Tuesday, 27 Sep 2005

Freelance writer Chris Mooney has been toiling away for years on a niche beat covering the overlap of science and politics. Little did he know that the Bush administration would do so much to make him and his subject matter the talk of the town. With global warming, stem cells, and evolution in the headlines, Mooney's new book The Republican War on Science is getting ginormous amounts of press -- he was even on The Daily Show! He chats with Grist's David Roberts about partisanship, climate science, and more.

Sacrificial Sham

Bush asks Americans to avoid unnecessary car trips and save energy

President Bush yesterday called on Americans to drive less and conserve gas. "We can all pitch in," he said. Of course, "all" is relative: Though the president directed federal agencies to reduce energy use, Republican congressional leaders were meeting even as he spoke to push for more energy-industry subsidies and weaker environmental laws governing fuel production and distribution. This has activists gearing up for a fight. Republican leaders are "racing faster than a hurricane to smash through alleged environmental barriers before anyone realizes what they are up to," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch. Still, the unfamiliar call to sacrifice from Bush points out how much Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have rattled confidence in domestic oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico. Today, Bush is on his seventh tour of the Gulf Coast since Katrina hit; no word yet on whether he's scaled back the size of his fuel-intensive motorcade, which typically consists of more than a dozen SUVs, vans, and limos.


Here at Grist, we believe the children are our future. In fact, we're quite mad about youth (yuk yuk!). That's why we were so pleased to talk with this year's Brower Youth Award winners -- young people fighting nuclear-waste facilities, teaching kids about sea-turtle conservation, and restoring wetlands. The up-and-coming environmental leaders chatted with Grist's Sarah van Schagen about their projects and their hopes for the future of environmental activism.

Ban on the Run

Chinese consider legalizing domestic trade in tiger parts

China may soon drop its domestic trade ban on tigers and goods made from tiger parts, which has been in place since 1993. Though the change under consideration would only allow trade based on farm-bred, captive tigers, wildlife campaigners worry that it would push up demand and encourage illegal poaching of wild animals. Nearly every part of a tiger is thought to have some medicinal value in traditional Chinese medicine; that belief drives a lucrative black market that threatens to wipe out what's left of the world's estimated 5,000 wild tigers. International trade in tiger products is already banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species treaty, but that's not enough, say activists -- China's domestic ban is essential. "Make no bones about it," said the World Wildlife Fund's Callum Rankine. If China lifts the ban, "this could be the end for tigers."

Taking It All Offset

House GOPers want to cut enviro and other programs to pay for rebuilding

Rebuilding the Gulf Coast after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita is expected to run the feds around $200 billion. A group of House Republicans called the Republican Study Committee has unveiled an "Operation Offset" plan with proposed budget cuts to pay for the massive expenditure. While this nostalgic exercise in fiscal discipline -- what used to be called "conservatism" -- has no chance of being enacted by today's pork-happy, deficit-lovin' congressional leadership, it is a revealing look into the bowels of the Republican agenda. Programs up for evisceration include those that fund clean energy, clean fuel, energy conservation, public transit, and fish and wildlife habitat. And that's just the environmental cuts; the bulk of the money would come from social welfare programs like Medicare that benefit the less well-off. Energy-company subsidies go unquestioned, of course. And though repealing the last two tax cuts for the wealthy alone could cover the cost, well ... let's get serious.