Friday, 19 Nov 2004

Stick a Pork in It

GOP senators pack anti-environmental pork into huge spending bill

Powerful Republicans in Congress fought valiantly against the "do nothing" label yesterday by trying to do an awful lot for their industry cronies. A number of senators endeavored to attach various anti-environmental provisions to a must-pass government-funding bill, including measures that would (take a deep breath) strip wilderness status from Georgia's Cumberland Island, ease grazing permit rules, exempt big dairy and livestock operations from having to report on toxic emissions, give the Army Corps of Engineers billions for environmentally (and fiscally) questionable water projects, and clear the way for commercial fish hatcheries and oil drills on some federally protected parcels in Alaska. "This is a pork-barrel extravaganza," said David Conrad of the National Wildlife Federation. "It's one of the worst I've ever seen, and I've been doing this 25 years." No word yet on which pork rinds will make it into the final package and onto President Bush's desk.

Sundae Drive

New hybrids are more powerful and sexy, if less efficient

The next crop of hybrid vehicles is eagerly anticipated not only by energy-conscious geeks and early-adopter hipsters, but by regular ol' Americans who like to have their apple pie and eat it too. Auto-industry flacks are predicting buyer excitement over soon-to-debut vehicles like the hybrid Honda Accord and Lexus RX SUV -- long on horsepower and sex appeal, short on gas consumption (though slightly less short than their predecessors). "It will be like enjoying a hot-fudge sundae, without the calories or the guilt," says Toyota's Don Esmond of his company's forthcoming Highlander SUV. Psychologist Margaret Krikorian of auto consultant Iceology also sees the new hybrids appealing to Americans' have-it-all sensibilities: "These cars speak to our emotions and rationalizations. It's like being smart and beautiful."

Sze Matters

Confab on environmental justice, political strategy, and hope

Where is the environmental-justice movement heading? What's the role of academia in environmental activism? What the heck does love have to do with global warming? And how does one keep from feeling defeated? This week's InterActivist, environmental-justice scholar Julie Sze of U.C. Davis, tackles these questions and many more -- today on the Grist Magazine website.

The Tree Police, They Live Inside of My Head

Brazil opens environmental police academy in Amazon

The environmental movement in Brazil's Amazon rainforest is arming itself, literally, for the fight against illegal mining, animal and plant piracy, and other crimes against nature. This week, Brazil's federal government opened Latin America's largest environmental police academy -- 135 square miles of Amazon land devoted to training agents to raid illegal camps, shoot straight in the jungle, and, the government hopes, slow the rapid destruction of the massive rainforest thought to contain 10 percent of the world's freshwater and 30 percent of the world's plant and animal species. But environmental altruism isn't the only motivation. Environmental crimes in the forest, including its destruction, are estimated to cost the cash-strapped country billions of dollars each year. "The wealth of this country is the environment and the federal police has been told to protect that wealth," said Agent Delano Lopes, rarin' to go.

Nom de Gloom

Do you hate the word "enviros"?

At least one Grist reader does. He wrote in this week to reprimand us Gristers for frequent use of the abbreviated moniker: "Don't you all realize that our avowed adversaries use that term as a pejorative to describe us? It's their ad hominem dismissal of us as wackos." As enviro(nmentalist)s work to reframe their message and reach out to average Janes and Joes, should they jettison the term "enviros"? Does it even matter? Vote in our scientific poll in the upper right-hand corner of the Grist homepage (through Monday), and discuss in the Gristmill.