This week's TIME has a big package of stories on global warming. Upping the ante on the de rigueur "10 things you can do," the magazine offers a whopping 51, an odd mix of large structural reforms and consumer tips like drying your clothes on a clothesline.
Coming in at No. 1? Ethanol. Oy. Then again, a carbon tax comes in at No. 5, so all is not lost. Also earning the DR thumbs up: geothermal heat, urban living, cutting down on meat, supporting farmers markets, and just for the weirdness factor, avoiding left turns.
Elsewhere in the issue, you can find:
- an extensive summary of current efforts to tackle the problem, containing the usual biofuels > clean coal > green building > corporate greening > political climate changing > what about China and India? > rousing conclusion narrative structure,
- a piece by Mark Hertsgaard on adaptation,
- a cool interactive graphic of a green home,
- a short bit on Ed Begley,
- a woefully insufficient blurb on the biofuels vs. food question, and
- a bit on tax incentives for going green.
There isn't much here that will be new to regular Grist readers -- except maybe in Hertsgaard's piece, which is the best of the bunch -- but this is just the sort of magisterial, graphically rich overview that ginormo companies like Time-Warner can produce with their ginormo budgets.
Hopefully it will have a transformative effect on Middle America. Or at least raise an eyebrow or two between episodes of American Idol.
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Comments
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caniscandida Posted 1:17 am
02 Apr 2007
Anyway, yes, Hertsgaard's nice-and-easy discussion of "adaptation" and "mitigation" reminds me to mention that Grist should have an environmentalist lexicon, or glossary, defining those terms, and many more. That way, we would not have to endure the "cool kids" saying stuff like, "Well, you know what DR says about mitigation, bla bla ... ," without knowing what to shoot back.
On left turns: Yes, they can be Purgatory. And unfortunately, where my parents live, they must make a left turn from their street to most of their destinations; and my father is pretty much a hazard at the wheel. (Stay away from Abington and Jenkintown, PA!) (In fairness, I am no driving star myself; but then again, I do not drive. Thank God!) Presumably the traffic engineers and the fuel-consumption engineers will do the calculations, to figure out how turning left compares to going across and doing a loop-de-loop.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Delay And Deny Posted 1:28 am
02 Apr 2007
(1) Buy more bathing suits. Microbikinis are welcome.
(2) Get in shape -- we'll be wearing lighter clothing like Brazilians -- who wants to look at a 350 lb guy in Bermuda shorts?
(3) Plan on having more money in the bank because of spending less on heating and other energy.
(4) Sell your home. With new land opening up housing prices will continue to plummet.
(5) Buy land in central canada or offshore. When tundra melts and the sea levels fall: buying opportunities!
(6) Plan more vacations: increased warming increases productivity. The 4 day workweek may re-emerge.
(7) Buy some Bombay Sapphire. G&T's always great for a warm winter on the veranda.
The Texeme Construct offers international text memetics construction and textcasting services. http://www.you-read-it-here-first.com
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Trebuchet Posted 5:20 am
02 Apr 2007
These are the things people need to do to get ready for Global Warming:
(3) Plan on having more money in the bank because of spending less on heating and other energy.
No, plan on having less money in the bank as you're paying more for the increases flooding damage to your homes, your cars, and indirectly through prices increases in food.
(4) Sell your home. With new land opening up housing prices will continue to plummet.
How will new land open up while sea levels rise? Is there some bizarro world you live in that the rest of us don't?
(5) Buy land in central canada or offshore. When tundra melts and the sea levels fall: buying opportunities!
It seems that permafrost melting is pretty much only decimating communities that are built upon it, forcing many costs infrastructure repairs to the structures themselves, as well as to roadways that access such communities. Once it's all melted, well, that soil isn't very good for farming and there's not lots of other reasons to move to such locales yet.
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caniscandida Posted 5:49 am
02 Apr 2007
As for "trolls": It is up to you to call them as you see them. I know what you are talking about, and I do not find them at all pleasant.
Chickens are our cousins!
So are other sensitive animals!
Enough is enough!
No more factory farms!
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Zarkov Posted 9:44 am
02 Apr 2007
dangerous propaganda... as the world is twirled in BS and the spin-talk twaddles the brains of all
the world's people,... the climate is marching onwards, the sea is getting hotter everyday.... hotter and hotter, inexorably towards the extinction of civilisation and even LIFE itself.
Hey ava nava beer, mate.
omegafour.com if you want to survive.
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Ron Steenblik Posted 12:24 pm
02 Apr 2007
Ethanol is the alternative fuel that could finally wean the U.S. from its expensive oil habit.
Some figures (including cost estimates) to back up that claim, please, Time?
P.S., I was wondering whether Ted Turner was behind the high ranking of ethanol, but I see that last year he left Time Warner Inc.'s Board of Directors.
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tico89 Posted 7:29 am
03 Apr 2007
Basically, that article is a total mess - exactly what I'd expect of Time. They're actually seriously suggesting pumping sulphur into the atmosphere? And how about this:
Bamboo makes a beautiful fence, and because it grows so quickly (as much as 1 ft. a day or more, depending on the species), it absorbs more CO2 than, say, a rosebush. Most homeowners have to restrict its growth, lest it get out of control. Do this, however, and you reduce bamboo's capacity as a carbon sink. Only large-scale plantings, which absorb CO2 faster than they release it, can favorably tip the scales. How big is your yard?
So, plant bamboo fences because they absorb CO2, but don't trim them. Well, actually, don't bother building them.
Who comes up with this stuff? At least the other articles seemed sensible enough.
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tico89 Posted 7:50 am
03 Apr 2007
increased warming increases productivity
Says who? I live in a tropical country, and the heat sure doesn't make people here overly productive.
By the way, did you know your username is very similar to the Spanish word for 'wart hog'?
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tico89 Posted 7:55 am
03 Apr 2007
Just a thought for Easter Week.
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Ron Steenblik Posted 8:34 am
03 Apr 2007
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Library Lady Posted 12:54 pm
03 Apr 2007
Nature will always win, one way or another. The question is, how will it affect us? Think about it.
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Zarkov Posted 3:50 pm
03 Apr 2007
yep its in the book, LOL.
omegafour.com
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