In Brief

Snippets from the news

Posted at 6:24 PM on 14 May 2008

Forwards and Edwards

John Edwards endorses Barack Obama

Posted at 6:14 PM on 14 May 2008

Show Them That You Car

Obama talks up green while courting manufacturers

Posted at 4:52 PM on 14 May 2008

Barack Obama courted manufacturers in Michigan Wednesday, touting his proposals to boost both green energy and the auto industry. He talked up a plan to auction carbon credits and use the funds to boost clean technology (and, in turn, green jobs), and said he would help the U.S. auto industry gain its feet while encouraging investment in hybrids, electric vehicles, and other fuel-efficient cars. "I don't think that we need to give up on manufacturing," he told the Detroit Free Press. "We need to find new sources of manufacturing jobs. And I think creating green energy jobs and helping the auto industry to retool -- those are all areas with enormous promise."

sources: Detroit Free Press, Boston Globe

Threat Laid Bear

Polar bears threatened, but drilling in their habitat still OK, says Interior

Posted at 11:47 AM on 14 May 2008

Polar bears are a threatened species, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced Wednesday -- but that doesn't mean we can't drill in their habitat! The "threatened" designation means the bear could become endangered if conservation steps aren't taken; it puts polar bears on the endangered-species list but in effect allows Interior to pick and choose which protections to impose. And those protections will, says the very subhead of the departmental press release, "allow continuation of vital energy production in Alaska." While the polar bear is being listed specifically because climate change is melting its habitat, Interior took pains to point out that the listing "should not open the door to use of the [Endangered Species Act] to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles, power plants, and other sources." In fact, the department plans to propose modifying the regulatory language in the ESA to "prevent abuse of this listing to erect a back-door climate policy."

source: Department of the Interior
see also, in Gristmill: Bush admin to list polar bears as threatened; advocates pledge to continue the fight

Northern Exposure

Melting Arctic ice poses security threat, says Pentagon

Posted at 10:09 AM on 14 May 2008

Waterways made navigable by melting Arctic ice pose a security threat to the northern U.S. border, says the Pentagon. The shrinking ice cap has led to increased interest in tourism and energy development in the Arctic, and the extra traffic makes the Pentagon wary. "The Arctic is a new area that is important to us because of the changes in ice flows," says Air Force General Gene Renuart. The Defense Department intends to beef up both its maritime and aerial surveillance of the northern border.

source: Associated Press

Beauty of the Beast

Wal-Mart tightens safety standards for toxics in toys

Posted at 7:55 AM on 14 May 2008

In Brief

Snippets from the news

Posted at 4:41 PM on 13 May 2008

Silva Buckle

Brazil's pro-rainforest environment minister resigns

Posted at 4:05 PM on 13 May 2008

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva resigned Tuesday after six years in office, leading a Greenpeace campaigner to lament that "Brazil is losing the only voice in the government that spoke out for the environment." Silva's policies prioritized environmental protection, particularly for the Amazon; while her policies landed her a spot as one of Grist's fave green politicians, they made her unpopular with developers, her government peers, and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. While the environment minister declined to give an official reason for her departure, Greenpeace's Sergio Leitao postulates that "the pressure on her for taking the measures she took against deforestation has become unbearable."

sources: Associated Press, Reuters, Brasilia Tempo Real
see also, in Grist: Silva spoke out against Brazil's legalization of biotech soy

Push the Plug

Nissan wants to offer you an electric car by 2010

Posted at 2:21 PM on 13 May 2008

Nissan wants to bring electric cars to the U.S. and Japan by 2010 and to the world by 2012, the automaker announced Tuesday. Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in 2005 called gas-electric hybrids "niche products," but he's changed his tune, declaring that his company is determined to demonstrate "zero-emission-vehicle leadership." While General Motors and Toyota also have plans to bring electric vehicles to market, Nissan is the first to say it will mass-produce affordable, all-electric cars on a global scale. "We are not interested in some 'Stars Wars' prototype," says Ghosn, "but in really bringing a mass market product that everybody can buy."

source: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal (access ain't free)
see also, in Gristmill: Nissan aims to help Israel build a national electric-car infrastructure

A Burden to Bear

Captive pandas survive China earthquake

Posted at 12:56 PM on 13 May 2008

With 12,000 people dead from the earthquake that struck China's Sichuan province on Monday -- and the death toll expected to climb significantly -- the survival of 144 endangered pandas is small comfort. But survive they did: all of the pandas living in three research centers in the earthquake zone have been reported safe. Three-quarters of China's wild pandas live in the Sichuan province, but the wild ones can "sense things," says Suzanne Braden of Pandas International: "I'm sure they moved to higher terrain."

sources: Xinhua, Associated Press

Puff Piece

U.S. could get 20 percent of energy from wind by 2030, says DOE

Posted at 10:52 AM on 13 May 2008

Wind power could meet 20 percent of U.S. energy demand by 2030, according to Energy Department calculations, even though currents currently provide a mere 1 percent of U.S. electricity. Making the leap would be "ambitious" but "feasible," says the report: it wouldn't require technological breakthroughs, but would necessitate the construction of 75,000 new and improved turbines and a major expansion of the electricity grid. If wind did hit that 20 percent marker, it could eliminate 25 percent of the greenhouse gases currently spewed by natural-gas and coal power, as well as reducing water consumption by 4 trillion gallons. The cost, says the report, would be about $6 per person per year. Even though the DOE calculations assume that renewable-energy tax credits will not be renewed (which is a whole nother story), the fact that boosting wind power is feasible doesn't mean it'll actually happen.

sources: Associated Press, Wired, The Wall Street Journal
straight to the report: 20% Wind Energy by 2030

It's Beginning to Look a Clot Like Thrombosis

Particulate pollution linked to blood clots in legs, study says

Posted at 7:46 AM on 13 May 2008

In Brief

Snippets from the news

Posted at 5:01 PM on 12 May 2008

Easy Rider

Transit ridership up across U.S.

