Thursday, 18 May 2006

Does locally grown food trump pesticide-free produce, or vice versa? Farmers' markets and produce aisles are chock-full of earnest foodies agonizing over the green conundrum du jour. In a piece adapted from his book Organic, Inc., Samuel Fromartz addresses the local/organic dilemma -- and his advice may surprise you.

Chase to the Cut

House passes bill to speed up salvage logging

A bill that would speed up salvage logging in national forests after fires and other natural disasters has passed in the House. Currently, a careful review of wildlife and forest health is required before timber can be salvaged and sold after catastrophes; proponents of the heftily named Forest Emergency Recovery and Research Act say this review takes too darn long, causing damaged wood to lose market value (the horror). The bill would require the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to create generic pre-disaster guidelines for timber sales, which could temporarily relax environmental laws and allow post-disaster logging to begin before forest health is determined. A group of 169 scientists wrote to Congress opposing the bill, saying that post-fire logging can damage soil, cause erosion, and actually increase the likelihood of fire. "In short, this bill does not expedite procedures, it eviscerates environmental law," said Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.). Totally an accident, no doubt.

My Name Is Prince and I Am Gunky

Exxon Valdez disaster still screwing up Prince William Sound

Wildlife in Alaska's Prince William Sound is still threatened by oil spilled from the tanker Exxon Valdez in 1989. According to a new study by researchers at the National Marine Fisheries Service, some 100 tons of oil still pollute the sound shoreline and are potentially accessible to foraging sea otters and ducks. Coincidentally, sea otter and duck populations have been slow to recover in the area. Exxon-funded studies have concluded that, in the words of an Exxon spokesflack, the sound "has recovered, it's healthy and it's thriving." Exxon has paid at least $900 million toward Valdez cleanup; under a 1991 settlement, Alaska and the feds can ask for up to $100 million more for sustained eco-damage. Exxon has refused to pay $4.5 billon in punitive damages related to the spill. In no way trying to counter the bad PR, Exxon released a report today claiming the company paid $3 billion in environment-related expenses last year, is trying to be more energy-efficient, and totally doesn't deserve its bad-guy rep.

Better Late Than Clever

Democrats unveil plan to cut dependence on oil imports

Yesterday, Senate Democrats presented a proposal to cut U.S. dependence on oil imports 40 percent by 2020. The Clean EDGE Act contains nary a mention of increased fuel-economy standards, gas taxes, or other such excessively bold proposals; instead, it proclaims that ethanol will save us all. Under Clean EDGE, a quarter of U.S.-sold cars would have to be flex-fuel -- able to run on an ethanol blend -- by 2010, and half by 2020; alternative fuel would have to be available at 10 percent of gas stations by 2015. The plan would also revoke some oil company subsidies. "[D]rill, drill, drill is not going to deliver the results we need," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). Republicans were, of course, unsupportive. "If drivers could fill their tanks with Democratic Party politics, everybody would be running on full," said Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas). He added, "Drill, drill, drill!" OK, not really.


It's hard to ignore the effects of cars on American culture, from air pollution to city-slicing freeways to calendars featuring scantily clad women balancing on fenders. But what about their effects on our language? Mark Peters says cars pollute the dictionary too. He pops the trunk on some of his favorite auto-neologisms in today's Soapbox.

A Random Act of Mindfulness

Random House to bump up use of recycled paper

For you fogies who still read books made of ... what do they call it? ... "paper," here's some good news: Leading U.S. publishing company Random House announced this week that it plans to increase the recycled-paper content of its books to 30 percent by 2010. It's an ambitious goal, as only about 3 percent of paper currently used in Random House books is recycled. The average recycled-paper content in the biz is about 5 percent. Random House, which buys about 120,000 tons of paper each year for book production, claims that 550,000 trees a year will be saved when it reaches its goal. The initiative will be a "multimillion-dollar investment," but the company doesn't plan to raise book prices. Said Tyson Miller of recycled-paper pushers Green Press Initiative: "What they're doing is phenomenal."