kaganove’s Recent Comments

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  Nobel goes to green chemists

  Schrock, Grubbs and Chauvin do great work, you'll have to take my word on that.  However, I think it's a bit of a stretch to call what they do "green chemistry".  By that criteria, everything chemists do is "green chemistry" if it improves efficiency, which is pretty much what everybody tries to do.  A more rigorous definition of "green chemistry" would focus on improving sustainability, or using renewable, non-petrochemical sources to make plastics and other products of everyday living.  A better example of "green chemistry" is the work of Professor Richard Gross of Polytechnic University (see http://chem.poly.edu/gross/prof_gross.cfm for examples).  Perhaps he'll get a Nobel one day as well.On Nobel goes to green chemists posted 4 years, 1 month ago 1 Response

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  Why Not More Publicity?

  I was pleased to have the opportunity to attend the Arctic Refuge Action Day yesterday.  It felt great to be able to do some "hands on" lobbying with our legislators.  However, I do have a complaint:  why was there so little advance notice and publicity for this event, including on the Daily Grist website?  If not for a heads-up from a friend who belongs to Defenders of Wildlife, I would have never heard about the event.  A link to it only appeared on the Sierra Club website a scant few days before the event.  This is no way to organize on critically important issues!  If you want people to show up to rallies, you've got to let them know about it weeks, if not months in advance!  Having a few thousand dedicated souls show up was nice, but the number could have easily been 10 to 50 times that amount if the environmental community had seriously worked together.  As Senator Clinton said yesterday, we can (and must) do better!On A family sends firsthand accounts from the rally posted 4 years, 2 months ago 3 Responses

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  Correction - Espirit de Gore

  "Former Republican Rep. Pete McCloskey said the performance was 'Dynamite!'"  Good for him.  However, I believe former Rep. McCloskey is actually a Democrat.  He used to represent Bloomington, IN and surrounding communities prior to the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994.  He was replaced by a fellow by the name of Hostettler, who has recently made the news with his increasingly pugnacious, right-wing rhetoric.
  I would imagine that it is quite an embarressment for the good faculty of Indiana University to be represented by such a person.On Gore is transforming into fiery climate evangelist posted 4 years, 4 months ago 11 Responses

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  Re: Black Man to Head up NWF Board

  Before this goes much farther, it should be noted that the longtime host of the environment-themed NPR program "Living on Earth", Steve Curwood, is in fact African American.On A first: Black man to head up NWF board posted 4 years, 7 months ago 2 Responses

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  Why Are We Focusing On This

  I agree with karmacaptain, to a point, that the environmental justice issues should not be ignored or marginalized.  But I don't think that's happening.  There is a rich tapestry of pressing envronmental issues in which one can choose to get involved, and we all chose based on our values and personalities.  As a child in the '60s, one of the formative events in my life was the effort by family friends and neighbors to save a local wooded area from development.  The effort succeeded, and from that time on I have always taken the issue of preserving key wild and scenic places very personally.  To me, the refuge is highly symbolic of my life experiences, and I would frankly rather eat dirt than see it despoiled.  For the past 5-10 years, I have seen it as the "line-in-the-sand" that shall not be crossed, or else!  But that's just me.  If you want to direct the bulk of your energies to other worthy issues, more power to you.On Arctic Refuge vote posted 4 years, 8 months ago 12 Responses