Climate Culture

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  • It’s hard out there for a skeptic

    After 20 years of disproportionate media coverage, climate contrarians have started being ignored. It would be impossible to overstate the depth of my sympathy. Impossible, I tell you. Update [2007-4-19 16:17:10 by David Roberts]: As an addendum: actual climate scientists think coverage is already “too balanced.” And by balanced, I’m pretty sure they mean “balanced.”

    David Roberts Culture

  • Time to start welcoming rather than bashing eco-newcomers

    Arnold Schwarzenegger is being offered up as an eco-hero, so naturally some folks in the green movement rush to point out that it’s all a big fraud. Why they do that — why progressives eat their allies — I’ll never understand. Let’s approach this through a semi-related phenomenon. I had the privilege of meeting Andrew […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • Only the little people fly scheduled airlines

    In response to this story, about how the airport tax paid by proles being herded onto commercial boxcars is spent to make life even cushier for the big guys flying Lear jets, someone defended the poor abused jet setters thus:

    It is worth pointing out that those "Learjets" burn bunches of fuel and pay the corresponding fuel taxes, so they aren't getting a totally free ride. Figure 200 gallons an hour as a usable figure (jet pilots figure burn in pounds, with taxes of $.50 a gallon or so (I don't have the actual figures), and they are paying $100 an hour. The airlines do not pay the fuel taxes, instead getting a head tax from passengers. The story is not nearly as simplistic as many imagine.

    JMG Culture

  • They Have Reservations

    U.S. EPA adopts green guidelines for travel planning As of May, hotels and convention centers hoping to woo government accounts might need to polish their eco-cred. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has crafted a list of must-ask questions for potential hosts on topics from energy efficiency to paperless billing to towel reuse. (Anyone else picturing […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Yahoo!

    Yahoo! is going carbon neutral, and the founders seem to have a pretty sensible take on the issue. Also, they have an Earth Day site, FWIW.

    David Roberts Culture

  • Bib you hear the one about … ?

    The number one craze in Hollywood -- babies. The number two craze -- using your baby to show off your eco-grooviness.

    According to the folks at Ecorazzi, OopC bibs, made from 100 percent organic cotton, are flying off the shelves and into the homes of such glitter-mamas as Gwyneth Paltrow and Tori Spelling. But, as the site rightly points out, buying a few organic bibs does not a true green celeb make:

    One new Hollywood grandma who must rename nameless ordered 56 OOPCs -- that's nine for each of her six homes ...

    Six homes?! Grandma's lucky she chose to remain nameless as we would be quick to blast such excess. Granted, buying 56 organic bibs is a step in the right direction.

    I don't know. In my opinion, the only way buying 56 bibs is a step in the right direction is if 52 of them are being donated to some kind of mothers-in-need program.

    But, hey, let me give Hollywood Grandma the benefit of the doubt. She could just be trying to help create an economy of scale for organic baby products.

    Yolanda Crous Culture

  • Hey, look!

    An interview with Cloud Cult!

    David Roberts Culture

  • An interview with Craig Minowa of green-leaning band Cloud Cult

    Craig Minowa. Imagine the soaring tribal rock of Arcade Fire, the head-nodding beat-pop of Postal Service, and the arty skronk of Modest Mouse, strung together in a loose-limbed, lo-fi pastiche. Toss in half a chamber orchestra and some found-sound collages, and top it off with vocals of almost childlike guilelessness and yearning. That, in a […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • TPM on Kerry on Colbert

    I’m sure lots of you follow TalkingPointsMemo, one of the earliest and still best political blogs on the net. They’ve started doing a (rather charmingly low-budget) daily TV show, and today they debuted a clip wherein they interview John Kerry before he goes on the Colbert Report. They also got some interesting footage from backstage. […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • NYT Magazine story: One nation united under green

    Tom Friedman, in last Sunday's New York Times Magazine, makes the point that green is the color that can unite the red and blue states.

    At Oceana we have found that conservation issues can and do cross party lines. For example, the Bush administration (yes, the Bush administration!) recently -- after working closely with our organization and other groups -- submitted a proposal in the ongoing World Trade Organization talks that would significantly cut fisheries subsidies.

    Andrew Sharpless Culture