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Questions = disloyalty

From Ron Suskind's new piece in New York Times Magazine:

A writ of infallibility -- a premise beneath the powerful Bushian certainty that has, in many ways, moved mountains -- is not just for public consumption: it has guided the inner life of the White House. As [Christine Todd] Whitman told me on the day in May 2003 that she announced her resignation as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: ''In meetings, I'd ask if there were any facts to support our case. And for that, I was accused of disloyalty!'' (Whitman, whose faith in Bush has since been renewed, denies making these remarks and is now a leader of the president's re-election effort in New Jersey.)

Revealing on so many levels ...

I heart Seth Borenstein

When it comes to the environment (and foreign policy, incidentally), scrappy little Knight Ridder kicks Reuters' and AP's ass.  How?  By telling it like it is, without a flabby layer of "balance" obscuring the truth.  The mainstream media is increasingly crippled by its own conventions.  No matter how outrageous the charge, or clear the facts, the media feels duty bound to present every issue as "he said, she said."  This practice, as many folks have suggested, benefits the people who lie.  Every lie is presented on equal footing with the truth.  It gives readers the impression that nothing is a plain matter of fact, that everything -- the temperature of our atmosphere, the condition of Iraq, the beneficiaries of the tax cut -- is simply a matter of partisan spin.  But of course, with all due respect to Derrida (R.I.P.), there are facts, and real journalists should not be afraid simply to state them.

With that said, I give you Seth Borenstein of Knight Ridder.

We Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

Grist unveils new site and blog, acts like it’s not seeking compliments Regular readers will no doubt have noticed that Grist recently unveiled an all-new website design, with a better […]

MDGs: You make the call

Now is your chance to have a say at the U.N.

Jeff Sachs' Millennium Project has produced a draft report of its Global Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals and it is open for public comment until Nov. 1.  U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.N. Development Programme chief Mark Mallach Brown asked Sachs to honcho ten task forces with 250 experts to formulate a game plan for achieving the eight ambitious MDGs by 2015.  The final report is to be delivered to the SG in January.

Although the MDGs have gained little political traction in Washington, many outside the United States are utilizing the education, health, environment, poverty, hunger, and governance targets to set agendas, leverage resources, and in the case of some NGOs, hold national governments accountable for the targets they signed up for at the 2000 Millennium Summit.  Not many are optimistic about meeting goals like halving the proportion of people without access to clean water by 2015.  But we lose nothing by trying, so bring it on.

Umbra on lead pipes and drinking water

Dear Umbra, I live in New York City, which is reputed to have some of the best drinking water in the U.S. But I also happen to live in an […]

Geoff Dabelko

It was fitting that recognition of environment's links to conflict and security came out of Norway last week when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Wangari Maathai of Kenya for her decades-long work through her Green Belt Movement.  We often count on the Norwegians, and the Nordics in general, to get it right early and for the rest of us to catch up.

In fact it was nearly twenty years ago when Gro Harlem Brundtland, then Prime Minister of Norway, chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development, a group of international bigwigs that authored the influential volume Our Common Future.  We remember that 1987 book that set the agenda for the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio for its widely accepted definition of sustainable development (meeting the needs of current generations without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own). But often forgotten is the chapter where the Brundtland Commission explicitly traced the destructive links between environment, conflict, and security.

So it was doubly disappointing to read in The New York Times the disparaging quotes from officials of both right and left-leaning parties in Norway in the wake of the announcement.

Live chat about the environment in election 2004

At 1pm ET on Monday, The Washington Post is hosting a live chat with Deb Callahan, president of the League of Conservation Voters.  Go submit a question and tune in when it gets underway.  If you feel you simply must mention Grist, well, who am I to stop you?

UPDATE: It's underway. Head on over.

UPDATE: It's over, but it's still on the site. It was mildly interesting -- as much as hasty replies in one hour can be. My efforts to submit a question subtly hyping Grist were for naught. Sigh.

Ineffectual protest: it’s what minority parties do

Earlier this week we pointed to a story about the Bush administration going lightly on a practice called "hydraulic fracturing," a method of getting more oil and gas out of the ground that may or may not pollute groundwater and most definitely represents considerable profits for a lil' company called Halliburton.  An EPA official -- Weston Wilson, an environmental engineer -- involved into the agency's analysis of the practice is seeking formal whistle-blower protection, saying the study was flawed and biased.  (He is one of an unusual number of whistle-blowers popping up in the Bush administration, as this story makes clear.  Wonder why?)

Anyway, it's unlikely it will go anywhere, but five members of Congress -- four Dems and Jim Jeffords (I!) -- have petitioned the EPA inspector general to investigate the matter. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) even had the temerity to wonder whether "political considerations improperly influenced" the EPA study.  Perish the thought!  

Developing.  (Maybe.)

Potomac Daddies

Male bass in Potomac River laying eggs Male bass in the South Branch of the Potomac River in West Virginia are laying eggs. This is not behavior that people in […]

Frog and Toad Are Dead

One-third of amphibians threatened with extinction If it is true that amphibians are, as Conservation International’s Russell Mittermeier puts it, “one of nature’s best indicators of overall environmental health,” then […]