Monday, 22 May 2006

In an exclusive interview with Muckraker, Al Gore shares the inside scoop on the Alliance for Climate Protection, a new group that will spend tens of millions of dollars attempting to get Americans fired up about global warming. Former EPA chief Carol Browner and other notables involved in the ambitious bipartisan project dish about the group's funding, leadership, and strategy -- a strategy involving big expenditures on paid advertising, which might not sit well with some enviros. Find out about the controversy, and why Gore will fund but not lead the group, in Muckraker.

Kicked in the Arson

"Eco-terrorists" indicted in connection to Vail ski-resort arson

Four people -- dubbed "eco-terrorists" by the authorities, who aren't at all trying to scare you -- were indicted Thursday and face eight counts of arson in connection to fires set at a Vail, Colo., ski resort in 1998. A communiqué apparently released by the arsonists said the fire, which caused $12 million in damage, had been set in the name of the Earth Liberation Front. Suspects Chelsea Gerlach and Stanislas Meyerhoff are already in custody awaiting trial on charges related to another case of arson in Oregon; suspects Josephine Overaker and Rebecca Rubin are on the lam. Reporting in Colorado's mainstream press hewed to strict standards of objectivity, as one reporter wrote that the Vail arson set "a destructive new standard for audaciousness in the shadowy world of eco-terrorism." Each count of arson brings a possible five to 20 years in prison and/or a fine of $250,000, though it would be no surprise if the feds, desperate for new enemies they can actually catch, just went ahead and lynched 'em.


You've got a houseful of mouths to feed and a limited budget, but you want to do right and buy organic. A frustrated reader asks advice maven Umbra Fisk why organic food costs so much more than regular, and Umbra rings up the answer.

Fly by Nitrogen

Threatened California butterfly hurt by cars and helped by cows

The bay checkerspot butterfly population on Northern California's Coyote Ridge is threatened with "drive-by extinction," according to conservation biologist Stuart Weiss. Car commuters to Silicon Valley and other sources of pollution deposit up to 20 pounds of nitrogen per acre on the ridge every year, enriching soil to the benefit of invasive grasses and the detriment of the native plants that sustain the checkerspot. Weiss convinced nearby Calpine Corp. to open a butterfly reserve to mitigate the effects of a planned power plant, and, perhaps surprisingly, he encourages local cattle grazing; cows eat the nutritious invasive plants, leaving the native flora to sustain checkerspot caterpillars. Some of the native habitat of the orange-and-red checkerspot butterfly, which is listed as threatened by the feds, is in the political district of Rep. Richard Pombo (R). We're just saying.


Attorney John Suttles of the Southern Environmental Law Center sues the pants off the pollutocrats threatening our clean air and water. (And we don't object!) As this week's InterActivist, Suttles chats about his fight against mercury pollution, his most embarrassing moment in court, and which hairy space creature would be most likely to play him in a movie. Send your burningest questions to Suttles by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish his answers to selected questions on Friday.

Going With the Flow

Underwater turbines to be tested in New York river

Avoiding the bickering over wind power and biofuels, a Virginia-based company is seeking clean energy in the watery deep. Within a few weeks, Verdant Power will submerge turbines in New York's East River to draw energy from the tides. The first phase of the project will run for 18 months, with six turbines supplying energy to a nearby supermarket and parking garage; if this test run is successful, up to 300 improved turbines will be installed in 2010, enough to power 8,000 homes. This hydrokinetic or "in-stream" energy is an eco-friendly alternative to hydropower, wherein water is dammed and released. With watermills, "[f]ish and marine mammals can easily swim around," says one researcher. During the test run, the turbines will be closely monitored to make sure our fishy friends are not harmed. Says Dean Corren of Verdant, "There's no such thing as a 100 percent clean source of energy, but this is as close as you can get."