Friday, 14 Dec 2001

I'm Mister Heat Miser

The Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances is the poster child for international environmental agreements; thanks to its success, chlorofluorocarbons (and, we hope, the ozone hole) are on their way to oblivion. But is there a dark side to this happy tale? HCFCs and HFCs, the chemicals replacing CFCs, are powerful greenhouse gases -- in some cases, 1,300 times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the planet. Yet non-ozone depleting, non-greenhouse gas alternatives are readily available for the same applications. What gives? Reporting from an annual Montreal Protocol meeting in -- where else? -- Montreal, Grist correspondent Jason Anderson takes on the fragmentation of environmental issues, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Oil in Your Stocking

This holiday season, be sure to take a little time to think about ... oil. Yep, oil. The stuff that helps define U.S. foreign policy and could be conveniently pumped through Afghanistan given a friendly government. Also the stuff that powers your trip to grandmother's house and fills the tanks of the trucks and ships and airplanes that bring a Harry Potter action figure to every Toys "R" Us in the world. And, oh yeah, the stuff that releases greenhouse gases when burned. Don't want to be a part of that? Taking the holiday season as a starting point, Grist columnist Elizabeth Sawin pulls on the thread connecting her to the big tangled mess of oil dependency, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Buy, Buy, Miss American Pie

Uncle Sam wants you to go to the mall! With the White House, Congress, and the media flacking for the financial sector in the name of patriotism, surely the least you can do for your country this holiday season is max out your credit card. David Helvarg takes on the war economy and the new urgency behind the "shop till you drop" ethic, only on the Grist Magazine website.

I Want You ... to Buy More Stuff!

World War I was fought to make the world safe for democracy; World War II for ourselves and our allies. Is this new war being fought largely to make the world safer for consumption? Jane Holtz Kay compares the "use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without" ethic that governed the WWII home front with the consume-for-your-country campaign currently underway, only on the Grist Magazine website.

Steal These Books

Consumption and land conservation are the subjects of two very different books reviewed this week in Grist. "Affluenza," by John de Graaf, David Wann, and Thomas Naylor, takes a look at materialism run amok, while "Red" by Terry Tempest Williams argues that the minimalism and grandeur of the red rock wilderness provide a critical escape from the corrosive forces of capitalism. Reviewer Elizabeth Grossman looks at our desire for the good life and our need for wild places, only on the Grist Magazine website.