Monday, 07 Jun 2004

All the Write Moves

Ask Umbra on Strategic Letter Writing and Voting

If you live in one state but vote in another, which elected officials should be the lucky recipients of your conservation-promoting letters? If you live in one state but want to vote in another, what then? Advice columnist Umbra takes a detour from her usual musings on water heaters and bottle recycling to ponder these and other matters of political strategery in Ask Umbra -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

Bonn Vivant

China Pledges to Get 10 Percent of Power from Renewables by 2010

China pleasantly surprised enviros and politicians alike on Friday with a vow that it will generate 10 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2010. "This commitment was amazing," said Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, German minister for economic cooperation and development, at an international renewables conference in Bonn, Germany, where the announcement was made. Officials at the meeting from 154 countries pledged to promote renewable energy through a variety of steps, but their joint communique did not set definite targets or timetables, reportedly because the U.S. was opposed to specifics. Still, organizers of what was billed as the world's largest meeting on renewables declared the gathering a success and happily noted that interest in renewables is climbing this year as a reaction to high oil prices.

Oakland of Milk and Honey

Green Urban Advocate Diana Williams InterActivates

Oakland, Calif., may seem dilapidated and depressed to some, but Diana Williams sees beauty in this diverse urban community, and her job is to foster that beauty by helping residents spruce up and green the city. As head of Urban Ecology, an Oakland-based nonprofit, she prods everyone from city officials to fellow enviros to recognize the importance of smart urban development and of building safe, clean, walkable communities. As this week's InterActivist, Williams waxes lyrical about cities, confesses to a littering incident, admits a weakness for chick flicks, and more -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

War in the Time of Cholera

Baghdad Residents Suffer from Polluted Water

As if the chaos and violence weren't enough to bear, millions of Baghdad residents also lack a reliable source of clean water. Some have no choice but to get supplies straight from the Tigris River, which is teeming with raw sewage, pesticides, oil, heavy metals, and, thanks to the military conflict of the past 16 months, benzene, an ingredient in gasoline and jet fuel that can lead to a range of harrowing health effects. Says Abdul Salam Abdulali, who works dredging the Tigris, "I wish I could eat the fish, but when I cut them open I can smell the oil." Bechtel Corp. has a $680 million U.S. government contract to get Baghdad water-treatment plants up to speed, but little progress seems to have been made, and meanwhile few sewage-treatment facilities in the city are functional. Cases of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and typhoid doubled in the year between August 2002, before the U.S.-led invasion, and August 2003, according to the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

To the Manner Bjorn

Lomborg Meeting Downplays Importance of Climate Change

Bjorn Lomborg is vexing enviros once again. The Danish contrarian -- who generated heaps of controversy a few years ago with his book The Skeptical Environmentalist, which argued that many environmental concerns are overblown -- is back in the headlines, this time for organizing a workshop of eight top-notch economists at which they decided which of the world's problems were most pressing and deserving of funds. Tackling HIV/AIDS, malaria, and malnutrition topped their list, while addressing climate change ended up at the bottom. A number of environmentalists and scientists characterized the gathering as a stunt designed to further Lomborg's anti-environmental agenda. "We shouldn't choose between poverty eradication and prevention of climate change," said Christian Jorgensen of the Danish Ecological Council. Lomborg denied that the workshop was biased toward any particular agenda.