Gristmill

Old Macdonald had a GPS unit

This little story in the Fresno Bee speaks volumes. It's about a program at wee West Hills College called "Farm of the Future" that teaches students how to use the latest high-tech farming equipment. These students are in hot demand and are hired straight out of the program, because farm tech is advancing faster than the abilities of typical farmers to keep up with it.

"The jobs are there," said Ted Sheely, who grows a wide range of crops on 8,000 acres near Huron. "We don't have enough qualified people to run the equipment we have." Increasingly, farmers are embracing new technology of the sort Velasquez is using because it brings greater efficiency to their operations. It can save money that years ago might have been spent needlessly on pesticides, fertilizer and water. "This technology doesn't cost; it pays," said Sheely, who loans equipment for students to use, including a $350,000 tractor that has auto steering and an on-board computer. The computer positions the tractor to micromanage applications of chemicals or other products without ripping out drip tape used for irrigation.

For now, the advanced technology is mostly used on the big farms that can afford it. But project out into the future a bit ...

The problem in a nutshell

A majority of Tennesseans approve of President Bush's job performance, but most doubt his ability in several key areas -- cutting taxes, improving health care, protecting the environment, healing the nation's political divisions and protecting the Social Security and Medicare systems, according to a Middle Tennessee State University poll released yesterday.

It is to weep.

Campus Progress

Via The American Prospect, I found CampusProgress.org, a new initiative from the Center for American Progress. It's an attempt to foster progressive action among college students, and as far as I can tell from browsing around, it's not the sort of painfully faux-hip thing you usually see from an effort like this. There are some great articles up, including a basic primer on global warming, a story on student efforts to move their schools over to clean energy, and -- best of all -- a reprint of the very funny Larry David essay on how he became an environmentalist. Here's hoping this reaches somebody other than the earnest middle-aged lefties that conceived it.

Easterschtick

Gregg Easterbrook writes in the NYT today that Bush's Clear Skies legislation is peachy, and darn it, Dems should get behind it. As my boss Chip aptly wondered, why do they keep letting this guy write the same column over and over again?

Hot wind

Frequent Grist contributor Bill McKibben has a column in today's NYT saying that environmentalists should get behind wind energy. He is sympathetic to some enviros' objections and rather gentle toward them.

I fully agree with McKibben, but I can't say I share his sympathy.

Oil and gas exploration is ravaging the American West. The nuclear industry is resurgent. And oh yeah, the globe is frying.

If environmentalists take global warming seriously, and expect others to take it seriously, maybe they shouldn't become bitchy provincialists the minute you want to build a wind turbine that impedes the scenic view off the back porches of their vacation homes.

So Ted Kennedy? Shut up.

(Speaking of wind, there's breaking news on the hotly contested Cape Cod wind farm. Looks like the NIMBYs may win after all.)

Kids say the darnedest … wait a minute …

Who knows where they found them, but yesterday the BBC talked to eight well-spoken young people from around the world about environmental issues. Besides filling your heart with oodles of warmth and light, these teens -- who hail from Japan, India, Ecuador, Kenya, the U.K., and the U.S. -- will probably also make you feel kind of lazy and dumb. They talk about poverty and free trade and sustainability, and describe starting a recycling program, serving as a representative for the U.N. Environment Program, and running a project for street children. Even the kid from the U.S., a country not known for molding the keenest minds, sounds like he knows what he's talking about. Although, curiously, he does use the word "advert."

The new economic powerhouse

This book review of China, Inc. scares me. While green design and social responsibility have taken firm root in Europe and are penetrating the American consciousness, China, as this book review makes clear, is a ruthless economic machine devoted to one thing only: undercutting everybody else's prices. (I wouldn't want to be the one introducing CSR in sweatshops staffed by desperate ex-peasants churning out plastic bunnies, way cheaper than anyone else can make plastic bunnies.)

Gallons and gallons of Kyoto

Kyoto goes into effect tomorrow. You kind of think you generally know what it's about, but you're not really clear on the details. I feel your pain. Luckily, Bruce Sterling's latest Viridian Note -- "Ten Gallons of Kyoto" -- tells you everything you need to know. And I mean everything, all ten gallons of it. I must quote his intro:

Let's face it: it's a big deal that Kyoto has come into force in February 2005. People who are genuinely serious about the Greenhouse issue need some kind of nodding acquaintanceship with the ins and outs of this multilateral national agreement. The following analysis and history was written by Canadian enviros, so at least it seems to be factual and objective, and it lacks the contemptuous, fraudulent bullying and panic-stricken, handwringing qualities typical of every mention of Kyoto in contemporary American media. Therefore I've dumped the thing here in its entirety.

By the way, Sterling is cool, and Veridian is cool, and I don't know why I don't link over there more often. I'm gonna start.

Ain’t it funny how time slips away

We are late on this one -- later than J Lo's apology for sucking, later than the U.S. signing on to Kyoto -- but just in case you missed it: Willie Nelson is getting into the biodiesel business! The iconic singer and three partners have formed "Willie Nelson's Biodiesel," and they're marketing "BioWillie" (a name that somehow conjures former President Clinton, but never mind) to truck stops across the country.

Lots of bloggers have gushed about this already. But here's my favorite part: "I got on the computer and punched in biodiesel and found out this could be the future," Nelson told MSNBC. Willie Googles!

That doesn't make me think of President Clinton at all.