Gristmill

Frankenforest

Interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor on genetically modified trees that absorb more carbon, grow faster, are pest-resistant, and other such quasi-miraculous qualities. I have mixed feelings about genetic modification, which I suppose makes me an apostate in the enviro movement, wherein one is supposed to be reflexively against any such tampering. But why? This story is a good example -- there's a lot of handwaving about the dangers, but very little empirical evidence, or even reasoned argument, about them.

Industrial freecycling

In the tradition of freecycling, NYC-based WasteMatch offers companies the ability to post their waste to a website, in case some other company has a use for, say, hundreds of cardboard boxes.  The idea is to save on waste-disposal fees -- thus the slogan, "Out of your dumpster, onto your bottom line."

Just one of many great environmentally friendly ideas that offer a genuine service, make a profit, and require no government intervention.

(via Treehugger)

Much more on framing

Speaking of WorldChanging (and speaking of framing), Alex Steffen has an absolutely stellar post over there on ways environmentalists can frame their issues more successfully.

I highly, highly recommend that everyone read it. Seriously. Go now. It connects to what I was trying to say here, and what I was trying to say here, but does so more thoroughly and insightfully, and gives the concrete examples that I'm sure we're all hungry for. Bravo, Alex.

UPDATE: Also worth checking out: some clarification on framing from Kevin Drum.

Metabloggery

Mike Millikin's Green Car Congress is the best place to keep up with the action in sustainable personal transportation.  WorldChanging is the best place to keep up with futuristic sustainability issues of a dizzying variety.

Every Sunday, Mike contributes a post to WorldChanging, summarizing the week's developments in green transport. It's always good. This week's is no exception. Make it a weekly read.

Salmon, haiku, Grist

The scrappy B.C.-based alternative online journal The Tyee recently published an interesting pair of point-counterpoint sytle pieces on farmed salmon. The first claimed farmed B.C. salmon were escaping into the wild; the second claimed that the first was hokum.

But enough about salmon. Let's talk about the contest Tyee is running in conjunction with the pieces. It asks readers to send in ... haiku ... hey, wait a minute!  That sounds familiar!

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, well, consider us flattered.

Organic is becoming popular … the horror!

An article in CorpWatch adeptly summarizes what strikes me as a classic dilemma facing enviro(nmentalist)s: Organic food is becoming more popular and the organic food industry is growing.  As it grows, large corporations are taking an interest, buying small organic companies, and attempting to supersize organic farming operations. By some estimates the percentage of organic food sold by organic markets has fallen from over 60 percent to just over 30 percent -- the rest taken up by Wal-Marty type stores (and a miniscule percentage by farmers' markets, food-buying clubs, and the like). Organic is going corporate.

Reactions, as you would expect, are split.

Celebrate Buy Nothing Day at Wal-Mart

This Friday I'll join culture jammers and lazy-asses the world over in celebrating Buy Nothing Day (inspired by those jammers exemplar over at Adbusters). Stick it to The Man by sitting on your duff; dig it.

More energetic rabble-rousers are encouraged to head to the nearest lair of Beelzebub (Wal-Mart, yo), not to feed the beast, but to congest the aisles as part of a Whirl-Mart Consumption Awareness Ritual. (See live action video of such!)

Free the radicals

Dave's recent essay falsely equates being "radical" with being "violent." Violence and radicalism are not the same. Being a "radical" just means you want to see significant, fundamental changes to society -- say, a real, true shift to sustainability or an economy that actually values people and the environment over monetary profit. These are changes, I am willing to bet, that a large number of environmentalists would love to see. They are also radical. They would require a fundamental change to society. But does that shift have to include violence? Absolutely not.

Worldwatch kerfuffle

World Watch magazine's controversial article by Mac Chapin on how the Big Three conservation organizations are shafting indigenous peoples roiled the waters not just at those groups (World Wildlife Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and Conservation International) but at Worldwatch itself. The upshot: The magazine's editor is fleeing the coop.