Thursday, 03 Feb 2005

What Is This "Print" You Speak of?

A reader inquires about eco-magazines made of paper

A New Zealand reader's kids won't listen to anything she says about the internet -- that would be like wearing clothes she picked out! They will, however, read print (yeah, we had to look it up too) magazines that she leaves lying around. So she asks Umbra about good print magazines on environmental and social issues. Umbra's print experience is limited to the weighty reference volumes in her basement stacks, so she's turning to you, readers. Head on over to Gristmill, Grist's zippy li'l blog, and submit your recommendations as comments. Tell Umbra and other readers what print mags you like, and while you're at it, remind us why you still read print mags -- in Ask Umbra, today on the Grist Magazine website.

Exeter Stage Left

Climate eggheads conclude we're toast, not sure when we'll hear the ding

A three-day scientific conference on global warming in Exeter, U.K., that wrapped up today vividly illustrates the frustrating current state of the climate-change debate. There was a palpable sense of urgency among the scientists in attendance, as various studies predicted that global warming will yield rising sea levels, outbreaks of infectious disease, droughts, floods, famine, and up to 150 million "environmental refugees" fleeing arid or submerged land. Poor countries in South Asia and Africa are expected to be hardest hit, but aside from some areas of Canada and Russia that may become newly habitable, virtually every part of the world could see ill effects. Looming in the background was the poorly understood but widely acknowledged possibility of abrupt, catastrophic, irreversible climate change of the sort that was recently overdramatized in the movie The Day After Tomorrow. But just when all the gloomy predictions will come to pass is unknown. Scientists are still unable to answer the question U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair put at the center of the conference: "What level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is self-evidently too much?"

Eternal Sunshine of the British Mind

U.K. freedom-of-information rules promise access to crucial enviro data

In sharp contrast to America's growing number of terror-inspired no-right-to-know rules restricting citizens' access to government info crucial to environmental health and safety, new rules in Britain that took effect Jan. 1 are intended to do just the opposite (no, not incite terrorism): ensure citizens' access to information about their environment. The new freedom-of-information rules also cover some private companies' records, especially concerning emissions data. Friends of the Earth U.K. has already submitted 60 requests for information on subjects ranging from the dangers of genetically modified crops to land contaminated by the military to the government's support of a massive oil pipeline reaching from Azerbaijan to Turkey. Says David Cowdrey of the World Wildlife Fund, "We are planning to use the legislation to get specific information about emissions trading, subsidies to the energy sector, and to find out precisely what chemicals are being used in which products." As they say, sunshine is the best detoxicant.

Run Away, Train

D.C. approves stricter regs on transporting toxic chemicals

Worried about a possible catastrophic release of toxic chemicals that one study says could kill up to 100,000 people, Washington, D.C.'s 13-member city council has approved a measure limiting the transport of toxic chemicals within a 2.2-mile radius of the Capitol building. Shipments of explosives, flammable gases, and other highly dangerous chemicals into the designated area by road or rail will be permitted only in emergencies or other extenuating circumstances. The transport ban is meant to protect D.C. from deadly events like the derailment of a train carrying chlorine gas in South Carolina last month and the possibility of terrorist attacks similar to the train bombings in Madrid last year. Local rail line company CSX Corp. and other opponents of the safety measure have questioned its constitutionality and say that such bans, if enacted in other areas, could create costly re-routing.

I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means

In SOTU speech, Bush mentions eco-responsible energy, dodges climate

In his State of the Union speech last night -- in between 27 utterances each of the words "freedom" and "terror" or their variants -- President Bush squeezed in a brief nod to green issues. He said that the country needs "environmentally responsible" energy sources, just before touting nuclear power, praising ethanol, and urging Congress to pass his long-stalled energy bill, which would pave the way for a big new burst of oil and gas drilling. He also boasted of the bill's support for "conservation, alternative sources, [and] a modernized electricity grid," without explaining why those widely supported goals were packaged together with controversial measures certain to meet opposition in Congress. Perhaps most jarring to green ears was what was not mentioned: climate change, which of late has been the subject of numerous high-profile studies and conferences and is at the top of the agenda for the coming meeting of the G8 countries, presided over by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has practically begged Bush in recent weeks to take global warming seriously -- apparently without effect.