Comments Kiara has made

  • Well done. Thank you for this back to basics. I am forwarding this to confused people of my acquaintance!On Copenhagen 101: The essentials on the climate talks posted 1 week, 1 day ago 3 Responses
  • Getting money out of politics is first and foremost. American institutions and sysems have all been subverted by it. Whatch out Europe!On From hopeful climate to climate of despair posted 2 weeks, 3 days ago 12 Responses
  • I thought Williams and Zabel made an excellent case for a carbon tax in their video, and that it might have changed some people's minds (David Robert's perhaps?) In 10 minutes they had to cram a lot of mostly unfamiliar concepts to most people. In my opinion C&T is nothing but making a commodity out of carbon for the benefit of the financial sector. Has anyone read "Soil not Oil" by Vandana Shiva by any chance? According to Shiva "The speculative economy of global finance is hundreds of times larger than the value of real goods and services produced in the world." It has been a revelation to me that something that had always been presented, in my circles anyway, as a good thing (Kyoto) hadn't turned out to be all that successful in its application. So why expand a failed experiment? The EPA reaction seemed so insignificant compared to the message of the video.On EPA demands attorneys remove video critical of cap-and-trade posted 2 weeks, 6 days ago 28 Responses
  • Clifford Wells, we KNOW that mad cow disease is the result of intensive "grain finished" methods of beef production. The disease was traced to feed containing animal parts. Can you not agree that CAFO (the C stands for concentrated)-raised poultry and swine could likely facilitate the spread and mutation of avian, swine or regular flue viruses because of the closed proximity of the animals? Sometimes common sense is a bit helpful. It would be nice if, instead of bickering over fine points of dialogue, we could all recognize that the current industrial meat production is less than ideal and is making more and more customers turn away from the supermarket meat counters.On Six months after the outbreak, who's investigating the CAFO-swine flu link? posted 1 month ago 16 Responses
  • Yes, Matt, I also find it disturbing. I have been a member of EDF for decades but recently left them because of their cozy relationship with the corporate world. Their "good cop" approach is not what the environment movement should be about. (I don't think they'll miss my modest yearly donation very much.)On Climate Corps interns save Fortune 500 firms $54 million posted 1 month, 1 week ago 4 Responses
  • I wish someone would ask Secretary Chu why we should continue to rely on chemical, oil-derived fertilizers and pesticides for our agriculture—something he seems to take for granted. His department should look into the current wasteful system, 10 calories of petrol energy for a (one) calorie of food. Has anyone pointed out to him that organic methods would fix carbon in the soil as well?On Three faces of hope for climate change posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago 3 Responses
  • Pictures of emaciated babies are hard to take. Our hearts want all human beings to have all the necessities of life. For this reason I think we have to make a conscious effort to parallel education of new, more productive farming technology with education in birth control--indeed, make it a condition for the help. Otherwise we are only pushing back the hardship to the next generation, when the (too numerous) children of the present farmers will not have enough land and/or water to sustain themselves. Empowering women, supporting them by the rule of law is where it all starts.On Under the Clinton Global Initiative, Growing Power takes its grassroots-agriculture model to Africa posted 2 months ago 7 Responses

  • Producing electricity from the nuclear is not carbon-neutral if you factor in the mining and refining of uranium. Then there is the building and eventual de-commissioning of power plants, also the building of suitable repository sites for the spent fuel. Add to this transportation and security (carbon) costs all throughout the process.

    On France's Sarkozy pushes ahead with unpopular carbon tax posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago 10 Responses

  • Producing electricity from the nuclear is not carbon-neutral if you factor in the mining and refining of uranium. Then there is the building and eventual de-commissioning of power plants, also the building of suitable repository sites for the spent fuel. Add to this transportation and security (carbon) costs all throughout the process.

    On France's Sarkozy pushes ahead with unpopular carbon tax posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago 10 Responses

  • Very good, Jonathan.  Unlike some people you have been very busy lately.

    On 'What I did on my summer vacation' -- by Congress posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago 3 Responses

  • I am surprised no one has mentioned the high cost of disposal of all this cheap (or not so cheap) stuff.  Both landfilling and incineration (of any kind) have tremendous repercusion on health and climate--especially when it comes to hi-tech products.  I used to think the money not spent on replacing things already owned could be spent on traveling vacations.  Turns out, flying is not such a good idea if one wants to shrink his/her carbon footprint.  What's left?  The theater perhaps?  I guess, spreading it like manure--but locally!

    On Our addiction to cheap stuff has become very expensive, new book argues posted 3 months, 1 week ago 24 Responses

  • In his 1987 book, The Politics of Food, Geoffrey Cannon has a thing or two to say about the UK Food Standard Agency.  Apparently not much has changed since.

    On The obvious advantage of organic food over conventional posted 3 months, 2 weeks ago 16 Responses

  • Same as winning over invasive plants:  perseverance, taking the long view, knowing what the ultimate goal is, whatever works.  All good wishes.