Posted at 3:57 PM on 12 May 2008

Transit ridership has jumped across the U.S. as folks get tired of paying at the pump. From January to March, transit ridership jumped 10 percent in Boston, 8 percent in both Los Angeles and Denver, and 7.2 percent in the Twin Cities. In Philadelphia, transit ridership in March 2008 was up 11 percent from March 2007; in April, ridership in south Florida was an impressive 28 percent above the year before. "Nobody believed that people would actually give up their cars to ride public transportation," says Joseph Giulietti of south Florida's transportation authority. "But in the last year, and last several months in particular, we have seen exactly that." In addition, motorcycles and scooters are selling like fuel-efficient hotcakes, and vanpools and bikes are increasingly popular. Says Clark Williams-Derry of the nonprofit Sightline Institute, "It's almost like we hit a point where, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore,' and that point was about $3.50 a gallon."

sources: USA Today, The Oregonian, Los Angeles Times, The Republican, Star Tribune, The New York Times

BCause I Told You So

Eco-parents unimpressed by 'green' Barbie accessories

Posted at 1:09 PM on 12 May 2008

Barbie BCause, toymaker Mattel's attempt to appeal to the green-minded tyke, has turned out to be not so popular with green-minded parents. The line of patchwork-y Barbie accessories made from cast-off fabric has inspired a blogging backlash. "The eco-conscious young girls I know of steer clear of Barbie," wrote Jennifer Lance on blog Eco Child's Play. "Truly green families will not be fooled by Mattel's greenwashing." Mother Jones blogger Jen Phillips agreed that touting Barbie BCause as green is "pretty ironic given that Barbie dolls themselves are made out of plastic and are packaged in even more plastic." And that's no insignificant amount of plastic: all of the Barbies sold since 1959, placed end to end, would circle the Earth more than seven times.

sources: The New York Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer

Where the Lead Comes Sweepin' Down the Plain

Tornado ravages town already ravaged by pollution

Posted at 10:41 AM on 12 May 2008

Six people were killed in Picher, Okla., this weekend as a giant tornado swept through. The not-so-bright bright side: It's likely that some fatalities were avoided, since many residents of Picher have already left. Picher is so polluted with mining waste that it's listed as a Superfund site; the town's booming lead and zinc mines closed decades ago, and its population has dwindled from 20,000 to 800. Now, as if the twister fatalities weren't tragic enough -- at least 17 other people were killed elsewhere in Oklahoma and Missouri -- U.S. EPA officials are testing in Picher to see whether the town's survivors are at risk from the lead-tainted dust blown off of the town's huge piles of mining waste. After the tornado, "I think people probably have had enough," says John Sparkman of the Picher housing authority. "There's just nothing to build back to any more."

sources: Associated Press, Associated Press, Associated Press

Green Old Party?

McCain to unveil new climate plan

Posted at 10:32 PM on 11 May 2008

In Brief

Snippets from the news

Posted at 4:03 PM on 09 May 2008

For Whom the Dell Toils

Chastised by bloggers, Dell aims to cut down on waste

Posted at 3:33 PM on 09 May 2008

To paraphrase Margaret Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of loud, critical bloggers can change Dell's packaging M.O." OK, that's a bit of a stretch -- and we won't go so far as to say "Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." But photos published on the internet during Earth Week of a tiny flash drive arriving to a customer in a giant box provoked enough outcry in the blogosphere that Dell is taking immediate steps to reduce packaging waste. The company has sent a directive requesting that envelopes be used for small items, and plans to reduce the size of its boxes in the short term. Says Dell, "Our sincere gratitude goes out to everyone who pointed this irregularity out to us." Which is an awfully polite response, considering Gizmodo's not-so-polite (but kind of awesome) headline about the overpackaging: "Dell's wasteful shipping habits take a steamy dump on the environment."

sources: GreenBiz, Direct2Dell

Emetic Justice

Polar-bear listing would hurt the poor, says industry

Posted at 2:10 PM on 09 May 2008

If the U.S. Interior Department decides that polar bears are endangered, litigation will be immediate from a group arguing that bear protection will "result in higher energy prices across the board, which will disproportionately be borne by minorities." So says Roy Innis, chair of the Congress for Racial Equality -- a recipient of Exxon funding that has recently aligned itself with activists opposing the environmental movement. Industry groups will rely heavily on the CRE lawsuit to "give us a very high-visibility national media platform on day one," says Jim Sims of the Western Business Roundtable, who says the CRE can help fight and "quite possibly reverse" a protective ruling. Fox News' Sean Hannity has guaranteed prominent airtime to Innis, and a 15-city bus tour will promote the lawsuit. Says Sims, "We should be able to very quickly take over this issue from the radical enviro groups and place it squarely where it belongs: on the negative impacts this decision will have on the poor."

source: Mother Jones
see also, in Grist: Alaska legislature looking for polar-bear skeptics