Wednesday, 20 Apr 2005

Sure, glaciers are melting, species are perishing, toxics are spreading, forests are disappearing, deserts are expanding, freshwater is dwindling ... But you can turn it all around! Really! Please, God, let it be true! Just in time for Earth Day, check out our list of 10 simple things you can do to save the planet -- or at least make yourself feel better on the way to Armageddon.

Rock the Bloat

Some conservatives getting uncomfortable with energy-bill pork

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, being a conservative meant favoring free markets and smaller, less intrusive federal government. A shrinking number of conservatives still cling to the old ways, and they are disturbed by the energy bill making its way through the House. Though Republican leaders promised to trim the bill down from the bloated version that was defeated in past years, a new analysis by the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense shows that lawmakers have added $35 billion to the bill's costs in the last three weeks, making for a total of $88.9 billion in subsidies for the oil, gas, nuclear, coal, and other industries over the next 10 years. Some question why oil and gas companies need subsidies at a time of historically high energy prices. Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) has offered an amendment that would strip the bill of what he calls "corporate welfare," saying, "When government decides what is a viable investment instead of the marketplace, you distort the market."


Catholic priest José André Tamayo Cortez has witnessed the effects of destructive logging on the landscape and people of Honduras: water losses, agricultural damage, and growing poverty. As director of a coalition of farmers and other residents, Cortez has led the fight against corrupt logging practices and the crime bosses who use violence to control forest areas. His heroics on behalf of the environment and his people earned him a 2005 Goldman Environmental Prize; he shares his story with Grist as part of a series of interviews with the six prizewinners being honored this Earth Week.

How to Win Friends and Influence People

Iran using oil, natural gas resources to find fast friends

Much in the way the kid with the backyard swimming pool and the trampoline always manages to rustle up friends, Iran is turning to its oil and gas reserves to leverage alliances with influential Eastern nations -- and rather urgently, as it faces the threat of sanctions from the U.S. and Europe over its nuclear program. With oil prices rising and anxiety over oil supplies in fast-growing nations rising alongside, Iran's holdings -- 10 percent of the world's oil and the second-largest gas reserves -- give it increasing leverage. In addition to giving Japan better access to its oil last year, Iran has reached out to both China and India, two of the market's boomingest consumers, signing long-term supply deals. In an effort to lure its arch rival to the pool party, Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, a senior adviser to Iran's oil ministries, offers this: "Security of supplies is our bread and butter. If the United States is looking for security of supplies, Iran is an inevitable partner."

EIA, EIA ... Oh

Greenhouse-gas limits affordable, study says; "Told ya so," E.U. replies

A new study by the Energy Information Administration, an independent arm of the U.S. Energy Department, reveals that mandatory limits on greenhouse-gas emissions would not significantly affect the country's economic growth through 2025. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, the report contradicts the principal argument the Bush administration has used against imposing such limits. European Union representatives, meeting with senior officials in Washington this week, took the opportunity to say "nyah nyah" and "we told you so." The EIA estimated that placing caps on carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases in order to reduce emissions 7 percent from currently forecast 2025 levels would reduce the nation's gross domestic product by only one-tenth of 1 percent. To which a White House spokesflack replied, "Any reduction in U.S. GDP is serious, and would impact not only American businesses, but American families." Unlike, say, global warming.