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Avian flu is on its way, and we are not prepared

Never let it be said that I ignore signs sent to me by the internet gods.

Today two of the smartest folks I know separately wrote me and urged me to blog about the rising threat of avian flu and the developed world's dangerous inaction. Instead, I'm going to let them do it for me.

Tom's Dispatch is hosting a stellar piece of writing by Mike Davis, author of the just-released The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu. It is a fairly easy-to-read primer on the threat the flu poses and the state of our preparedness (which is not -- spoiler alert -- good). Here's a taste:

As for a universally available "world vaccine," it remains a pipe-dream without new, billion-dollar commitments from the rich countries, above all the United States, and even then, we are probably too late.

"People just don't get it," Dr. Michael Osterholm, the outspoken director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota recently complained. "If we were to begin a Manhattan Project-type response tonight to expand vaccine and drug production, we wouldn't have a measurable impact on the availability of these critical products to sufficiently address a worldwide pandemic for at least several years."

"Several years" is a luxury that Washington has already squandered. The best guess, as the geese head west and south, is that we have almost run out of time. As Shigeru Omi, the Western Pacific director of WHO, told a UN meeting in Kuala Lumpur in early July: "We're at the tipping point."

Whee!

Taking a slightly more can-do tone, WC's Alex Steffen challenges bloggers and civilians alike to spread awareness of the threat in hopes we can collaborate our way out of it. He also has links to a number of resources and background materials. Of particular interest is this guide to spreading the word without spreading panic, by two World Health Organization communication advisors.

I highly recommend you read both pieces, educate yourself about the danger, and start pushing your state and federal representatives to put money behind serious preparation efforts.

Gas prices skyrocket

The USA Today headline blares: $3 a gallon. But the paper is not alone. The reason everyone is talking about the surge in prices is that everyone is paying for it. Everyone is starting to employ their own personal favorite gas-saving tactics, but this means different things for different people.

Both MSNBC and the LA Times have reactions to gas prices today. Between the two they run the gamut, everything from people who aren't complaining at all to people who have decided that a bicycle (or a scooter!) is their mode of transportation from now on.

We’ve already collected nature quotes — how about some quotes on energy

And I don't mean oil futures ...

Dave got a lot of people to contribute their favorite quotes on nature last month. I was recently asked about famous energy quotes and drew a complete blank.

Can you, uhm, enlighten me? Leave your faves in the comments.

Smokey and Mirrors

Feds cut estimated economic worth of recreation in national forests During the Clinton administration, the U.S. Forest Service estimated that by the year 2000, recreation in national forests would contribute […]

Consider This a Bear Hug

Fervent support from Grist readers brings a tear to our eye Really, you’re too much. Our two-week fundraiser is over, and more than 1,000 of you responded to our desperate, […]

Diary of a Mad Black River

Millions of gallons of liquid cow manure flow into N.Y. river At some point last week — nobody’s quite sure when — one wall of an earthen reservoir on one […]

A No Life on Lease

Court ruling blocks new oil drilling off California coast New oil and gas drilling off the California coast has been effectively thwarted, thanks to a federal court ruling last Friday. […]

Sprawl is often thought to erode social capital, but the evidence is mixed

In Bowling Alone, Robert Putnam argues that the decline of social capital in the U.S. can be attributed partly to urban form. In other words, according to Putnam, sprawl is at least partly to blame for the present derth of bowling leagues. But is it really?

Putnam's arguments (summarized at the end of Chapter 12) are threefold.

1. "Sprawl takes time": more time alone in a car and less for civic engagement.
2. "Sprawl is associated with increasing social segregation," and that segregation has led to less community participation.
3. "Sprawl disrupts community 'boundedness'," and that physical fragmentation reduces social involvement.

Although Putnam's claim -- that sprawl erodes social capital -- is widely referenced, my survey of the evidence makes me suspicious. My objections are threefold.

Conservation easements and taxes

The Los Angeles Times reports today on the Bonnheim ranch, a recently minted conservation easement. There is some controversy over the ranch because its owners are permitting logging on the premises, which doesn't sound like conservation to many people in the area.

My high school English teacher had an expression: show, don't tell. The article is a powerful anecdote that reveals many of the issues surrounding land trusts and conservation easements, by giving just one example.

Whenever trusts or easements come up, my first thought is this: the agreement is forever, or at least it can be (if this is incorrect, someone please let me know). The up-front price of the land is the bargain of the century when you look at it that way. It surprises me that more land isn't bought and donated to easements or trusts, especially given the other financial incentives to do so, like tax deductions.

Why CAFTA sucks: Reason #82

Daphne Eviatar spells it out nicely in a Washington Post op-ed: