Tuesday, 27 Apr 2004

Take Time to Smell the Non-native Roses

Umbra's Advice for Ulcer-Bound Enviros

So you eat nothing but organic produce, bike to work, hand-weave your own clothes, and live in a hut made of free-range dirt. But your fellow citizens keep driving! Your niece doesn't turn off the lights! Your in-laws give your baby plastic toys! And you know you could help the planet more if you just ... tried ... a little ... harder! Dude. Take a deep breath and a chill pill, and listen to eco-advice guru Umbra when she tells you to relax -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.

Rouge Awakening

Ford Unveils New Green Assembly Plant

On the site of its nearly 90-year-old Rouge manufacturing complex, where workers once assembled Model A's, Ford Motor Co. yesterday unveiled its new Dearborn Truck Plant, touted as a model of 21st-century, eco-friendly manufacturing. The multibillion-dollar plant is chockablock with innovative features. A 10-acre "living roof" covered in sedum grass, a porous-paved parking lot, and human-made swales all reduce storm-water runoff, saving on sewer-building expenses. The grass roof also insulates the factory, reducing heating and cooling costs, while 36 skylights and 10 glass-walled rooftop window boxes direct sunlight to workers on the floor. A system distills paint fumes into hydrogen-rich gas, which powers fuel cells expected to save Ford some $100,000 a year in electricity costs. Green spaces and wildlife refuges surround the facility. CEO Bill Ford promised to roll the concepts out to all of Ford's plants if they "play out from an economic standpoint, and we believe they will." If only the trucks rolling off the assembly line were so green ...

Bush Family Values

Another Top EPA Official Leaves to "Spend Time with Family"

Something about working high up in the U.S. EPA under the Bush administration really opens one's eyes to the enduring value of family. EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman left to spend time with hers last spring -- and just yesterday, Marianne Lamont Horinko, the assistant EPA administrator for the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, left to "devote more time and energy to being [a] wife and mom." It's understandable that Horinko could be exhausted -- her four-month stint as temporary administrator after Whitman resigned was by all accounts a tough slog -- but some observers couldn't help speculating that the Bushies' approach to environmental problems may have pushed her past her limit. Read about the Beltway scuttlebutt in Muckraker -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

Dread for the Border

New Border Enforcement Plan Worries Enviros

An aggressive new plan to crack down on illegal immigration and smuggling over the Arizona-Mexico border will damage fragile federally protected land that serves as habitat for several endangered species, say some enviros. The Arizona Border Control Initiative, announced in March by the Department of Homeland Security, involves, among other things, the use of motorcycles and off-road vehicles by some 2,000 agents to patrol known smuggling routes. Enviros say that the DHS did not do the environmental impact studies required by law, and that patrols will destroy areas that "do not recover quickly," according to Daniel Patterson, a desert ecologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. The U.S. Border Patrol counters that it is the immigrants who trample the landscape and leave piles of trash and even vehicles behind, and cite meetings with park managers about how best to protect the area. One of those managers, Roger DiRosa, summarized his conflicted feelings about the plan: "The solution [to illegal immigration] is not on the Mexican border. It's in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City."

Which Blair Project?

Blair Launches New Climate Change Group

U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke today at the launch of the Climate Group, an international coalition of financial institutions, business leaders, environmental groups, and local politicians dedicated to speeding the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. The group will hold a major conference in May, create working groups to discuss best practices, and launch a "carbon university" in 2005 to serve as a central repository for its findings. In his remarks, Blair called climate change "the most important environmental issue facing the world today." Several British politicians and enviro groups took the opportunity to blast what they called Blair's environmental "tokenism," citing a report released the previous day documenting the U.K.'s failure to meet emission-reduction targets. Though Blair was originally to give the keynote speech at the launch, he spoke for only 10 minutes, which Liberal Democrat environmental spokesperson Norman Baker called "completely unacceptable." He added: "The only thing green about Tony Blair are his country wellies."