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Oxygen-deprived area kills crabs and fish

In 2002, scientists discovered a large "dead zone" -- a marine area that has virtually no oxygen and thus can't support life -- off the coast of Oregon. Dead zones are occurring with increasing frequency all over the world. Scientists believe that changes in weather -- sound familiar? -- are contributing to the ever increasing size of the Oregon dead zone. This summer's dead zone is one of the worst. Thousands of dead Dungeness crab, sea stars, and other marine life carpet the ocean floor. Check out this video that made Al Pazar, chairman of the Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission and a crab fisherman himself, "weak in the knees."

The Grass is Always Meaner on the Other Side

Genetically modified grass found in the wild In what could be the first confirmed instance of a genetically modified plant growing outside a farm in the U.S., EPA ecologists have […]

From Bad to Thirst

Water crisis doesn’t care if countries are rich or poor Water crisis: not just for poor countries anymore. Industrialized nations must make drastic policy changes if they wish to maintain […]

Talking point: The environmentalist yes

Advocates of nuclear energy, coal gasification, and other hold-your-nose-and-take-your-medicine energy alternatives frequently bully opponents by saying that there's no other way to fight global warming.

If you really cared about global warming, the rhetoric goes, you'd put your effete, nitpicky objections aside for the greater good. After all, global warming is an urgent problem, and these are the only solutions we have!

This is more or less the pro-nuke line taken by James Lovelock and Stewart Brand, and the pro-gasification line taken by Montana governor Brian Schweitzer. There are plenty of other examples.

Problem is, it's not true.

Bicycling highs

You know what kills me? We have perfected a transportation technology that could make a huge dent in CO2 emissions and in liquid-fuel consumption -- and it's barely utilized. I know it gets tiresome hearing bike enthusiasts harp about their passion, but if you could eliminate most of the reasons people don't ride bikes, you would have an awful lot of bike riders.

Walking tall tale

Looking for something else, I came across a web page that makes this rather startling claim:

[W]alking actually uses more fossil energy than driving, if the calories burned from walking come from a typical American diet.

The crux of the claim is that the North American food system uses so much fossil fuel -- for manufacturing fertilizer and pesticides, running farm machinery, transporting food from farm fields to stores and homes, powering refrigerators and stoves, etc. -- that producing the food calories to power a one mile walk uses up more fossil fuel energy than a typical car burns in a one-mile drive.

That seemed counterintuitive, to be sure -- but not completely ridiculous. So I spent some time looking at the issues.

As far as I can tell, the web page is probably wrong: walking is more energy-efficient than driving.

However, they're closer than I might have thought.

Farmivores unite!

Tom's great post reminded me of this opinion piece by Tamar Haspel in yesterday's Washington Post. Having spent a fair amount of my childhood on my godfather's cattle ranch in central Texas, which because of his penny-wise ways was practically organic before organic was cool, I have a strong affection for farms, farmers, ranches, ranchers, and a good steak. Luckily for me, my part of Washington, D.C., has readily accessible organic meat and vegetables from farms in the region, so sign me up as a "farmivore." Anybody else want to join me?

David Mas Masumoto breaks down the joy and pain of farming.

This post marks the launch of "Edible Media," an occasional look at interesting or deplorable food journalism on the web.

Food coverage in The New York Times Sunday Magazine has been in a funk for a while now. Aside from the odd trenchant bit of commentary from Michael Pollan, the magazine's weekly food section has been slight and generally forgettable.

This past Sunday, though, the magazine ran a terrific piece on farming by David Mas Masumoto, a California fruit farmer and writer.

Ever wandered into a farmers market and seen a bleary-eyed farmer sitting behind mounds of gorgeous produce, and wondered why the hell he's charging so much? Read this piece.

Regarding a field full of ripe fruit but on the verge of a weed explosion, Masumoto conjures the most vivid description of weeds from a farmer's perspective I've ever read:

Green Bean counting

Chicago, like several other cities, has a Green Permit Program (PDF) that grants faster building permits for green buildings. Erik Olsen, the program's administrator, gets to scrutinize every single green building in the entire city. Luckily for us, Erik recently started GreenBean, a blog profiling the blueprints that cross his desk.

So far, he's posted eight building profiles, including two single-family houses (both in my neighborhood -- must be my aura), high-rise offices, and the rehab of a YMCA into subsidized housing. For each, he notes the level of green-ness, unusual green techniques used, and perhaps a little back story about quirky geothermal wells or an underappreciated project manager who pushed the green angle.

Faux green

I'm not sure I would want to live in a house made out of power-plant fly ash, but hey, any idea in a storm. I attended a catered open house the other night (wine, beer, you name it) sponsored by a manufacturer of construction materials. The original 100 year-old, two-story home had been demolished and sent to a landfill, which meant that the land by itself was worth half a million dollars. The new 4,000 square home is unfinished, having just been framed up, and sits on less than an eighth of an acre. The young owners eventually arrived to partake in the festivities.