Tuesday, 09 May 2006

For the last several years, largely beneath the media spotlight, Al Gore has been schlepping all over the world with a computer slideshow on global warming, attempting to educate and raise alarm one person, one room, one city at a time. Thanks to the intervention of some Hollywood producers, Gore's message -- now packaged in a documentary, An Inconvenient Truth -- will soon be reaching much larger audiences. David Roberts sat down with Gore to discuss the movie's personal tone, the proper balance of fear and hope, and more.

Curses, Fideled Again

U.S. lawmakers see offshore drilling near Cuba and feel left out

The U.S. has a years-old ban against offshore drilling in the Florida Straits, but it looks like the area might get drilled anyway -- by Cuba. The island country has rights to resources in half of the straits under a 1977 agreement, which President Bush renewed for two years in December. Instead of drilling on its own, Cuba is negotiating with other countries to extract resources -- most notably, China and India. U.S. drill-mongers are none too happy. "Red China should not be left to drill for oil within spitting distance of our shores without competition from U.S. industries," said Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho). Commie-baiting! How retro. Craig and a handful of other lawmakers are pushing to end the coastal-drilling ban, saying it will be a step toward energy independence and help lower prices. Drilling opponents say environmental risks are high, long-term conservation would be more effective, and, since oil is traded on the world market, U.S. gas prices would be unaffected.


In recent years, the corporate social responsibility movement has convinced companies to change the way they do business -- to acknowledge their roles as citizens of the world. But as advocates push companies to focus on the social and environmental "bottom lines," are they losing sight of the economics? Our Full Disclosure columnists argue that economic responsibility, of all things, is getting lost in the corporate shuffle -- and they say it's the one thing we can't afford to live without.

Village of the Dammed

China nears completion of massive Three Gorges Dam, plots more dam-building

Construction of the world's largest hydroelectric dam -- the Three Gorges Dam in China -- may be completed as soon as May 20, nine months ahead of schedule. The $22 billion dam on the Yangtze River will eventually flood the homes of some 1.3 million people. Evacuees worry they'll be placed in villages with no farmland or jobs. Perhaps they could become dam tour guides -- Three Gorges has become a popular tourist site, attracting 220,000 gawkers so far this year. While construction on the dam is likely to finish this month, it won't be fully operational until 2009. By then, construction may have started upriver on an even taller dam across Tiger Leaping Gorge, one of the world's deepest river gorges, famous for its beauty. That dam could displace up to 100,000 people, many of them ethnic minorities living in their ancestral homeland. Environmentalists are outraged, and likely will be for a while -- 11 more dams are planned upriver from the Three Gorges.

Corrode to Perdition

BP closes two more North Slope pipelines

Oil giant -- oops, beyond oil giant -- BP is shutting down two more of its pipelines on Alaska's North Slope, at the expense of 22,000 barrels of crude (worth some $1.5 million) a day. Neither pipe had leaked yet, but BP officials have been monitoring serious corrosion problems, treating the pipes with chemicals to prevent further deterioration. The two pipes will likely be down for weeks while BP determines whether to repair or replace them, probably the latter: "It's highly likely that the ultimate solution will be replacing the line. There's enough damage," said BP senior vice president Maureen Johnson. Luckily (?), the two pipes represent only a small fraction of the 825,000 barrels of crude a day coming out of the North Slope.

The Love Vote

Grist wins Webby People's Voice Award for Best Magazine!

Thanks to all of you -- our dear, beloved readers -- for wading through the labyrinthine Webby Awards site to vote for us. It worked! We won the Webby People's Voice Award for Best Magazine. Some outfit called "National Geographic" won the "official" Webby (whatevs!), but this is America, dammit, and it's the people's voice that counts. You're the people. You chose us. We are humbled and grateful. Thanks.