Thursday, 05 Aug 2004

Go Ahead, Mr. Wendell

At 70, Wendell Berry Remains a Champion of Agrarian Ideals

Wendell Berry -- famed agrarian, contrarian, writer, thinker, environmentalist, neo-Luddite, and resident of Henry County, Ky. -- turns 70 years old today. Writer Mark Engler traces Berry's career and influence, assesses critiques of the farmer's occasionally moralistic philosophy, and appreciates his sly wit, sharp prose, and continuing relevance -- today on the Grist Magazine website

A Real Kick in the Asthma

Global Warming Expected to Increase Smog

Enviros sometimes struggle to connect distant, abstract issues like global warming to kitchen-table issues like dirty air and asthma. Well, here you go: By 2050, global warming is likely to increase the number of smog-alert days (in which air quality violates federal standards) by some 60 percent in 15 cities in the eastern U.S., according to a report released yesterday by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The problem, it turns out, is that even if human-made sources of pollutants remain at current levels, the rise in global average temperatures will lead natural sources of some pollutants -- like, say, trees -- to produce more. Longer warm seasons will also mean earlier and more pollen and accelerated growth of hay fever-causing ragweed. The National Association of Manufacturers dismissed the report as "yet another attempt to mislead the public and the media during a hotly contested election campaign" -- said attempt presumably aided and abetted by the researchers at Johns Hopkins and other top U.S. universities who compiled the data.

Ms. Big Stuff

Umbra Pinpoints the Top Things You Should Be Doing for the Planet

Our unflagging research guru Umbra gets a lot of silly questions. We mean that in the nicest way, dear readers -- but honestly, the fate of the planet does not hinge on your decision about which solution you'll use to wash your fruit. A reader writes in to ask: Well, then, what does really matter? What are three or four things everybody should be doing? Umbra cuts to the chase -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World Bank

World Bank to Continue Investing in Oil and Mining

Sigh. The World Bank announced this week that it will continue to invest in oil, gas, and mining projects. Concern that such investments encourage the enrichment of corrupt elites and exacerbate rather than alleviate poverty led the bank to commission an independent review of extractive investments in 2000. Led by Emil Salim, former environment minister of Indonesia, the review concluded that, yes, such investments are destructive -- it called for an end to oil-related investments by 2008 and a radical rethinking of other such investments. The World Bank's management this week said the bank will continue such investments, but with a renewed focus on environmental and social standards, and will increase investment in renewable energies. Disappointed enviros dismissed the bank's response as largely cosmetic.

Gray Matters

Russia's Gray Whales Threatened by Oil Development

A massive oil development project threatens gray whales that spend their summers in the Sea of Okhotsk off the remote Russian island of Sakhalin. While their close cousins off the California coast are thriving, the gray whale group in Russian waters has dwindled to around 100, with perhaps as few as 23 breeding females. Unfortunately for them, the largest oil development project in Russia is underway in the bay, with oil platforms springing up, undersea pipelines planned for next spring, and seismic exploration -- which messes with whales' sonar communication -- proceeding apace. The International Whaling Commission has said the preservation of the remaining whales is "a matter of absolute urgency" and called for a halt in seismic exploration in sensitive areas and measures to prevent spills. Sakhalin Energy Investment Co., a consortium led by Royal Dutch/Shell Group, has agreed to, ahem, study the matter further.