Monday, 31 Jul 2006

Arnie on Blairoids

Blair and Schwarzenegger joining forces to fight climate change

Perhaps finally sensing he's been poodling to the wrong pseudo-manly Republican, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair has decided to wag his tail for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: The two leaders are planning to create a trans-Atlantic cap-and-trade system for carbon dioxide allowances. The alliance will be announced today at a meeting attended by some 25 major corporate CEOs, who plan to discuss means of moving toward cleaner technologies. The Bush administration would have sent a representative to the gathering, it really wanted to, but -- wouldn't you know it? -- there was a scheduling conflict. If established, the trading system would join Europe's mandatory system, along with a voluntary system created by Northeastern U.S. states, and the Chicago Climate Exchange, a privately run, voluntary national system. No confusion there.


Ever seeking the perfect wave, surfer Jim Moriarty knows the value of the coastal environment. His action-sports-oriented nonprofit Surfrider Foundation aims to protect oceans, waves, and beaches for all to enjoy. As InterActivist this week, Moriarty takes time off from hanging ten to chat with Grist editors about his admiration for Patagonia's Yvon Chouinard, his inability to pare down his surfboard collection, and how he went from Silicon Valley techie to nonprofit prez. Send Moriarty a question of your own by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish his answers to selected questions on Friday.

From Sea to Declining Sea

Oceans are really messed up, L.A. Times reports in special series

The Los Angeles Times is running a snazzy multimedia series on the distressing decline of the world's oceans, with photos, video, and depressing statistics galore (for example, 97 percent of elkhorn and staghorn coral off Florida's coast have disappeared since 1975). In part one of the five-part series, we learn how industrial and agricultural pollutants have changed ocean chemistry in areas across the planet, supporting the rapid propagation of primitive organisms like algae, bacteria, and jellyfish while helping to kill off fish, corals, and mammals. It's like evolution in reverse -- or, according to one marine ecologist, "the rise of slime." Part two elaborates on the effects, discussing how blooms of brain-poisoning algae have intensified along the Pacific coast in the last eight years, coinciding with increased numbers of seals, dolphins, sea lions, manatees, and other large mammals washing up on shore, addled or dead. Parts three to five will be published later this week, and promise to be similarly gloomy. Enjoy!


Is it better to keep an old car or buy a new one? A reader with an efficient yet aging Honda Civic asks advice maven Umbra Fisk to point the way. Umbra sends the reader on a detour to a source of even greater wisdom.

Drop It Like It's Hot

Heat wave shuts down nuclear reactors in Europe

Remember how nuclear power was going to save us from global warming? Heh. Funny story. As Europe has gotten, you know, warm lately, a handful of nuclear power plants have been forced to reduce or stop production. Seems the continent's relentless heat wave has warmed the rivers that cool the reactors. Some power producers in Germany and France have been given permission to dump hot water into rivers to avoid power failures. France, which sources more than three-quarters of its electricity from nukes, has had to import power. Bruno Comby of Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy suggests that future nuke plants could cope with the problem by building bigger cooling towers or being built near the sea. That's what you want from a solution to global warming, right? Vulnerability to heat. It just makes sense.