil. The article fails to mention this shameless conflict of interest.

The problem with this type of reporting was highlighted at a recent Senate Commerce Committee hearing. Robert Correll, senior fellow at the American Meteorological Society, warned, "The trouble with a debate of this nature is you put 2,600 [scientists] against two or three or four [scientists who disagree]." Ebell is not in the same league as the qualified climate scientists who report that the climate is changing before our eyes; only the intensity and the speed of those changes are unknown. Your newspaper does an injustice to its readers by giving Ebell's caterwauling equal weight with the widely accepted views of reputable and unbiased scientists.

That's exactly right. Eilperin is an excellent reporter, and I don't know what kind of pressure she's under from higher-ups, but she -- and environmental reporters generally -- needs to take a stand and stop watering her pieces down with this sort of misleading faux-balance.

UPDATE: Well, egg on my face. Both Chris Mooney and RealClimate beat me to the punch.