Thursday, 31 Jul 2003

Master of Her Green Domain

Hollywood Couple Builds Eco-Friendly Hideaway

You know her best as Elaine, the Seinfeld sidekick with the rotating crop of boyfriends. You know him as a writer and producer for shows like "Frasier" and "The Single Guy." But long before fortune smiled down on Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Brad Hall, her husband, the pair were committed environmentalists. She has done work for nearly a dozen environmental organizations, including Natural Resources Defense Council, Heal the Bay, and Trust for Public Land; he is helping lead the effort at the Environmental Media Association to get energy-guzzling Hollywood studios to reform their wasteful practices. Together, they are key players in Hollywood's green vanguard. So what's up with that Porsche in their driveway? Amanda Griscom talks with the couple at their new, eco-friendly (second) home about the environment, Hollywood, the energy crisis, guilt, and more -- only on the Grist Magazine website.

Their Own Private Park Service

Former Interior Secretaries Excoriate Plan to Privatize Park Service

"Radical," "reckless," "hellbent" -- those were some of the words Bruce Babbitt and Stewart Udall used to describe the Bush administration's plan to privatize much of the National Park Service. Prior to this week, the two former secretaries of the Interior Department -- both of them Arizona Democrats -- chose to bite their tongues rather than criticize the White House, but the privatization plan was, they said, the last straw. Under the plan, 70 percent of full-time park service jobs, including rangers, scientists, and museum curators, could be replaced by private-sector workers. The administration claims privatization would be more economical, but critics say the replacement workers would be paid less, receive inferior benefits, and would lack the expertise, professionalism, and dedication of career park service employees. Now that they have broken their long silence, Babbitt and Udall apparently feel free to lambaste the White House's environmental record: "This administration is so indifferent to the values of conservation agencies. I'm appalled," said Udall.

The Fine Line

British Polluters Undeterred by Penalties

Some of the biggest and best known companies in the United Kingdom are also some of its worst polluters -- but neither financial penalties nor shame seem able to keep them in line, according to the Environment Agency's fifth annual Spotlight report on the environmental violations of companies in England and Wales. For the billion-dollar businesses in question, the fines are insignificant; for the environment, the consequences are far more serious. Fish are dying by the thousands, tons of toxic waste are being dumped in rivers and inner cities, groundwater is being poisoned -- the list goes on. While the number of prosecutions for environmental crimes rose 13 percent since the last report and the number of financial penalties handed out rose by 36 percent, the average size of the penalty rose only slightly, to $14,134. "Fines are still small change for big business," said Barbara Young, the Environment Agency's chief executive.

4 X 4 X 10 Mpg

Popularity of Pickup Trucks Spreads Beyond Farms

Once upon a time, the humble pickup truck was the vehicle of choice for hard-working, down-home, country-music kind of guys. These days, the pickup, in ever swankier incarnations, is coveted by a far broader audience, from stockbrokers to soccer moms -- a trend that has sobering implications for roadway safety and the environment. Big pickups (and these days, they're getting bigger and bigger) are the most dangerous vehicles on the road for anyone driving anything else, and they use more gas than even the infamously inefficient sport-utility vehicles. Today's models get an average of just 16.8 miles per gallon, dropping to roughly 10 mpg for the largest models. Pickups currently account for 13.2 percent of new vehicles sold; with Japanese automakers now jockeying to get in on the game, that figure is certain to keep growing.

The Sahara Club

Global Climate Change Heats Up Africa

It's the cruelest of ironies: Africa, the continent that contributes the least to global climate change, is suffering the most from its effects, according to a study conducted by scientists at Great Britain's Hadley Center, one of the world's leading facilities for climate-change research. And here's another irony: Part of why climate change is having a stronger effect in Africa than in developed regions of the world is that industrial pollution, although responsible for global climate change, can also provide localized protection against warming, because pollutants such as aerosol particles can help shield against the sun. The Hadley Center research is also significant because it shows that global warming is now strong enough that it can be detected over individual continents, not just over the entire planet.