Articles by David Roberts

Organic is becoming popular … the horror!

An article in CorpWatch adeptly summarizes what strikes me as a classic dilemma facing enviro(nmentalist)s: Organic food is becoming more popular and the organic food industry is growing.  As it grows, large corporations are taking an interest, buying small organic companies, and attempting to supersize organic farming operations. By some estimates the percentage of organic food sold by organic markets has fallen from over 60 percent to just over 30 percent -- the rest taken up by Wal-Marty type stores (and a miniscule percentage by farmers' markets, food-buying clubs, and the like). Organic is going corporate.

Reactions, as you would expect, are split.

There he goes again

What is it with Gregg Easterbrook? Hope really springs eternal in this guy's breast. And by "hope" I mean "delusion."

First he argues that a second-term Bush will aggressively act on global warming (no word on whether he's been reprimanded), which Michael Oppenheimer rightly mocked.

Now he's back, in The New Republic, saying now, really, surely, Bush will budge on his energy policy:

John Kerry ran on a platform that called for dramatic changes in United States energy policy, and George W. Bush ran on a platform that called for keeping the energy status quo. Bush won, yet my guess is that change will soon win on energy policy. Too many trends are worrisome.

Gregg. Dude. What evidence do you have that oncoming catastrophe has any effect on Bush's policy thinking? Will you share it please? Cause it might help me sleep at night.

The rest of the piece is pretty good, particularly as it draws attention to this report from Resources for the Future, a team of braniacs that do good work on market-oriented approaches to environmental problems, only not in that glassy-eyed way some other outfits are guilty of.

He concludes by saying that if this report doesn't budge Bush, well, another upcoming report from the National Commission on Energy Policy surely will. He conlcudes: "One can always hope."

Yes, Gregg, but hope, as they say, is not a plan.

In the annals of bad ideas …

... this has to be one of the worst I've ever seen.

California's new DMV director is considering a plan whereby drivers would be taxed based on the miles they traveled rather than by the amount of gas they bought (the state currently has an 18-cent-per-gallon gas tax).

Put aside for a moment the creepy fact that miles traveled would be measured by GPS tracking devices placed in cars, so that the government would know exactly where you are, where you'd been, and how far you'd gone at any given moment.

Instead, consider this piece of insanity:

The notion has not been endorsed by Schwarzenegger but is gaining acceptance among transportation and budget experts. As Californians drive increasingly more fuel-efficient cars, state officials are alarmed that the gasoline tax will not raise enough money to keep up with road needs.

You catch that? California officials are alarmed that California drivers are using less gas. Far-sighted.

Good news!

Guess what!?  While 58 percent of all the world's coral reefs are endangered, a few of them are bouncing back, and "recovery should continue provided there are no major climate shifts in the next few decades"!

Wheee!