Gristmill

It’s all about oil

Yesterday we pointed to a story about China's alliance-making with global bad actors, part of its efforts to quench its growing thirst for oil. In today's Washington Post, Robin Wright follows up, focusing on Iran. Readers of James Fallows' seminal article on Iran in the new Atlantic Monthly know that our options around that country's nuclear ambitions are already few and grim -- an alliance with China is certainly not going to help that situation.

Hope springs delusional

On Monday we wrote about Oregon voters' rather ... what's the word? ... shortsighted approval of Measure 37, which many folks felt would eviscerate the state's largely successful (if slightly bloated and overly complex) land-use planning rules.  Today, Ore. Gov. Ted Kulongoski said that voters didn't actually mean to eviscerate the program, and that he would pay out Measure 37 claims to landowners rather than abandon the rules.  

Good luck with that, Ted.

David Hunnicutt, head of the property-rights group that pushed the measure, promptly replied: "Ninety-nine out of a hundred people who've had their rights taken from them don't want a check. They just want the ability to use their land the way they could when they purchased it." Why, it's almost like he did want to eviscerate the rules!

Not wanting to commit political suicide, Kulongoski rushed to assure voters that he wouldn't do anything crazy, like raising taxes.  Instead, he'd pay out the claims by taking money from other programs -- say, "health programs, programs for senior citizens, and help for low-income children and families." Lovely.

Arnold. Dude.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (I can't believe I know how to spell that name from memory now) continues to cause cognitive dissonance in the enviro mind, coming out in support of Bush's plan to gut the Roadless Rule.

UPDATE: Wyoming Gov. Dave Freduenthal (D), however, thinks the plan sucks. But then, he doesn't think much of Clinton's original Roadless Rule either.

Isn’t it ironic

Mark W. Anderson reflects on the irony that global warming may soon melt the arctic enough to allow for additional oil and gas exploration there.

Green Bay Backers

The New York Times editorial page today waded into the mucky controversy over pollution of Indonesia's Buyat Bay by the Colorado-based Newmont Mining Corp., the world's biggest plunderer -- oops, I mean producer -- of gold. The Times' Jane Perlez has covered this saga -- which has involved, among other exciting bits, jail time for mining execs, high-stakes lawsuits, dueling scientific reports, and birth deformities -- more comprehensively than any other reporters, to my knowledge (see here and here).  

Watch Water Wiz

Fresh water continues to fight for a fraction of the attention and resources commonly devoted to Northern favorites biodiversity and climate change. It shouldn't be a zero sum game, but that is a rant for a different day.

If you want to hear one of the world's water experts, tune in on-line Wednesday, November 17 at 10 am EST to hear Dr. Peter Gleick, director of the Pacific Institute and MacArthur genius award winner, discuss his new book The World's Water 2004-2005: The Biennial Report on Freshwater Resources. Every two years Peter and his colleagues put out a new World's Water volume with a mix of critical topics. This year's edition covers the inadequate commitment to the Millennium Development Goals, the myth and reality of bottled water, the privatization controversy, the economic value of water, the unsustainable use of groundwater, and climate change's effect on water resources.

This session with Peter Gleick is the first of many webcast meetings here at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, my home institution, which I will occasionally plug.  
UPDATE: A summary of this meeting including Dr. Gleick's powerpoint slides is now available.

Whither the environmental movement? III

(Part I is here; part II is here.)

I was going to do a policy post next, but an insightful comment from reader Sandy M got me thinking again about framing.

The second piece of unsolicited-with-good-reason advice I'd give the environmental movement, with apologies to Apple computer, is: Talk different.

It's time for enviros to think in a more careful and calculated way about the way they frame their issues. Progressives are forever wedded to the idea that the unvarnished truth is all we need: Give the people the facts and they'll draw the right conclusions. "That," says UC Berkeley professor and newly minted pundit George Lakoff, "has been a disaster."

Electoral gasp, scientific progress

In the shadow of an election that left many environmentalists gasping for air, a scientific meeting in New Orleans yielded a series of results that at first, second, and perhaps third blush are stunning.

Covered by science reporter Janet Raloff in the newest issue of Science News, they identify new links between environment and health, including a common plastic additive (phthalates) and babies' reproductive development; uranium and cancer in Navajo girls; and DDT and miscarriage in China.

Hydrogen girlie man?

Schwarzenegger blusters on about building a Hydrogen Highway in "the great state of California," but little ol' D.C. has beat him to the punch on one key front. This week, the District of Columbia became host to the first hydrogen-dispensing pump at a public gas station in North America.

Green-leaning folks may or may not think the hydrogen revolution is an admirable or even attainable goal, but it seems to be inching forward nonetheless.  Or, considering the fact that the new Shell-owned pump will be servicing a mere six demonstration minivans owned by GM, millimetering forward?

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams could take a few lessons from Arnold on enthusiasm, though. "This is a good thing, unless I'm missing something," was the most effusive praise he could muster at the opening bash for the new pump.