Articles by Emily Gertz

Conservationists vs. indigenous peoples?

Conservation Refugees is a gutsy feature from the November/December issue of Orion Magazine, describing how the biodiversity-preservation efforts of the world's biggest conservation groups are getting indigenous peoples thrown off their ancestral lands.

It's no secret that millions of native peoples around the world have been pushed off their land to make room for big oil, big metal, big timber, and big agriculture. But few people realize that the same thing has happened for a much nobler cause: land and wildlife conservation. Today the list of culture-wrecking institutions put forth by tribal leaders on almost every continent includes not only Shell, Texaco, Freeport, and Bechtel, but also more surprising names like Conservation International (CI), The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Even the more culturally sensitive World Conservation Union (IUCN) might get a mention.

Rebuilding New Orleans: Corps can’t fix levees by hurricane season

Just in case you missed it: A fascinating and sobering feature ran a few days ago on National Public Radio on promises vs. reality in rebuilding New Orleans.

As Dave notes in his Top Five of 2005, a big facet of the Katrina story is how unprepared we are for climate disasters. Daniel Zwerdling's report from New Orleans suggests that's sinking in at the local level in The Big Easy, despite Bush administration attempts at spin. Walter Maestri, the man who runs emergency operations in New Orleans' biggest suburb, Jefferson Parish, where there was a major levee failure, doubts that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can fulfill their promise that the levees will be rebuilt -- properly -- in time for 2006's hurricanes. In fact, his whole sense of who and what he can believe has been upended:

The Army Corps took decades to design and build the New Orleans levee system -- and that system failed in spectacular ways. Given that fact, Maestri questions how the Corps can assert that they already know how to fix those past mistakes. Pointing to a new steel wall that the Corps is erecting along the 17th Street Canal, Maestri notes that similar walls crumpled like tin foil during Katrina along other parts of the levee.

"We really felt all along that the Corps was a group that we could absolutely trust," Maestri says. "They wouldn't do sloppy work, or allow sloppy work. They realized that this community basically lives and dies on the strength of those levees. Now, what's happened -- it's like finding out that your mother lied to you all the years of your life."

Click here to read the whole story.

Ever thought about the toxins in your sex toys?

So you’re an Enlightened Green Consumer. You buy organic food and carry it home from the local market in string bags. Your coffee is shade-grown and fair-trade, your water’s solar-heated, and your car is a hybrid. But what about the playthings you’re using for grown-up fun between those organic cotton sheets — how healthy and […]

Are we headed for peak pony?

One day you're just walking around, minding your own business, licking your liberal/progressive wounds and contemplating years and years of wandering in the political desert.

Next thing you know, you've got a schadenfreude sugar buzz:

... Republican woes have been a boon for the pony markets, which have seen prices soar to historic highs due to increased demand from ecstatic liberals. This spike in demand has led many experts to warn of a near-term pony shortage, and led to fears that the world may be approaching "Peak Pony", the point at which nations are no longer able to meet their vital pony needs.

For most of the 20th century, ponies were primarily used as imaginary companions for giggling pre-teen girls. However, the market base for ponies has expanded considerably in recent weeks and months, as liberal euphoria has reached such giddy heights that only brightly-colored, silken-maned, magical sparkly friendly talking flying ponies are capable of expressing.

"The problem is two-fold," explains Goldman-Sachs senior pony analyst Holden. "A combination of irrational Bush-hatred among liberals and irrational exuberance among pony speculators has led to this spike in demand for what is, after all, a finite resource. At the same time, decades of complacency on the part of the world governments has let a manageable problem evolve into a full-blown crisis. Now the Congress wants to open the Strategic Pony Reserve to try to bring prices under control. It's too little, too late."

Read more about the coming of peak pony ...