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Mother’s Day
The Green life has some tips on eco-friendly Mother's Day Gifts. (Yup, it's this Sunday. Get on it!)
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Management guru ponders its weakness.
Business/management guru Tom Peters reads the ongoing series on global warming in the New Yorker and wonders:
Why is an issue that is so grave and so real so poorly understood? Why has the issue of global warming been so poorly marketed? Why is the brand called "The Global Warming Catastrophe" such a weak brand? What can—and should—be done?
Read the comments under his post. It's a pretty revealing snapshot of current attitudes on global warming.
(On an unrelated note, what possible justification can Powers have for having his site -- and presumably his "brand" -- be titled "tompeters!" Did he not get the exclamation-points-are-odious memo?)
(Via Treehugger)
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You Like Us, You Really Like Us!
Grist wins Webby Award Aw, shucks! Y’all know we produce this magazine for completely selfless reasons, so far be it from us to flounce about indulging in unseemly celebration just […]
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Out of Tuna
Bluefin tuna, unable to swim inside the lines, at risk of extinction Apparently western Atlantic bluefin tuna don’t understand the concept of fisheries quotas, and may soon face extinction because […]
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Iceland Is Your Land
Last chance to enter Iceland sweepstakes OK, some of you are sick of hearing about Iceland, but others of you are sitting on your hands, bouncing a little, like the […]
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Umbra on mulch
Dear Umbra, Spring is upon us and the season for spreading shredded bits of trees around our landscaping is here. How does Umbra feel about the utility of mulching, and […]
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Offering a balanced policy would mean admitting that some of the groups they’ve demonized are right
Via Ezra Klein , I see that periodically contrarian conservo-blogger John Cole has good post up about energy policy (also read through the comments on both posts -- there's some good stuff). Here's Cole's proposal for a balanced energy policy:
1.) Domestic drilling 2.) Research for alternative fuel sources other than the outrageous slush-fund known as ethanol subsidies, which should be exhibit A in any argument against having the Iowa Caucus first. 3.) Increased Cafe standards 4.) Radical improvements to Clean Coal 5.) Nuclear plant construction and research in storage of nuclear waste, as well as an administration and Congress with the political will to actually store the waste somewhere, rather than the rag-tag temporary storage everywhere in the country. 6.) Tax credits and incentives for fuel efficient vehicles, energy efficient appliances, energy efficient homes 7.) Increased refining capacity 8.) Increase oil exploration and smart extraction policies 9.) Conservation campaigns 10.) And for goodness sakes, end the tax loophole for SUV's. Are we out of our damned minds?
I don't agree with all of it -- in particular, drilling in the Arctic Refuge for symbolism's sake is just dumb -- but here's the thing: If a U.S. administration came out pushing for this policy, I would dance a friggin' jig (though not, perhaps, as Ezra says, " kill the goddamn caribou myself to help it pass").
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New journal focuses cross-disciplinary work on sustainability.
I have a soft spot for titles that include the kitchen sink and lack what we'll call concision. It comes from regular attempts to bring together strange bedfellows with our Environmental Change and Security Project at the Woodrow Wilson Center.
So I was heartened and not put off when I received notice of a new open source ejournal Sustainability: Science, Practice, & Policy. As explained in an inaugural editorial by journal advisor and renowned biologist E. O. Wilson, "[t]he goal of the publication -- to establish a forum for cross-disciplinary discussion of natural and social sciences, practices, and policies related to sustainability -- is an important step toward creating achievable sustainable practices through buy-in and consensus."
Such forums at the science -policy interface are too few and far between. This one promises to have a chance to make a difference, even if reading the inaugural issue suggests it will err on the scholarly side of readability. The journal's private and public backers, CSA, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), and Conservation International (CI), bring some diverse ends and means to the table.
