Climate Culture

There’s more room than you think

(Part of the No Sweat Solutions series.)

As almost everyone who studies the subject concludes, one key to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions is efficiency. Renewable sources generally provide energy at a slightly higher market price than fossil fuels. Oh, there are exceptions: passive solar heating, wind electricity, biofuel from waste. But overall, if we get all our energy from low-emitting sources, we will spend more overall per BTU. If we can use those BTUs efficiently, our overall energy bill can be the same or lower.

Or, what I learned watching The King of Queens last night

What I learned while watching The King of Queens last night: Once you give up meat, it’s a slippery, slippery slope to becoming one of those nagging, know-it-all, hemp-hawking, finger-pointing, tree-hugging, self-righteous environmentalists we’re all trying to distance ourselves from (or most of us, anyway). The episode begins as main character Doug Heffernan — a […]

If you won’t go after them, we will

The IPCC reports are some of the most highly anticipated of 2007. An obvious sign? Within two weeks of one report's release, papers are already covering a leak from the next.

IPCC Working Group III's focus is on mitigation, meaning a fair number of policy implications can be derived from its conclusions. So here's a hint for America's auto industry: the report calls for urgent action on road pollution.

In the United States, there are 483 passenger cars per 1,000 people (EarthTrends). The world average is about 100, and few countries outnumber our car count (Australia, for example, had 492 in 1996).

In nearby Bothell

The Seattle Times is reporting on a Bothell family -- the Fraleys -- who are attempting to cut their family's greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 percent in May. Bully for them, and best of luck!

Still, there's something about the Times account of their experiment that rankles, just a bit. It leaves a casual reader with the impression that reducing carbon emissions is a total pain in the behind. To wit:

[The Fraleys] will try to reduce the household's greenhouse-gas emissions by using some common-sense ideas that nonetheless may be inconvenient. [Emphasis added.]

And ...

"I realized this wasn't going to be a cakewalk. The easy changes were already made, and the next one will be more -- painful is not the word -- but will take more effort."

Jeez, that makes sustainability sound like hair shirts and broccoli. Good luck getting people on board with that.

Um, overseas

“As part of efforts to shed its image of closeness to the motoring lobby, the party wants the government to commit immediately to key rail expansion projects …” That’s the conservative party. The dawn of hope and sanity? Yes. In the U.K.

Good framing from Friedman

I suppose I’m obligated to say something about the much-ballyhooed cover story in the current New York Times Magazine by the Mighty Mustache of Understanding. I can’t really see what all the fuss is about. It’s basically the Mustache’s last four or five columns, stitched together. There’s nothing to say about this that wasn’t said […]

Seattle’s Olympic Sculpture Park brings nature to a city setting

Alexander Calder’s Eagle against an Olympic mountain backdrop. Photo: iotae via flickr I’ve never seen the Pacific Northwest. I mean, I live in Seattle, and I look around, but I’ve never really seen it. I came to this realization while walking the zig-zagged trail at Seattle’s new Olympic Sculpture Park with Grist mascot Chip Giller […]

Silly reader, books are for kids!

Remember when you were a kid and the best part of the day was when you were just starting to get sleepy and you’d snuggle up in bed with your mom/dad/sibling/nanny/manny/Uncle Leroy to read a bedtime story? And the best bedtime stories were the ones with big illustrations of imaginary creatures like “Mr. Ferebee” and […]

OMFG

Don’t look directly at it!

Multimedia series honored in ‘explanatory reporting’ category

The Los Angeles Times won a Pulitzer Prize for “explanatory reporting” today for its impressive Altered Oceans series, with its rich online multimedia features as well as hard-hitting reporting and images that went into the print edition. Getting depressed about the appalling state of our oceans has never been so much fun! (See Grist’s mini-summary […]