    On Love in a time of cataclysm posted 4 months ago 5 Responses

  • Tom, I love your articles but I had to Google MRSA (Actually TMULLINS spelled it out--thank you T.)

    On As MRSA gets worse, the FDA discovers antibiotic abuse on factory farms [UPDATED] posted 4 months, 1 week ago 7 Responses

  • No no Atreyger we do not use herbicides. I have gotten rid of a good size strand of Japanese knotweeds by first digging out the root clumps, planting grass seeds and, over several years (perhaps 3 or 4), systematically pulling out by hand the reddish shoots sprouting from the remaining roots. No plant can live indefinitely without photosynthesis. Their reserve of nutrients stored in the roots eventually becomes depleted. So, good for the "voices of reason."

    To my knowledge swallow-wort has not become a problem in my neighborhood which is not too far from Jamaica Plain.

    Please remember that a good many of our common landscape plants are of foreign origin.  This includes most of the grasses used for lawns--and earthworms.

    On You and me and a billion tiny spores posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago 6 Responses

  • I could see contamination with pesticides and herbicides but where does the contamination with antibiotics come from?  Irrigation?

    On Ethanol waste: it's what's for ... breakfast? posted 6 months, 4 weeks ago 6 Responses

  •  

    I cannot express adequately the feelings coming over me as I read the stories of past and present recipients of the Goldman Prize. Congratulations to these new winners. All have my most heartfelt respect and admiration.

    This should also be a reality check for the rest of us: what I wonder do these peaceful environmentalists do to deserve such severe treatment? Who is behind the hardship they had to endure? Is it OK to talk about conspiracies?

    On The Goldman Prize: True tales of bravery posted 7 months, 1 week ago 3 Responses

  • Chad forest

    Not knowing the specifics of Chad soil qualities (is it really that poor) I would vote with John Schneider for solar stoves. It seems to me that Chad as well as most of the Southern emisphere (and the rest of the world as well by lowering GHG) would benefit from their use.On Chad fights charcoal in battle against creeping desert posted 9 months, 1 week ago 10 Responses

  • Kathleen Merrigan

    You go girl!On Obama taps a real reformer, Kathleen Merrigan, for deputy USDA secretary posted 9 months, 1 week ago 3 Responses

  • This Too Shall Passacantando

    Godspeed to him.  The Environmental movement needs more result oriented people like him.On Outgoing Greenpeace leader talks about activism, economics, and his next steps posted 11 months ago 3 Responses

  • Hail to the Chiefs

    Excellent article.  Historical perspective is very important for smart new approach to environmental activism.On A look at EPA administrators since the agency's founding posted 11 months ago 3 Responses

  • On cleaning products

    Going even further on the self-sufficient route, why a sponge?  For the kitchen I use little squares of terry cloth from old towels and change them every day, a very sanitary practice.  I also use them for general cleaning such as washing floors (with a deck broom).  These little squares take hardly any space in the cloth washer.On Umbra on Method cleansers posted 1 year, 3 months ago 23 Responses

  • Nuclear buzz

    Please people check out Christian Parenti's article in the May 12 The Nation.  His contention is that a nuclear renaissance isn't going to happen.  Nuclear energy is just too expensive to produce.  Even though 80% of the cost of development is borne by federal subsidies, it is doubtful that investors will be found for the remaining 20% (Warren Buffett, for one, isn't investing).  Considering the time lag to new plants on line, this technology would arrive too late for a solution to global warming.  So why all this talk about the "benefits" of nuclear power?  Why the continued government support for a discredited technology?
    We older people are all too familiar with the risks and dangers.  The younger generation should educate itself on the subject.  May I list a few in addition to those mentioned above:

    • Nuclear waste (think of all those fuel pools, sitting as easy targets to would-be terrorists).
    • Nuclear proliferation
    • Accidents (they did and will happen).
    • Leukemia and other cancers clusters around nuclear plants.
    • Uranium mining problems regarding human health and the environment.
    • Difficulty in siting plants due to water requirements.
    On Projected nuke-power renaissance spurs U.S. uranium-mining bonanza posted 1 year, 6 months ago 11 Responses

  • Headwaters

    Yes, thanks Mark.  Good for the soul.On Early-spring images from the headwaters of the Mississippi River posted 1 year, 7 months ago 7 Responses

  • Family Feud

    I second Michweek.  Grass fed cattle and beef are a good source of Omega 3 which, it turns out, is grossly lacking from the American diet. It is estimated that a Omega 6 to 3 ratio should be from 4 to 1 to 1 to 1.  What we have here is an average of a 17 to 1 ratio.  This imbalance is very likely the reason we have an epidemic in obesity in children as well as all the inflammatory diseases.On Why agribusiness giants are facing off over corn ethanol posted 2 years, 6 months ago 3 Responses

  • God of Small Things

    Right on. Thank you Sandor Katz for spreading the word.  Let's patronize our local farmers' markets and let's support the organizations that make them possible (in Massachusetts FMFM--the Mass. Federation of Farmers Markets).On An interview with underground foodie hero Sandor Katz posted 2 years, 6 months ago 3 Responses