Friday, 06 May 2005

Can't See the Forest for the Roads

Bush administration replaces Clinton roadless rule with more roadful one

The Bush administration yesterday gave the heave-ho to the sweeping Clinton administration roadless rule, which put some 58.5 million acres of national forests off-limits to development. In its place, a new rule will put 34.3 million acres of that land back into play, at the discretion of governors, who will have 18 months to petition the feds either to open national-forest land in their states to development or keep it protected. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey claimed that "the way [the Clinton rule] was done developed a substantial amount of ill will." As more than 90 percent of the public comments on the Clinton rule were positive, while more than 95 percent (nearly 1.8 million) on the Bush rule were negative, said "ill will" likely came primarily from the oil, gas, logging, mining, and road-building industries. Said a spokesflack for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, "We have to find ways and work with local communities to evaluate these lands and see if they are best for oil and gas activities, recreation, whatever." Whatever, please.


When Angela Park had her first child, she realized that -- along with everything else in her life -- her environmentalism had changed, becoming at once deeper and more quotidian. As she looks ahead to Mother's Day this weekend, she wonders why the environmental movement isn't doing more to reach out to moms. If they focused America's attention on drunk driving, imagine what they could do about mercury!

Got to Admit, It's Getting Brighter, It's Getting Brighter All the Time

Global dimming reversed in past decade; now brightening again

So, remember that big hubbub about "global dimming" a while back, whereby particulates (e.g., smog) in the earth's atmosphere were reflecting light and taking the edge off global warming? Yeah, well, funny story: That's not happening anymore. Two new papers in the journal Science show that the dimming trend -- 2 to 3 percent less sunlight reaching the earth's surface each decade between 1960 and 1990 -- more or less reversed around 1990. Now, some parts of the globe have regained their pre-mid-century brightness, and others are brighter than ever. No one is entirely sure why it's happening, but most fingers are pointing to decreased smog and soot pollution. Ironically -- and by that we mean horrifically -- those pollution victories may well mean that global warming will accelerate, what with more sunlight reaching the planet's surface. Friggin' atmosphere. Just leave us alone already!


As Mike Millikin sees it, we're in for a rough ride over the next decade or two as fuel prices rise, natural resources grow scarcer, and chaos looms. But fear not (well, not too much anyhow): In answering reader questions, Millikin, sustainable-mobility expert and publisher of the blog Green Car Congress, points to lots of positive transport trends and offers a number of suggestions to empower you -- yes, you! -- to help jumpstart change.

Sunny Size Up

World's largest solar power plant planned for Portugal

The world's largest solar power station, which would cover over 600 acres and could produce up to 116 megawatts of electricity, is planned for an economically depressed yet sun-drenched corner of Portugal. The almost $550 million project, if approved by the Portuguese government, would effectively reclaim an abandoned fool's-gold (aka pyrite) mine in the country's southern Alentejo region, and include a solar panel factory on site. But the mostly German investors financing the project are no fools: The bright, barren region gets some 175 kilowatt-hours of sunlight per square foot each year. Says the managing director of the company that owns the site, "This is definitely one of the sunniest spots in Europe." Once completed -- construction would take four to five years -- the vast array would be visible from space and supplant the current world-record-holding solar facility, which produces a measly five megawatts of electricity on about 50 acres near Leipzig, Germany.