Friday, 16 Jun 2006

Getting a Move On

Grist outgrows office, begs readers for help with upgrade

Dear readers, we knew this day would come. We've finally outgrown the solitary desk that has served us well for so many years. As we look about for a larger space -- perhaps one with two desks! -- we're also thinking about other ways to expand. More in-depth reporting, more lifestyle advice, more ways for you to get involved. Exciting! But our eyes are just a teensy bit bigger than our wallet, and we need your help. We'll be asking oh-so-gently for funds over the next week or so, and we hope you'll consider giving what you can. In return, you'll get more creative begging than NPR ever dreamed of -- and the satisfaction of supporting the hard-hitting, rib-tickling environmental journalism you've come to love.

Must Not Be Any Oil There

Bush creates world's largest marine protected area

Well, slap our ass and call us Sally: George W. Bush, the prez formerly known as the earth's worst enemy, created the largest protected marine area in the world yesterday when he designated the 1,200-mile-long Northwestern Hawaiian Islands chain and surrounding waters as a national monument. The region is home to some 7,000 marine species, at least a quarter of which are unique to the area. At nearly the size of California, the monument will be larger than all of the country's national parks combined. Fishing in the largely uninhabited islands will be phased out over the next five years, though some groups plan to fight a complete fishing ban. Enviros joined marine scientists in gushing over the move. Bush was allegedly inspired by a PBS documentary about the ocean region. Imagine what could happen if he saw An Inconvenient Truth!


Enviros and labor groups have variously flirted and squabbled for years. Now, finally, one green group and union have announced they're going steady. The Sierra Club, the largest environmental organization in the U.S., and the United Steelworkers, the biggest industrial labor union, have formed the Blue/Green Alliance, which will work to elect like-minded candidates and push a clean-tech economy. Muckraker checks in with greens and their blue-collar buddies about the new partnership.

Don't Be a Menace to South Central

Urban gardeners evicted from community farm in L.A.

South Central Farm, a 14-acre community garden in a sea of warehouses in urban L.A., will be bulldozed to make way for ... a warehouse. The 350 low-income families who for years have been growing food on the plot this week lost their fight to save the farm. Landowner Ralph Horowitz obtained an eviction order, and protestors, who in recent weeks have included celebs Daryl Hannah, Joan Baez, and Julia Butterfly Hill, were forcibly kicked out by the cops. More than 40 people were arrested. Horowitz had been forced to sell the land to the city in the 1980s for a project that never happened. In 1992, the city turned the site over to a food bank, which allowed families to build a community garden there. In 2003, Horowitz settled a lawsuit he brought against the city, which then agreed to sell it back to him for $5 million, and he's been trying to get rid of the gardeners ever since. The morning of the eviction, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa offered to pay Horowitz his $16 million asking price for the plot, but Horowitz declined. "I just want my land back," he said. Gotta have your priorities.


Readers had loads of questions for Jeffrey Hollender, this week's InterActivist, about his green household-products company, Seventh Generation. Why is the packaging so lame? When will the goods become less expensive? How green are Seventh Generation's office buildings? What's the company doing to lower its carbon footprint? Hollender gamely answers all these queries and more, and reveals the color of his Adbusters sneakers to boot.

Guess It's Not So Perma After All

Melting Siberian permafrost could release billions of tons of CO2

As it melts, Siberian permafrost could release up to 500 billion tons of carbon dioxide from ancient plant roots and animal bones into the atmosphere -- twice what scientists had previously expected, says a new study in Science. It's a (woolly) mammoth amount: at present, the atmosphere contains about 800 billion tons of greenhouse gases, and human fossil-fuel burning adds roughly another 6.5 billion tons of CO2 a year. The study, conducted by Russian and American researchers, warned of the possibility of a cyclical effect: warming causes melting, which causes more warming, and so on. "I'm a scientist, so we tend to be conservative in our language. But I would say this could make global warming significantly worse" than expected, said study coauthor Ted Schuur.


With Fathers' Day fast approaching, you may find yourself thinking about the life lessons dad imparted: how to throw a baseball, say, or make the world's best chili. For writer Kim Todd, that lesson was simple but life-altering: don't drive. Now living in Montana and raising two children of her own, Todd reflects on how her father's conservation ethic seeped into her bones.