Monday, 26 Sep 2005

Martin Melaver is at the cutting edge of a new field: socially and environmentally responsible real estate. As the CEO of a third-generation, family-owned real-estate firm based in Savannah, Ga., he ensures that everything his company does -- developing, acquiring, renovating, managing, brokering, and owning commercial and residential properties -- is done in a socially responsible and sustainable fashion. He's this week's InterActivist, so send him a question by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish his answers to selected questions on Friday.

Dopey's Choice

Pombo proposes selling off parks to make point about Arctic Refuge

A draft bill being circulated by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chair of the House Resources Committee, advocates selling 15 national preserves, historic sites, and monuments to help shrink the federal budget deficit. The proposal also recommends selling ads on National Park Service brochures and maps, finding private sponsors for Park Service trails and museums, and leasing oil and gas rights on the outer continental shelf. Pombo's committee staff estimates the sell-offs would raise about $2.4 billion over five years -- which, not at all coincidentally, is what the Congressional Budget Office estimates the feds would reap from selling drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge over the same period. "This document was intended to illustrate ... that the chairman feels we have no choice but to open [the refuge]," said a Pombo spokesflack. Democrats and enviros are not amused. "Instead of cutting pork projects, Congressman Pombo would rather sell parks and national monuments," said Phil Clapp of the National Environmental Trust.


Ah, cats. So intelligent, so independent, so ... stinky. Yes, one of the unfortunate side effects of letting animals into your home is living alongside their poo. And tossing out all that litter makes a certain kind of person feel a certain kind of guilty. But what to do? A new cat owner wonders how to clean up the mess -- and it's a question that doesn't give Umbra paws.

Rattle the Cajun

Post-Rita Louisiana deals with another round of environmental problems

An already-battered Louisiana is beset with new environmental crises in the wake of Hurricane Rita, which sent a wall of water up to 15 feet high surging into the state's coastal bayous and canals on Saturday. In New Orleans, officials are scrambling to assess whether the renewed flooding burst oil and chemical storage tanks and other infrastructure that might have been weakened by Katrina. They also worry the city's existing layer of chemical-and-sewage-contaminated glop will be stirred up again. Some residents say damage from the hurricanes might have been mitigated if the federal government had funded restoration of eroded wetlands and barrier islands -- natural barricades to storm surges -- as well as improvements to the levee system. "If they had given us the $14 billion we were asking for before Katrina" to strengthen levees, said Rep. Charlie Melancon (D-La.), "we wouldn't need $200 or $300 billion to clean up now."

Pimp My Prius

Customizations and hacks jazz up a hybrid

Sure, your Prius saves gas and helps you reduce your personal carbon dioxide emissions ... but does it have mad bling? We didn't think so. Luckily, The New York Times commissioned George Barris, car customizer extraordinaire, to modify a Prius without altering the car's mechanics or electronics for a price the Gray Lady termed "within reach of real drivers" -- about $10,000. Barris lengthened and raised the car's nose; added flared fenders, 18-inch wheels, and an aerodynamic rear spoiler; and topped 'er off with a duo-toned Tangerine Gold-Astra Green metal flake hot-rod paint finish. Boo-yah! (Wait, do the kids still say "boo-yah"?) If you do nothing else to cut a more stylish hybrid figure, says Barris, change the paint job: "You could have no engine under there, and it will still catch people's attention."