Comments Corey McKrill has made

Assist the retailer in being socially progressive

since you know they won't do it on their own.  Buy something that you can donate to a good cause.  Canned goods for the food bank.  Clothing for a homeless shelter.

If you buy something that you can hand to people on the street, you'll get the personal satisfaction of watching their eyes light up when you give it to them.On Umbra on gift cards posted 10 months, 1 week ago 10 Responses

Progressives deny science when ...

... it's funded by a corporation and leads to policies favoring a related industry.

But a lot of that stuff can hardly be called science anyway.

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

Of course, the solution is 'out of stock'

Looks like they stopped making it or something...

ReAir Mini AC Compressor & Duster Combo

Why do the sustainable versions of products always sell out fast and then get discontinued? It's a conspiracy, I tell you...

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

I'd save $3.31 over the summer.

That's enough for an extra cup of gas station black drip!

Meanwhile, Washington state would lose 4,371 jobs, and we'd be $126 million further away from all those desperately needed transportation projects.

Hallelujah!

Find out how much you'd save here.

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

oh, that Steve Milloy

What a champ.

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

Hey Myron,

Nice tie.  It really accentuates your slim figure.  Want to get a cup of coffee after your panel?

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

But can they appreciate irony?

Perhaps an appropriate retort to someone who compares himself to Galileo would be, "Yeah, and I'm the Pope."

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

Extravagance breeds insularity.

You get what you pay for.

A friend of mine worked for the Park Service for a while as a nature guide in Glacier Bay Nat'l Park, in Southeast Alaska.  Every day she'd board one of the giant floating casinos cruise ships and give nature talks as it spent the day touring the bay.  At the end of the day, she'd disembark as the boat was leaving to continue on up or down the Inside Passage.  Sometimes she'd have passengers come and lament to her as she was packing up her guidebooks that they'd missed the park.  She'd ask how that was possible since they were in Glacier Bay all day, and they'd respond, "I had my stateroom TV on the wrong channel."

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

and even more coal news...

...politicians are waffling about the cause of a cancer cluster near a coal plant in Delaware (wouldn't want to jump to any conclusions...)

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

great for locals and visitors alike

My house gets a 77.  I like how it lists all the local businesses that are in walking distance of the address you put in.  I've never been to some of the places it lists near my home.

This could also be a great resource for scoping out places to stay when you travel.  Imagine checking out the website for a hostel or B&B and seeing a little icon on their homepage with their "walk score" on it...

Frequently asked technical questions about Grist's newsletters and website.

Bonnaroo survival 101

Bummer that you didn't read this before you went.

I recommend buying a poncho and using that as a rain fly.

How's that headlamp holding up?  ;)

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

That GE amphibian kinda looks like a cane toad...

Animated, funny, but be warned: there's toad guts.

Another cane toad movie.On Umbra on cane toads posted 2 years, 6 months ago 11 Responses

How about some positive peaks?

• peak autos
  
• peak subsidies
  
• (dare I say it?) peak population
  
• peak number of industry shills occupying top-level positions in US government departments

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Re: Imagine it the other way round

I can't imagine why you'd want to, jabailo.  Kent's going to be beachfront, from the look of things.  Or maybe another arm of Puget Sound ...

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

B. H. Obama

Apparently Limbaugh et al. have begun publicly referring to him by his full name, "Barack Hussein Obama."

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

I like that bumper sticker too ...

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

What can you say?

Sounds like it's time for one of your granddad's sage utterances.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Re: Human nature will not change,

One of the answers has to be in developing plastics that will readily break down after prolonged immersion in water, and in mandating its use in plastic bags and other products that pose the greatest risks to the oceans.

Like this!

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Dude, you forgot ...

... it's John Lennon's birthday.

"Imagine" lyrics, anyone?

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

My life will be fulfilled ...

... once we get to that vodka watermelon marinating in the fridge.  Then I will likely be singing your praises at the top of my lungs throughout the Grist office.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

The Corrupt Bastards Club

Oh, the arrogance ...

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

PS, on the subject of good stouts ...

This one is brewed in my home town, and it's pretty darn good.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Re: Forest Truths #6

My perception is that the protest had less to do with the specific trees being cut, and more to do with the precedent being set here, in terms of logging in roadless areas that are supposed to be protected.

Asking what's wrong with cutting down a few trees in one particular roadless area distracts from the real debate about government integrity, state's rights, and sound environmental policy.  Kate wasn't trying to literally stop the logging, she was making a moral statement, as she outlines in her letter.  Other people see what she did, and even if they wouldn't be willing to go to jail for a similar cause, it makes them think, "what would I be willing to do?"

Similar distraction tactics are being used in the Kensington Mine case in Juneau, Alaska.  People ask, "what's wrong with dumping mine tailings in a tiny freshwater lake in pristine, remote Southeast Alaska?" The problem is that Bush's dumbed-down Clean Water Act allows mine tailings to be defined as "fill," and a federal court has validated this definition in a recent lawsuit.  Now it won't just be Lower Slate Lake being poisoned with acidic waste rock, but lots of freshwater bodies all over the country are at risk of facing a similar fate.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

tsk

Clearly some vegetarians lack irony in their diet.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Econ 101

1. Eliminate all natural-resource subsidies

I'm in the midst of Natural Capitalism, and specifically the chapter titled "Capital Gains," which spends several pages discussing "perverse subsidies." I admit to having the environmentalist aversion to economic theory, and in fact I barely got a C in my Intro to Economics course in college.  However, I find this issue interesting, and seemingly critical to curing the disease rather than treating the symptoms.

It's amazing to me that with many industries, every step of the process from exploitation to restoration is subsidized in one form or another.  One of many examples in Natural Capitalism:

Taxpayers paid to drain the Everglades, subsidize sugar producers with price supports, and cover the damage to wetlands and the Gulf from phosphate runoff and pesticide poisoning -- and are now spending $1.5 billion to buy back some of the 700,000 acres that they had paid to drain and sell at below-market prices in the first place.

So eliminating subsidies means more than just stopping direct handouts.  It means forcing industries to internalize costs that have been traditionally foisted onto the taxpayers, such as the public health and environmental effects of pollution.  One way to do this is change the tax structure:

Taxes make something more expensive to buy, subsidies artificially lower prices.  Thus, when something is taxed, you tend to buy less of it, and when you subsidize, you reduce prices and stimulate consumption.  A practical step in moving toward radical resource productivity would be to shift taxes away from labor and income, and toward pollution, waste, carbon fuels, and resource exploitation, all of which are presently subsidized.  For every dollar of taxation that is added to the cost of resources or waste, one dollar is removed from taxes on labor and capital investment.

It seems to me that Bart is right, that trying to eliminate subsidies is a political "non-starter."  However, it sounds like there are enough external costs to taxpayers that could be directly reduced by de-subsidization that people could be persuaded, if ever a politician had the stones to stand up to industry.  Natural Capitalism even offers some success stories (albeit not from the U.S.):

Indonesia heavily subsidized pesticides, resulting in massive use and equally serious side effects.  Starting in 1986, the government banned many pesticides and adopted Integrated Pest Management as official policy.  By 1989, the subsidies were gone; pesticide production plummeted nearly to zero and imports by two-thirds; yet rice production rose by another 11 percent during the years 1986-90, thanks to the ecosystem's recovering health.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

They're just setting up for a sequel ...

... Who Killed the Plug-in Electric Hybrid?

Sponsored by the car-crushing industry, of course.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Regardless ...

... of misguidedness of his faith and his lack of Biblical knowledge, or perhaps because of -- and I think Pascal would agree with me here -- the dude deserves an award.

A Darwin Award.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

I doubt that you will find

nearly as many corporate lobbyists skulking around mayors' offices ...

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

"God" wants you to able to afford ...

... to drive your Hummer.

That'd be a hell of a PR stunt if gas prices "miraculously" went down after the prayer rally ...

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Another place to look

A decidedly non-objective, but comprehensive website:
BushGreenwatch.orgOn Umbra on politicians and the environment posted 3 years, 8 months ago 7 Responses

Cool. Here's another stream of thought ...

Let's see how many sweeping generalizations I can fit into one paragraph:

In my view (also still working on it), "environmentalism" is about cultivating a greater awareness and understanding of life.  It's about seeing a bigger picture beyond the details of one's own life, beyond the details of one's culture and one's species.  I don't think the concept of "nature" is particularly necessary in a definition of environmentalism.  It's about peripheral vision.  People who call themselves environmentalists most often find themselves arguing against those that can't see beyond their own immediate gain ...

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

Common Ground Collective

Over on AlterNet, there's an article about a grassroot cleanup and humanitarian effort that's underway in areas that have been largely abandoned by the Red Cross and federal agencies:

Fifty Dollars and a Dream, by Billie Mizell, AlterNet.

Grist's InterActivist ... creating a one-of-a-kind portrait of on-the-ground activism.

I smell a "humanitarian crisis" ...

Those poor oil company employees are going to have their liberty threatened.  The US will have to send in troops to impose restore freedom.  Oh wait, they're all in Iraq ...

http://grist.org/

A(nother) short rebuttal to Lovelock ...

... on INSnet, by Peter van Vliet.

http://grist.org/

PBS Interview

Diane Wilson will be interviewed on PBS, Friday 09 December 2005 at 8:30 p.m.

Local Listings | Info on PBS website

(via Truthout.org)

http://grist.org/

non sequitur

Sort of like the Manchurian Candidate.  The wiring gets a glitch and he almost sounds lucid for a second.  But then the system reboots and everything returns to "normal." Sounds like he had to reboot two or three times on this one ...

http://grist.org/

The transparency of a window is only useful...

...if you can see over the sill.

First of all, this:

But why is the Republican base so fired up about it? And why have so many progressives been so quick to give up the fight? After all, no one but the oil companies -- or more specifically, the oil-services companies -- stand to gain from this. The amount of oil extracted will be trivial in the grand scheme of things, and it won't lower gas prices or energy prices or make us any less dependent on "foreign oil." There's no guarantee the oil will even be sold in the U.S.

is making the assumption that everyone is reading the same fact book when it comes to the costs/benefits of drilling in the Arctic.  It's sort of like the global warming debate: everyone clings to their favorite partisan arguments and factoids, no matter how thoroughly they've been debunked or marginalized.  I can't speak for the Republican base, but I'll bet they don't put nearly as much weight on measuring the "trivial" amount of oil extracted, if they even believe that's an issue, or have heard about it at all.  If this website is any indication, their main concerns are:

Revenues to the State and Federal Treasury Federal revenues would be enhanced by billions of dollars from bonus bids, lease rentals, royalties and taxes. Estimates on bonus bids for ANWR by the Office of Management and Budget and the Department of Interior for the first 5 years after Congressional approval are 4.2 billion dollars.

Jobs To Be Created Between 250,000 and 735,000 ANWR jobs are estimated to be created by development of the Coastal Plain.

Economic Impact Between 1977 and 2004, North Slope oil field development and production activity contributed over $50 billion to the nations economy, directly impacting each state in the union.

etc...

If the pro-drilling constituency only acknowledges these points, then they're probably "fired up" about progressives' apparent attempt to stymie economic benefits.  Many of my fellow Alaskans cling with tenacity to these points, which they see as being especially beneficial to the economy of our state.  If I believed that any of the above benefits were realistic and would support the local economy instead of corporate bank accounts, and if I believed that the environmental consequences of drilling in the Refuge would be as negligible as the site claims, I'd probably be in favor too.  After all, my reasons for caring about environmental issues and about economic issues are basically the same: they're in my best interests, and thus the best interests of my community and state.  Which leads me back to this, in Dave's post:

If progressives vocally support protecting the Refuge, then it is a matter of honor, a matter of principle, to get the drills in there. Libero-enviro-socialists have plans for world domination, and even if it is not obvious exactly how, anything they support is part of that plan and must be opposed.

It has been contrued to the Republican base that caring about environmental issues is the same thing as supporting the libero-enviro-socialists' "anti-growth agenda."  So it comes down to this: one side thinks the other is naively against any form of economic growth and uses the environment as its excuse, while the other side thinks the former is being mislead by corporate interests who use economic growth as justification for maximizing their profits at any cost.

A sad paradox, when we all have the same desire to protect and nurture our own best interests.

http://grist.org/

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Global warming.

Global warming who?

Oh, not you too!  This is unbelievable!  Get a clue!

Sign up to get the Daily Grist by email, http://grist.org/signup/

while we're making a list...

Humor:

Occasionally Dave Barry brushes on environmental issues.

Music:

Kiwi Dub band Rhombus has a cool song called "Tour of Outer Space," that is blatantly environmental.

Sign up to get the Daily Grist by email, http://grist.org/signup/

You people and your silly "God" stuff...

... in your sorry heathen ignorance, you have overlooked the true and obvious cause of the Gulf Coast's destruction:  Our Lord, The Flying Spaghetti Monster, is displeased.  There is overwhelming cause for His agitation:

 - Bush declared his support for teaching "intelligent design" in schools, and made no mention whatsoever of the third, and most legitimate option, Pastafarianism.

 - Pirates, who are instrumental in keeping Him appeased, are in serious decline in this day and age, and as this graph clearly shows, the number of pirates is inversely proportional to global temperatures.  Some people actually think this might have some effect on hurricane strength...

 - Keith Richards is going to be in the next Pirates of the Carribean movie.

And this is just a shot across the bow.  If we want to prevent further destruction from His anger, we must all reach out and allow ourselves to be touched by His Noodly Appendage...

Sign up to get the Daily Grist by email, http://grist.org/signup/

Talk.Origins Archive

From the site, which deals with the creationism/evolution controversy:

The Talk.Origins Archive exists to provide mainstream scientific responses to the frequently asked questions and frequently rebutted assertions that appear in talk.origins. The archive's policy is that readers should be given easy access to alternative views, but those who espouse alternative views should speak for themselves.

http://talkorigins.org/origins/welcome.html

Sign up to get the Daily Grist by email, http://grist.org/signup/

did anyone else notice?

That guy bears an uncanny resemblance to Jeb Bush...

Sign up to get the Daily Grist by email, http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/signmeup.pl

The new fundy lingo?

Since when is "science" a codeword for "campaign contributions?"

And another great quote from that article:

"You've got to vote your conscience."
- Pres. G. W. "if you're not with us, you're against us" Bush

I must need more coffee this morning...

Sign up to get the Daily Grist by email, http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/signmeup.pl

a different read

I don't think Emily is talking about becoming exhausted because of her environmental committments.  I think she's expressing her reluctance to immerse herself in the inevitable political mud-slinging, dirty tricks, and self-righteous outrage on both sides that this event is going to spawn.  I agree that "there is no contradiction at all between work on local and on national levels," but I also think that she has a good point regarding focus on local efforts.  If everyone gets caught up in the shouting match over the Supreme Court, which I predict will reach scandal-like proportions, local issues could fall by the wayside and people may become too polarized to work effectively together.  Don't discount the national effects that local organizing can have.On O'Conner announces she'll be leaving posted 4 years, 4 months ago 7 Responses

If they think they're here to see climate change..

As a sourdough, born and raised in Southeast Alaska, I'm torn about the tourism issue.  No one knows that global climate change is upon us better than those of us with a glacier in our back yard, which, during last year's record hot summer, receded an astounding 650 feet.  I find claims that there is not sufficient evidence for climate change to be insulting.  Tourism is indeed a huge part of my town's economy, with this year's cruiseship visitor count estimated at over a million.  These people come from a myriad of different places and perspectives, and for them to see firsthand the changes that are occurring and hopefully develop a better awareness of global climate change is certainly valuable.

However, I perceive a lot of negative impacts of this tourism as well.  When it's at a scale of over a million people per year coming into a town of 30,000, tourism becomes an extractive industry.  The downtown area of my town has become a veritable Disneyland of tourist gift shops, many of them owned or funded by the cruiseship corporations (and thus a lot of money being spent in town isn't staying there).  Development that takes place is often for the benefit of these corporations, with insufficient consideration given to locals and their interests (which, as Emily notes, will have many adverse impacts in the case of a "bust").  The popularity of aerial icefield tours results in over 100 helicopter flights per day directly over town, and though Alaska has some of the strictest regulations around, cruiseship stack emissions and wastewater discharges are still having a significant impact on the local environment.

Furthermore, with all the casinos, shopping malls, restaurants, and movie theaters that are now available onboard the latest generation of these cruiseships, it is questionable how much of an Alaskan experience the average passenger is actually getting.  A friend of mine who is a park ranger related to me once that a passenger had come up to her and told her she missed seeing Glacier Bay National Park because she had her TV on the wrong channel.

Clearly not all tourism in Southeast Alaska comes from these cruiseships, and ecotours are a growing sector of the economy.  However, seeing how the cruise industry is still by far the biggest part, adding environmental language to the cruise vacation frame, even if it's in the travel section of the NYT, seems like a step up to me.On Emily Gertz posted 4 years, 5 months ago 4 Responses

It's a start

My impression is that Fox News gets its reputation because it intolerantly distorts, lampoons, and generally criticizes any opinion that doesn't follow the GOP company line.  I'd sure hate to see Gristmill compared to that because of some people who use similar methods in their responses...

Whether or not using electric cars would significantly reduce net emissions right away, emissions would be cut in the long run as more power is eventually produced by alternative sources.  It would only be one step amoung many, but it would be progress.On Friedman drives home the geo-green point. posted 4 years, 5 months ago 18 Responses

Let's talk about "tonneage"

In Canada, the government actually admits that climate change is a problem, and is taking steps to help Canadian citizens (or anyone else who surfs to their website) reduce emissions.  Specifically, the website encourages readers to take the "One-Tonne Challenge," reducing their emissions by this amount (the average Canadian citizen produces 5 tonnes of greenhouse gases each year).  The site has lots of resources and tips for accomplishing this.

The One-Tonne ChallengeOn Umbra on reducing emissions, one person at a time posted 4 years, 5 months ago 3 Responses