Gristmill

Some people get rice and need water; some people get water and need rice

Enviros should pay a lot more attention to stories like this one about the role of grassroots techies in disaster relief in Indonesia. A group of people that met in an online chat room formed the Aceh Media Center, with coordination and funding help from the Indonesian Information Technology Federation, a coalition of nine local business groups. It's an absolutely remarkable tale:

An energy-secure state

There are very few details in the story, but it's intriguing nonetheless: Chhattisgarh, a reasonably undeveloped and biodiverse state in the heart of India, aims to plant some 2.5 million acres of jatropha, a source of bio-fuel, in a bid to become "energy secure."

Chief Minister Raman Singh said the plantations would cover only one million of the state's eight million hectares of wasteland and would provide energy security to the country by saving at least Rs.100 billion ($2.2 billion) on fuel imports every year.

"Besides import savings, jatropha cultivation would give the state Rs.40 billion from the sale of seeds. Reducing hazardous pollution from diesel-pumped vehicles, developing greenery in wasteland areas and providing employment to local population would be the other major advantages," he said.

Hm... using green industry and agriculture to develop and revive rural land while protecting it from old-school, polluting industrial development ... if only there were some other country where that might work ...

Of Motion and Emotion

I seem to have touched a nerve: it seems that more people had an opinion about my posts on the Cascadia Scorecard weblog discussing the Prius and the potential benefits of hybrid SUVs than about anything I'd written before.

My question is: why?

An elevator pitch for environmentalism

Update [2005-3-14 9:31:34 by Dave Roberts]: The Elevator Pitch contest is over! (You can continue suggesting ideas, but they won't be entered in the contest.)

The American Prospect is running a contest: develop an "elevator pitch" for liberalism. An elevator pitch -- familiar to folks desperate to raise money (hi) -- refers to a short, pithy summary of the benefits of one's project. Conservatives, the Prospectors say, have a familiar elevator pitch (strong defense, lower taxes, fewer gay people, etc.), but people are constantly baffled as to what liberalism "stands for." (You can read a few Prospect readers' attempts here.)

"Hm," I thought. "What does environmentalism stand for? Aside from this or that piece of legislation, what is environmentalism's elevator pitch?"

So, with apologies/thanks to the Prospect, I'm ripping off their idea and starting a contest of my own.

Submit an elevator pitch for environmentalism in comments. It must be no more than 30 words. Pitches longer than that will be disqualified. Imagine yourself in an elevator with a skeptical but open-minded Average Citizen. You have seven floors to make your pitch. What does environmentalism offer them? What does it ask of them? What are its core values, its core vision?  Try to limit your comment to a pitch -- if you want to discourse on the larger issue of environmentalism's future, you can do so over on this post.

The winner -- as determined by the Contest Dictator, i.e., me -- will win a highly coveted, fashion-forward, limited-edition, organic-cotton, still-have-a-few-lying-around-the-office, Very First Official Grist T-shirt (VGOFT) (this is on the front; this is on the back).

I'll announce the winner in a couple of weeks. Go to it!

Landsea

Enviros are in a fairly massive worldwide fight right now, trying to convince governments and average citizens alike that global warming is real and that its effects could be devastating. Vested interests of various sorts are trying to paint this as alarmism and hype.

That picture is flattering to enviros, but of course there's more to it than that

The answer, my friend, is basking in the sun

Joel Makower does a quick review of the growing momentum of solar power on the world market, with high-profile moves being made by Sanyo, Sharp, Kyocera, and Mitsubishi. Then he turns to the U.S. solar market, which is lagging:

Reclaiming leadership in the global solar marketplace will be no mean feat. As recently as 1997, U.S. solar companies controlled 100% of the U.S. market and 40% of the global market, according to SEIA. Today, U.S. firms control only 73% and 14%, respectively. In 2003, following several years of growth, shipments from U.S. solar manufacturers actually decreased by 10%, while shipments from Europe grew by 41% and from Japan by 45%.

It is vitally important for enviros to make the point that solar is not some kind of hippie preoccupation -- it's a major world market that is rapidly reaching a tipping point. The U.S. risks being left behind.

This is an industry that offers the possibility of thousands of jobs -- jobs that cannot be offshored, jobs that could potentially revive dying rural areas -- in a market that's only going to grow for the foreseeable future. Yet a combination of corporate clout and political myopia is hobbling our efforts. Tell me again how environmentalists are against economic growth?

45th

The U.S. is the world's 45th greenest country. Finland, Norway, and Uruguay are the top three.

Details below the fold.

Sustainability sunday

If you're not already, I highly recommend stopping by WorldChanging every week for Sustainability Sundays, where the finest minds of our generation blogosphere convene to review the week's developments. Check out the week in sustainable transportation from Mike Millikin of Green Car Congress, the week in green building from Gil Friend of Natural Logic, and the week in green design from Justin Thomas of Metaefficient.

The Daily Show barometer

I finally got around to watching Thursday's edition of the Daily Show. The inauguration coverage was predictably funny, but something else jumped out at me.

Joe Lieberman was the guest (pretty funny guy, as it happens). Jon Stewart asked him, among other things, what his top three priorities would be at the beginning of Bush's second term.

First, Lieberman said, he would stop Bush from messing with Social Security. The crowd roared their approval. Second, he said, he would work with John McCain to persuade Congress and the president to do something about global warming.

The crowd's reaction? Dead silence.

You can watch the interview here.