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Earthquake

Our hearts go out to all those affected by the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in South Asia. For more info, visit Wikipedia. For links to firsthand accounts, visit WorldChanging. For ways to help, visit this blog.

In case you weren’t convinced about the horrors of dioxin …

just look at the face of Ukranian presidential candidate Victor Yushchenko (before and after photos here).  Yikes. The bizarre case of his poisoning has brought renewed attention to this frightening substance, a byproduct of herbicide manufacturing, paper milling, waste incineration, and other nasty industrial processes.  

As BushGreenwatch points out, the Bushies are dragging their feet on curbing dioxin pollution, both domestically and internationally. "They've done nothing in regulations, and I don't see anything on dioxin moving on the federal level in the next four years," said Lois Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice and an activist who made a name for herself by fighting for justice at Love Canal.

One might think this ghastly, high-profile assassination attempt -- complete with very public, physical evidence of the horrific damage dioxin can do -- could provide a needed kick in the pants. But don't hold your breath.  

Vacation: not just for Europeans any more

As alert readers know, every year around this time, Grist takes a two-week publishing break, while we staffers try to get used to being away from a keyboard for a while. The finger-twitching usually dies down right about the time we have to come back.

The break starts Monday, and consequently posting will be very light, possibly (one can hope!) absent entirely.

We'll be back on Jan. 3, with some exciting developments for Gristmill. Stay tuned.

Green bytes

Some tips over at About.com on greening your high-tech purchases.

Wangari Maathai’s Nobel Lecture

Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai, in Oslo, Norway, on Dec. 10, 2004:

The Gonad Test

Joel Gallob, who writes for the Newport (Oregon) News, has a fascinating column on Tidepool.

It points out the awful time lag between how fishing is regulated and how fish populations change. There's too much fishing when fish populations plummet and too little fishing when populations surge. And he suggests an ingenious mechanism -- involving the gonads of female black rockfish -- for synchronizing fishing with fish numbers. Check it out.

And to All a Good Fortnight

We’re leaving for two weeks; we’ll miss you As is our yearly custom, Grist will be taking a two-week publishing break, starting Monday. We’ll return on Jan. 3, rested and […]

Regular Folk

Human compost boosts harvests in Mozambique The more than 2,500 residents of Mozambique’s impoverished village of Matimangwe have harnessed the power of their poo to fertilize their crops, and the […]

You’ve Got Whale

Feds propose threatened status for Puget Sound orcas The National Marine Fisheries Service yesterday proposed giving threatened status to a population of 80-some orcas that spend their summers in Washington […]

Stossel and Crichton, a match made in … uh …

Noted hack John Stossel has found a true brother-in-hackery.  On Dec. 10's 20/20, Stossel effusively praised Crichton's new book State of Fear (more on that here, and more to come), which purports to expose global warming as a media scare story perpetrated by Hollywood liberals and, oh, you know, all the usual winger suspects.

He offered no countervailing view (from, say, a scientist), instead interviewing a woman ready to pee her pants in fear after seeing The Day After Tomorrow -- presumably representative of the hysteria on the issue. The rest of the segment was devoted to lionizing the "brave" Crichton, who is allegedly taking a great risk by publishing this media-friendly, sensationalist execrement.  Read the whole gory story here.