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Farm Bill to gut wildlife provisions?

The USDA released a set of 2007 farm bill recommendations last week, and it's kinda ugly. Every five years, the bill is reauthorized, and it's important that greens pay attention. Aside from the glaring question of why the U.S. subsidizes its food chain with $20 billion a year that largely determines which crops are grown, the news is that it proposes (PDF) to eliminate the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) and the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP) by rolling them into larger programs that will likely suck the funds up without effecting good policy. These programs are key farm bill conservation programs that provide farmers and ranchers money to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat.

Farms and wildlife can and must coexist. Oodles of proof now on display courtesy of superb grassroots group Wild Farm Alliance.

Surely you jest

This piece in The Boston Globe is packed with hilarity, mostly of the unintended variety. It’s about how the debate over global warming is shifting, and by "shifting" we’re talking […]

From the hills of West Virginia

My good friend Peter Slavin just published the most up-to-date article on mountaintop-removal mining out there.

Here's some information on developing MTR stories:

The Appalachian Coal Field Delegation will be attending the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Conference for the second time this year. The conference runs from April 30-May 11, but Bo Webb learned from experience last year that corporate execs and the bigwigs that matter usually only attend the last week, so this year he and the other delegates will, too. They want to go beyond linking to NGOs with similar interests and goals to form a common language with which to (hopefully) influence U.N. policy. To bring attention to their efforts, the Coal Field Delegation, along with friends and supporters, will host an event in New York. Should attract some pretty big names from what I hear.

A candidate for president of France is quite Obamish

As you may or may not know, France is holding presidential elections this year. The two frontrunners are Nicolas Sarkozy (Chirac’s heir, from the right-wing UMP party) and Ségolène Royal, […]

Get Out of Jail Fee

Dutch company pays nearly $200 million to help resolve Ivory Coast mess Six months after toxic sludge was pumped from a ship and dumped in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, leading to […]

Salon dishes out Grist-like advice

Roz pointed me to this advice column on dishwashing from Salon. In typical hand-wringing, teeth-gnashing style, an eco-aware woman writes a (long, long) letter asking whether it’s OK to buy […]

Wow

This is amazing.

He will green you up

Wow. Just wow.

The B.C. government is trying to out-green California with a sweeping strategy unveiled Tuesday to fight global warming by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions from everything from cars and industry to the daily energy consumption of ordinary people.

As far as I can tell, Campbell's government looked at each of the recent advances in Gov. Ahnold's climate policy in California -- the emission goals, the broad authority to develop a cap and trade system, the vehicle emission standards, policies on electric power -- and tried to take each one a step further.

AEI story

I hope everyone’s seen the piece Andrew and I have up about the AEI brouhaha. I’m never really sure whether Gristmill readers are aware of stuff that gets posted elsewhere […]

Watch in wonder …

… as President Bush chides a child for throwing up a peace sign during a photo-op. Oh, the symbolism. Also, this is just classic: As Bush chatted with some children, […]