Gristmill

Elevator Pitch Contest finalists — vote!

Our Elevator Pitch Contest brought in over 150 entries -- a number I'll happily refer to as "whopping." I know I said I was going to pick a winner, but ... it's just too dang hard.

Instead, Grist's crack staff of elevator pitch evaluators combed through the entries and picked out their 10 favorites. Now it's up to you, dear readers, to pick the winner, who will receive a VFOGT (Very First Official Grist T-shirt).

Click "link and discuss" below to vote!

(You need to be signed up for an account to vote -- if you haven't, you can do so here.)

Arctic Refuge vote

The vote on the Senate budget resolution -- which contains a provision for drilling in the Arctic Refuge -- and the Cantwell amendment -- which would strip it out -- takes place in about a half hour. Things are looking bad for the refuge.

Update [2005-3-16 11:2:7 by Dave Roberts]: The Cantwell amendment was just voted down, 51-49. The refuge will stay in the budget.

Babes in EV-land

Last night on NPR (she sayeth, firmly establishing her nerd credentials), I heard a story about protests intended to save GM's electric car, the EV-1. About 80 of the cars have been sitting on GM's lot, destined for the scrap heap. The highlight of the civil unrest yesterday seems to have been the arrest of "Baywatch" actress Alexandra Paul, who intoned in that screechy celebrity way, "This is about clean air."

Apparently these protests have been going on for a couple of months. But the GM flak made a reasonable-sounding claim: there wasn't all that much demand for EVs, and the industry is putting its energy into more promising technologies like hydrogen.

I'm all in favor of clean cars. But without knowing all the intricacies of EV history, I'm wondering if GM might have a point. Sometimes prototypes just suck.

Green chic

Looks like Newsweek has caught on to green fashion. Nothing groundbreaking in the story, but it's nice to know the trend has grown enough to cross big media's radar. Also see this story on Edun, the new socially conscious fashion line being started by U2 singer Bono and his wife.

Looks like hippies are on the outs, and the smartly-dressed green is in. Sorry hippies! Feel free to protest your own obsolescence in comments.

Peak oil

A nice "Peak Oil" primer on Treehugger.

See also this collection of oily links from Dave Pollard.

Take action — well, okay, write a letter to your Congressfolk — about the Arctic Refuge

Tomorrow the Senate will likely vote on the budget resolution and the Cantwell amendment, which would keep ANWR Arctic Refuge drilling out of it. Via the Wilderness Society, you can urge your senator to vote against it, and your representative to keep the House budget resolution free of such nonsense.

Related stuff over on Cascadia -- particularly an interesting bit on the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

Farm subsidies, or, I told you so

Last month, when Bush first released his 2006 budget and made a big show of saying he would cut farm subsidies (so brave! so fiscally conservative!), I called bullshit on it. One theory going around was that in cutting the USDA's budget, Bush knew that powerful backers would preserve farm subsidies, and what would end up getting the ax? Food stamps.

Over at Tapped, Sam Rosenfeld finds evidence that this is exactly what's happening, from the Congressional Quarterly (not online) and this AP story. Read it and weep puke:

Senior Republicans in both the House and Senate are open to small reductions in farm subsidies, but they adamantly oppose the deep cuts sought by Bush to hold down future federal deficits.

...

Instead, Republican committee chairmen are looking to carve savings from nutrition and land conservation programs that are also run by the Agriculture Department. The government is projected to spend $52 billion this year on nutrition programs like food stamps, school lunches and special aid to low-income pregnant women and children. Farm subsidies will total less than half that, $24 billion.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said the $36 billion food stamp program is a good place to look for savings.

"There's not the waste, fraud and abuse in food stamps that we used to see. ... That number is down to a little over 6 percent now," he said. "But there is a way, just by utilizing the president's numbers, that we can come up with a significant number there."

Taking food out of the mouths of low-income pregnant women and children to preserve corporate welfare for millionaires. It warms the heart.

Elevator Pitch Contest finalists — vote!

Our Elevator Pitch Contest brought in over 150 entries -- a number I'll happily refer to as "whopping." I know I said I'd pick the winner but ... it's just too dang hard. So I'm going to let you, dear readers, vote for your favorite. Voting will stay open until, well, people stop voting -- say a week?

Have at it!

Gum control …

... has become a sticky issue for many big cities, Time magazine reports in its latest issue. And no, that's not a typo -- we're talking gum pollution, as in those blobs of gooey stickiness attached to city sidewalks and the shoes of unfortunate city dwellers -- and it's a bigger issue than you might think. Reps from several British cities met in London last month for a summit on the stuff, and they say cleanup costs are costing the U.K. some $290 million a year. If they have their way, a new bill may fine bubble-gum litterBrits $145.

Toronto officials counted gobs of the stuff for a 2004 litter audit and found that for every piece of other litter, there were 10 pieces of gum littering one stretch of sidewalk. Contrary to popular belief, the gooey bits won't biodegrade, but U.S. researchers say they may be able to change that with a new biodegradable variety of chewy goodness made with a corn derivative. The stuff is expensive to produce, but won't stick to surfaces. Chew on that!