Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard chats about the band’s environmental ethos

Pearl Jam. Photo: Danny Clinch.  Stone Gossard, hard-rock guitarist and founding member of Pearl Jam, has a soft spot for...

Cruel Hand Nuke

Controversy still rages on 20th anniversary of Chernobyl Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the nuclear power-plant accident in Chernobyl,...

Monday link dump, part one

I've been swamped, blah blah blah, here's some cool stuff you should read.

* The Watt reminds you that gas isn't really that expensive. Soda, however, is.

* Alex has an interesting interview with Davis Guggenheim, director of An Inconvenient Truth.

* Robert Rapier loves him some debunking. He takes on a Consumers Union report on how oil companies are ripping off the public (no they aren't) and eviscerates last night's 60 Minutes report on how ethanol is the answer to our energy woes (no it isn't). The latter, in particular, should not be missed.

* Speaking of ethanol cheerleading, Tom Daschle and Vinod Khosla have an op-ed in today's NYT arguing for a "Carbon Alternative Fuel Equivalent" standard (CAFE, get it?). As usual in this sort of piece, everything they say is obviously about corn, but in the throw-away line about carbon-dioxide emissions, there's a token mention of "ethanol produced from perennial energy crops like switch grass." Where is all that switch grass, anyway? Cause all I'm seeing is corn from sea to shining sea.

* OK, well, here's some switch grass:

MIT and me

I must apologize for posting on this subject yet again, but an article was recently brought to my attention that reflects my viewpoints so exactly that I feel compelled to tell you about it, so I can bask in the warm glow of smug self-righteousness. From Technology Review (an MIT enterprise):

Because the advanced lithium-ion batteries put a lot of power into a small, light package, a much smaller battery is needed to power the car, which could reduce hybrid prices. As a result, a variety of cars in a fleet could come with a hybrid option that costs about as much as the option for an automatic transmission...

In the short term, however, [this] seemingly logical assumption about lower-cost hybrid cars might not be right. ...a major reason consumers buy hybrids today is to have a "badge of honor" that shows their commitment to the environment or to curbing gasoline use. ... Part of this distinction... comes from having to pay a price premium for the vehicle. Hence, in the short term... it might actually be wise for carmakers to leave hybrid prices higher.

Umbra on building a deck

Dear Umbra, It’s spring, my house turns 100 years old this year, and I would like to celebrate by adding...

Umbra on climate-change patterns

While I am in no doubt about the effect of human activity on climate change, I have a friend who...

Umbra on herbicides

Dear Umbra, How do herbicides (organic, if such exist, or non-organic) work? David Burch South Bend, Ind. Dearest David, Herbicides...

A bipolar solar disorder

Last night, Nova tackled an interesting, less-discussed danger from pollution: global dimming. It hasn't gotten that much attention (outside of Grist, of course) but Nova presented a very compelling and rather harrowing picture.

Basically, while the earth has been getting warmer due to greenhouse gases, it has simultaneously been getting cooler due to a layer SP50 sunblock made up of smog particles in the air. As a result, the globe is like a guy who drinks fifty cups of coffee a day and then pops five Valium and proudly declares he's "in the zone."

It's easy to imagine how the distraction faction would use this to cast doubt on the whole idea of global warming. "What's with these egghead scientists? Is the globe getting warmer or colder? Make up your mind!" Well, we know it's getting warmer. So here's the scary part: the dimming of the sun has been masking the full effect of global warming, which may be much further along than we previously realized. We've been reducing the particulate smog that causes dimming for the past few years, and we're starting to see an accelerated shift. Once this guy gets off the Valium, he's going to be on one hellish caffeine kick.

Where to look for responses to climate change: environmental secession?

Climate reporter Andrew Revkin wrote an essay in the NYT on Sunday wherein he tries to "bring the debate on global warming down to earth."

While I believe global warming is "breaking news" (it's the fate of Earth we're talking about after all), I'm not as interested in taking another shot at the "debate."

What struck me was the story I found in the graphs alongside the article. Several recent surveys show a fairly low level of concern for global warming and the environment generally among Americans. There is a striking disconnect between these survey results and the real, concrete steps being taken at local and state levels. Mark Hertsgaard points out one such example in the recent Vanity Fair green issue: