Comments Rowan has made

  • Pick your battles

    Yeah, I don't think this is worth the fuss. If anything, it will just lend support to the stereotype of environmentalists as being humourless, hypersensitive ponces (not that I'm accusing you of such, Joseph). Anyway, I think the cartoon's more about making fun of GM's lack of ingenuity and innovation than it is about disparaging hybrids. There are plenty of more important things to criticise about the media's handling of environmental issues than this.On Oliphant and Washington Post ignorantly smear GM and plug-in hybrids posted 11 months, 3 weeks ago 13 Responses

  • Good, but...

    It's obviously great to see this type of message in feature films, and one hopes everyone who goes to see it will take some of these things on board.

    However, the movie is still subject to the Disney marketing machine: Davin Faraci at Chud wrote a great article on the hypocricy of a film about environmental stewardship being used to market mountains of cheap plastic toys. Link.

    greenpictures.wordpress.com

    On Wall*E posted 1 year, 4 months ago 2 Responses

  • Elitism and Spotted Owls

    Excellent post. I think part of the problem, in terms of the image of environmentalism, is the idea many people have of what "the environment" is. There seems to be a perception that environmentalism is for wealthy, liberal elitists who want to protect the wilderness for their own selfish reasons, and that this is of no concern to the ordinary working family who just wants to put food on the table or fill the car with gas. I think there should probably be more emphasis put on the idea of the environment as a system that sustains all facets of life on Earth (including the economy) rather than just an optional passtime for those with enough time or money to care.

    greenpictures.wordpress.com

    On Don't be afraid to claim the term 'environmentalist' posted 1 year, 4 months ago 13 Responses

  • The whole "clean coal" thing

    is ridiculous. If their coal is really so clean, why are they so opposed to emissions caps? CCS is not a viable long-term solution, it just shunts the problem on for someone else to deal with.

    greenpictures.wordpress.com

    On Coal industry launches full-scale attack against climate legislation posted 1 year, 6 months ago 5 Responses

  • Finally

    I'm glad someone's bringing this up. Far too often all that gets focused on is the costs of action, rather than the costs of inaction. I only hope it gets decent, or at least some, media coverage.On Ignoring climate change will cost U.S. big bucks, says group posted 1 year, 6 months ago 5 Responses

  • Incredible

    That's an especially interesting point about lower oil prices raising the predicted costs of climate policy. I have no knowledge of how they arrive at these figures or how transparent the process is, but given the Bush administration's record of political interference in government bodies I wonder if there's been any sort of pressure to deliver this kind of forecast to further put off having to do anything.

    greenpictures.wordpress.com

    On What we don't know (but think we do) about oil prices might hurt us posted 1 year, 6 months ago 6 Responses

  • Interesting

    It is encouraging to see these types of issues being tackled in popular culture (it's apparently a priority for Fox, according to Rupert Murdoch - http://www.1degree.net.au/files/RMurdochRemarksClimateCha ... - but I'll believe that when I see it). This particular example looks like it will be fairly shallow - do you really need the threat of a virus along with everything else that will be happening? I think a better answer is to have sustainability and environmental issues incorporated into all movies, TV shows etc rather than one-off 'global warming scare' films but given the commercial orientation of mainstream media and whatnot that's unlikely to happen.

    greenpictures.wordpress.com

    On Val Kilmer to star in Arctic horror flick posted 1 year, 6 months ago 3 Responses

  • Ahaha

    I'd just like to congratulate you on that awful, awful headline. On Congress investigating industry's role in bisphenol-A health studies posted 1 year, 7 months ago 3 Responses

  • Oh Shit!

    Climate change will kill them before we get a chance to!On Hunting and fishing groups worried about climate change's effects on wildlife posted 1 year, 7 months ago 2 Responses