Monday, 18 Oct 2004

We Feel Pretty, Oh So Pretty

Grist unveils new site and blog, acts like it's not seeking compliments

Regular readers will no doubt have noticed that Grist recently unveiled an all-new website design, with a better search engine, better navigation, and lots of pretty colors. We worked long and hard on it and hope you like it as much as we do. Readers with particularly sharp eyes will also have noticed the even-more-recent debut of Gristmill, Grist's brand spankin' new blog. Why a blog? Uh ... it's 2004, dude, everybody has a blog. No, seriously, Gristmill will be a place for continuous commentary from a stable of smarty-pants writers the likes of which the environmental world has never seen. And more important, it will be a place for you, dear readers, to share your opinions and comments. Drop by -- we think you'll find it addictive.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow

Airlines start cutting emissions and raising efficiency

Once considered burdensome headaches, techniques to cut pollution and increase efficiency are now being embraced by many large airlines. Why? "It turns out that good environmental behavior is also cost-effective," said Bengt-Olov Nas of Norway's Scandinavian Airlines System. The principal driver is rising fuel costs: The price of refined jet kerosene has risen by about 60 percent since January, eroding airlines' already-slim profit margins. In response, airlines are pushing to increase fuel efficiency and taking a number of steps to decrease waste: polishing planes to reduce scratches that increase drag, painting planes lighter colors to reduce heat absorption, and reducing weight via lighter seats and less onboard water and fuel. Also, various airlines are lobbying for more direct flight paths and the opening of some military flight space, and trying to reduce taxiing and in-flight delays. Unlike other cost-cutting measures -- like, say, firing people -- these measures are supported by just about everybody, including passengers and unions.

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gainesville

Pegeen Hanrahan, mayor of Gainesville, Fla., answers Grist's questions

You may not hear much about them, but officials in local government are on the environmental front lines. Pegeen Hanrahan was recently elected mayor of Gainesville, Fla., and she's thrown herself wholeheartedly into transportation policy, land-use planning, and environmental-justice issues. She answers Grist's questions today, describing meeting John Edwards, seeing Bruce Springsteen, and running an "Apprentice"-style contest with local college students -- in InterActivist, only on the Grist Magazine website. Send her a question of your own by noon PDT on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

Grateful Deadlock

Congressional paralysis dooms environmental legislation

Partisan bickering and electioneering in Washington, D.C., have led to an impasse on nearly all environmental legislation in Congress the past two years -- bills that enviros love as well as ones they hate. Other than the "Healthy Forests" initiative and a piece of brownfields funding, Congress has been deadlocked on environment-related measures. Bush's Clear Skies legislation, renewal of the industry tax for Superfund site cleanup, limits on carbon-dioxide emissions, changes to the Endangered Species Act -- all are stuck in limbo. The top dogs on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, James Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), won't even meet in the same room. Perhaps because Jeffords says Bush is "killing people" with pollution and Inhofe says environmentalists are "all strong pro-abortionists, they're all pro-gun control people, flying under the flag of environmentalism." Sounds like somebody needs some cookies and milk and a nice long nap!

Mind the Tap

Umbra on testing your tap water

Bottled water is expensive and, according to recent reports, may not be altogether safe. But tap water, even if it's clean and dandy in your area, might be coming to you via lead pipes. What, oh what, to do? A thirsty reader writes from her New York City apartment, at a loss for how to proceed. Luckily, our inimitable eco-advice columnist Umbra knows her H2O. She lays out the steps for determining your aquatic choices -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.

Ban Ban

Federal judge repeals Clinton snowmobile ban

The latest chapter has opened in what has become a sort of mini-Iliad for our times: the battle over snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. On Friday, a federal judge in Wyoming, Clarence Brimmer, struck down the ban on snowmobiles in the parks put in place toward the end of Clinton's second term. The ban, he wrote in his opinion, was "the product of a prejudged, political decision to ban snowmobiles from all the national parks." Despite the fact that there were more than 100,000 public comments on the ban, roughly 75 percent supporting it, Brimmer wrote that "the public was left out of the process." Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D) hailed the decision; enviros decried it. The National Park Service was already in the process of creating new rules governing snowmobiles in the parks, which would allow 720 a day in Yellowstone and 140 a day in Grand Teton. The ruling is the latest blow in what is shaping up as a judicial cage match between Brimmer and Judge Emmet G. Sullivan in Washington, D.C., who has ruled in favor of the ban.