Climate Culture

Orville Redenbacher must be stopped

My latest Victual Reality column looks at how perfectly wonderful foods like corn and butter get twisted up by food-industry marketers and flavor engineers, confusing people and often sending them scurrying in search of dubious, unhealthy, artificial substitutes — which the food industry is only too willing to provide. As if on cue, out comes […]

What’s true in one area is often true in another

Nicholas Kristof has a great piece in today's NYT (behind the damn paywall) about why it's so hard to galvanize attention onto mass suffering.

It could be quickly converted into a piece explaining why pictures of cute polar bears -- especially cute baby polar bears -- work so much better at getting people to pay attention to environmental problems than anything that actually shows their real scope.

Hmmm, I'm going to have to stop talking about the problems inherent in jet travel as a mass problem ... now I'm thinking pictures of orphaned baby polar bears with small jets visible in the top of the photos, with a caption like:

"Why didn't someone tell us that flying to see our Mom would help drown theirs?"

Excerpts from the Kristof piece after the jump.

The roar of jets drowns out the warnings about jet emissions

"New Plane Trips Outstripping Any Ecological Improvements in Flying":

Educate yourself before going vegan

From the Associated Press:

A vegan couple were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.

I realize this is an extreme example, and these two were way out of the norm in their ignorance about vegan nutrition. I am not posting this to slam vegans. I'm just using it as an opportunity to give some unsolicited advice to any of you with children who are planning to go vegan: educate yourself thoroughly beforehand. Talk and listen to experienced, knowledgeable vegans first. Cross check what you learn against a licensed pediatrician to make sure you get enough non-meat protein in their diets to feed their rapidly growing, protein-hungry brains.

Update [2007-5-11 13:1:32 by biodiversivist]: My apologies all, for not looking into this story in greater depth. I've been too busy to check in on the blog and I see it has a pile of comments already. An infant can die of malnutrition even if fed large quantities of food that does not contain adequate nutrition, such as fruit juice, and that is what I mistakenly thought had happened in this case. I did not realize that the child had actually been fed small quantities in addition to being fed inadequate nutrition.

I overlooked the one short sentence in the entire article that should have clued me in: "The child died because he was not fed. Period." The headline and subtitle, both crafted to sensationalize and maximize readership sucked me in. This was a generic case of child abuse and veganism had little to do with it. I have added more to this article below the fold and I'm sorry I didn't get back to it sooner sparing several rants.

Just because it’s awesome

Occasionally I like to revisit one of the greatest magazine feature leads ever written: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. That, more or less, is the short answer to the supposedly incredibly complicated and confusing question of what we humans should eat in order to be maximally healthy. Perfect.

My continuing quest for total domination of obscure niche media

I forgot to mention that I was on EarthBeat radio the other day, which according to John Passacantando "does for environmental coverage on the airwaves what Grist Magazine does for the environment in the cyber world." And I think he means that’s a good thing! Anyway, you can go here to download the show. I […]

Umbra on class gifts, again

Dear Umbra, My class also wants to give a greener gift when we graduate in 2008. We are starting to plan, and though your suggestion of solar power is awesome and very true, that will not be possible at my Seventh-Day Adventist school. We did not receive permission to do anything like that. Is there […]

The Roscoe Culpepper Town Holler Coot

I am wholly uninterested in the fact that Paul Watson thinks human beings are the "AIDS of the earth" and that the only solution is "a complete transformation of all human realities." What I do find fascinating is that this essay bashing Watson is written by “The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow.” The Boone Pickens […]

They don’t get that climate is a security issue

"The Democrats' Global War on Weather" and "Jack Bauer, Climatologist???" are the headlines conservatives are using to mock efforts by progressives to finance a National Intelligence Estimate to study global warming. But climate is clearly a national security threat, as made clear in a recent CNA report from a distinguished group of former military leaders (PDF).

As but one example, a "ferocious drought and famine" were the driving forces behind the crisis in Darfur, which is "likely to be seen as the first climate change war," as the Guardian put it.

Contrary to the mocking press release, the "war on weather" is being waged by conservatives who block action on mandatory greenhouse gas controls, thereby ensuring more and more extreme weather events for many decades to come.

It is precisely because conservatives have blocked action on climate change that progressives are driven to fund a serious effort by our intelligence agencies to understand the dangerous implications of our do-nothing climate policy.

If only Jack Bauer were a climatologist -- then conservatives might listen to the overwhelming scientific evidence about the climate crisis. Better yet, put Jack in charge of U.S. climate policy -- then we would finally have a leader who believes in taking action.

This post was created for ClimateProgress.org, a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Suzuki edits the Sun

Famed Canadian eco-hero David Suzuki was handed the reins to guest edit an entire edition of the Toronto Vancouver (!) Sun on Sat. May 5. “What I would love to do is put a green slant in every area,” he added, explaining he thinks the mainstream media do not do enough to highlight how the […]