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Fact check yo’self before you wreck yo’self

Speaking of that question in the second debate, Environment2004 has got a withering piece up demolishing Bush's response, line by line. Half-way through you'll feel almost sorry for the guy, getting pounded like this.  But then you'll go back to feeling sorry for the environment.

Glenn Scherer

Okay, a special thanks to Gristmill readers for keeping this blog accurate and honest. I stand corrected, and with blog on my face. An excellent AP story written by Charles Hanley did indeed run starting on March 20, 2004, in many U.S. papers and worldwide, reporting a disturbingly large increase in atmospheric CO2 for 2003.

Well Run Dry

Many states lack money to enforce Clean Water Act Out of 17 states surveyed, 11 say they do not have the money necessary to fully enforce the Clean Water Act, […]

The story The New York Times didn’t cover

A look at U.S. mainstream media vs. foreign environmental coverage increasingly shows that Europe, Australia, and even India do a better job than we do.

A perfect example of the underreporting by the US press of extraordinarily important climate change news came on October 10th when The Guardian UK announced that, "An unexplained and unprecedented rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere two years running has raised fears that the world may be on the brink of runaway global warming."

When fruitloops attack

Steven Milloy, proprietor of junkscience.com, resident at the regulation-hatin' Cato Institute, and true-blue wingnut, has a hilarious article running on FoxNews.com.  Pay no attention to those who criticize Bush's environmental policies, he says, they are but "left-leaning environmental activists and their supporters in academia."  He lauds Bush for avoiding the "dance of death" that is the Kyoto Protocol, but saves his highest praise for the dysfunctional regulatory process the administration has produced.  "Short of dismantling the EPA in favor of a more rational approach to the environment -- the preferred solution," he says, "the president has done the next best thing by bollixing up the EPA rulemaking process."  Woot!

We’re More Partial to Vasco da Gama

Daily Grist takes break to lament Columbus Day Monday is Columbus Day, on which we celebrate the man who precipitated what may have been one of history’s most egregious and […]

What “Hard Work” Really Looks Like

Iraqi environment minister faces armed attack, underfunding Mishkat Al Moumin, head of Iraq’s Ministry of Environment since June, has an unenviable job. In August, an attack on her convoy left […]

Kenyan eco-activist Wangari Maathai wins Nobel Peace Prize

Wangari Maathai with good reason to smile. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. It is a small room for such a momentous decision. And it’s made even smaller by the impressive portraits […]

Trees for peace

Wangari Maathai, Kenyan woman and founder of the Green Belt Movement, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In a year dominated by the grisly war in Iraq, this is a welcome reminder that disorder and destruction, not just war, are the opposite of peace. See this story for details on the awarding of the 2004 prize.

The Green Belt Movement that Maathai founded has organized rural Kenyan women to plant and maintain twenty million trees; it has also inspired similar movements in other East African countries. Maathai drew world attention to the fact that rural African women, who spend hours each day gathering fuel wood, are disproportionately affected by deforestation. Her Green Belt Movement has been credited with creating job opportunities for thousands of rural women, as well as countering Kenya's alarming rates of deforestation. For a good summary of the Green Belt Movement's work, see this article, written by a Kenyan woman.

What eco-questions would you pose at Friday’s debate?

The Sierra Club has crafted eight queries it would like to see Bush and Kerry hit with during Friday's town-hall-style debate, and it's asking you to vote on the best.  Currently top in the running:  "The Russian government recently announced that it will put the international global-warming treaty into effect by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. The current administration has pulled the United States out of the agreement, even though this country accounts for 25 percent of the world's global warming pollution. How will the United States do their part to curb global warming and stabilize the global climate?"

Meanwhile, a whole gaggle of earth-loving folks -- from reverends and union types to bigwig scientists and a former head of the CIA -- are petitioning [PDF] the Commission on Presidential Debates and the moderators of the two upcoming debates to "include questions about the candidates' plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and promoting clean energy and clean vehicle technologies as urgent matters of both domestic and foreign policy."