Gristmill

Bill Frist gets one right

Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has introduced a bill that would make access to clean water and proper sanitation an explicit objective of U.S. foreign aid. I haven't seen this covered anywhere but Joel Makower's blog, but really, what else do you need?

We'll write more on this in coming weeks.

It’s Girl Scout cookie season …

And along with $400 million worth of cookie orders, the national office of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. has received a number of concerns about the cookies saying, among other things, that child labor is used to produce the chocolate that covers Thin Mints -- an allegation Girl Scout officials deny. Critics also charge that Girl Scout cookies are contributing to the American obesity epidemic with high levels of unhealthy trans fats, particularly in their newest cookie, Animal Treasures, a shortbread treat featuring endangered animal imprints. Says Jennifer Romback of the Girl Scout Council of Greater New York, "I'd like to think that Girl Scout cookies are the least of our worries." Indeed.

Clear Skies takes a fat whack

Bush's Clear Skies Act is on life support after a vote today in the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee failed to draw enough support to push the measure to the Senate floor. The committee had been deadlocked 9-9 on the bill for weeks, and James Inhofe (R-Okla.), committee chair, was unsuccessful in his arm-twisting attempts to sway at least one more senator to his side. (Barack Obama [D-Ill.] had been thought a potential swing vote, but he held his ground. Phew.)

As AP's John Heilprin writes, "The committee vote doesn't preclude Republican leaders from bringing the bill to the full Senate for action" -- though they'd have to do it through unconventional methods. "But it also arms opponents with several parliamentary tactics that they can use to defeat it on the Senate floor." Whatever that means.  

Inhofe knew just who to blame: "This bill has been killed by the environmental extremists who care more about continuing the litigation-friendly status quo and making a political statement on CO2 than they do about reducing air pollution."

Ellen Degeneres outbid for titi

The monkey, people. The monkey.

The right to name an unidentified species of titi monkey in Bolivia has been sold for $650,000. No word yet on what the name is, but it has to conform to the rules of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. Presumably that rules out titi jokes. Sigh.

Huh?

Insects dislike the smell of garlic as much as human beings do, according to a Bangladeshi scientist who has used it to develop an environment-friendly alternative to pesticide.

Um, what human beings are we talking about here?

Turning air into water

If I posted about every cool widget that popped up on Treehugger I'd end up doing nothing else, but this particular widget for some reason caught my fancy.

It makes clean water! Out of air!

In five years this thing will be the size of a coffee mug. The Future: Live It!

African life spans, II

A couple days back I posted on an amazing graph of the drop-off of life spans in Africa. Bona fide Africa expert Ethan Zuckerman has a long post up, clarifying and expanding on the graph. It turns out that the graph is perhaps a tad misleading, as it chooses precisely those countries where AIDS has hit the hardest. Of course Ethan doesn't mean to minimize what is an epic tragedy, but he does provide a more balanced picture of what's happening on the continent. Give it a read.

Small farmers and organic

Via WC, a study by the International Fund for Agricultural Development concludes that organic farming offers farmers in developing countries higher earnings and a better standard of living. The higher earnings come from organic product being worth more (duh), and the better standard of living comes from the higher earnings and the not being poisoned with herbicides and pesticides.

I was looking around in there for some reason why the conclusions wouldn't transfer straightforwardly to small farmers in developed countries. The answer seems to lie mainly in transition costs -- since developing world farmers don't really use expensive technologies and chemicals anyway, it's a pretty easy jump to organic (the main impediment being certification and other paperwork).

But still. I'd like to see some sort of similar study done in the U.S. How long would it take for a small U.S. farmer (we still have a few right?) to make back the money he/she spends transitioning to organic? Presumably the data's out there somewhere, but as a rushed, overworked blogger, I think I'll just conclude by asking readers if they know where to find it. (It's called a bleg.)

If you mainstream it, they will come

I took two tidbits away from this interesting Clint Wilder piece on framing clean energy (via Sustainablog). Here's the first:

In opinion research conducted last year in Rhode Island, the Clean Energy States Alliance and marketing consultancy SmartPower found that the label of "clean" energy had a much more positive public reception than "green" (too political), "renewable" (too niche), or "alternative" (too much of an implication that its users must adopt a new lifestyle).

These kinds of things are small but important to know for everybody who writes or talks about environmental issues. Little bits of repetitive framing add up. For my part, I'm going to make a habit of using "clean energy" instead of the alternatives.

Here's the second:

But even when viewing clean energy as positive for the environment, the public was skeptical of its ability to replace fossil fuels.

...SmartPower ran a public information campaign, including TV ads narrated by actor Peter Gallagher spotlighting renewable-powered houses, hospitals, and factories with the tagline, "Clean energy: It's real. It's here. And it's working." The result? A thousand new customers switched to the local utility's green power option in 100 days, and the number of people who agreed that clean energy is as reliable as fossil fuels jumped from 40% to 51% in the same period.

That's a pretty extraordinary shift in opinion in response to one ad campaign.

I draw the same lesson from this that I drew from the news that 75% of people consider themselves "green shoppers" -- there's broad interest in green issues out there. Mainstream America is sniffing around at organic food and clean energy. Folks don't know if the stuff is ready for prime-time, and they're not yet willing to go out of their way (or pay lots more) to support it, but once they're convinced it's legitimate they are willing to take the leap. (See: Prius, Toyota)

There's a huge market waiting.