Tuesday, 07 Nov 2006

Here at Grist, we love Election Day. There's a certain buzz in the air, a feeling that all Americans face a united calling. Yeah, yeah, we know only 38.2 percent of Americans bother to vote -- but we're doing our dangedest to remain optimistic. So after you've voted today (vote today!), keep your eyes on Gristmill, our blog, for up-to-the-minute updates, and add your own thoughts on races in your neck of the woods. And for a breather, take a look at our excerpt from Robert Shetterly's portrait series, "Americans Who Tell the Truth." It's nice to know there are still some out there.

Homeland Insecurity

World's energy future looks dim, says new report

A report issued today by the International Energy Agency says global demand for power could surge 53 percent by 2030 unless governments push clean, efficient energy. "The energy future we are facing today, based on projections of current trends, is dirty, insecure, and expensive," says Claude Mandil, IEA's executive director. The agency also says China may out-emit the U.S., the world's current carbon dioxide emissions leader, by 2009 -- nearly a decade earlier than previously thought. China maintains that responsibility for cutting global emissions lies with developed countries. "You cannot tell people who are struggling to earn enough to eat that they need to reduce their emissions," said Lu Xuedu of the country's Office of Global Environmental Affairs. Which may be true, but there's also this: 60 million Chinese are now getting rich and fat, thanks to a growing love of Western-style fast food and cars. So pretty soon they'll have to come up with new, Western-style climate excuses.

Do You Zaire What I Zaire?

Africa already feeling effects of climate change, will be hit harder

While some people question whether climate change is happening, many Africans are already beginning to feel its effects -- and, says a new U.N. report, the continent is at greater risk than previously thought. Some 480 million Africans could face water-security issues by 2025 and more than 70 million may be at risk from coastal flooding by 2080, the report warns. More prevalent droughts will bring down crop yields and may contribute to an upswing in violence -- a recent study found that one of the most reliable predictors of civil war is lack of rain. Rainfall in the sub-Saharan region has declined 25 percent in the last 30 years, and the number of food emergencies in Africa each year has tripled since the mid-1980s. Says policy analyst Francis Kornegay in Johannesburg, South Africa: "You have climate change and reduced rainfall and shrinking areas of arable land; and then you add population growth and you have the elements of an explosion." Call it the shot ignored 'round the world.

Deceivin' Stephen

Canadians clamor for climate action while their leader ducks the issue

Canadians are more concerned about the earth than at any time in the last 15 years, says a new poll. Some 26 percent feel the environment is more deserving of government attention than any other issue, and more than half of those polled would welcome a carbon tax. British Columbia and, oddly enough, oil-rich Alberta were the provinces most in support of fossil-fuel taxes. "I think it's a reflection of people wanting to hear somebody try to do something, some specific policy initiatives that they can support," says Darrell Bricker of Ipsos Reid, which conducted the poll. So they don't want leaders to avoid the issue? Funny, because Prime Minister Stephen Harper just called off a planned summit with the E.U. in Finland, where he would have been chastised for abandoning the Kyoto Protocol. Claiming he was needed at home, Harper nevertheless plans to be in Latvia, a short flight from Finland, mere days after the scheduled summit. European officials are, understandably, miffed.

Who's On First?

Officials in suburban Detroit point fingers over contaminated park

You remember when Katrina hit, and officials spent their time blaming each other instead of helping people? This is sort of like that, only smaller, and with less wind. Unsuspecting families in a Detroit suburb have played in a contaminated county park for years while city, county, and state officials argued over a cleanup plan. Repeated soil tests in the park -- built atop a landfill in the 1970s -- have revealed lead, arsenic, cyanide, mercury, and PCBs. Lead levels are especially worrisome: they range up to 2,100 parts per million; 400 is deemed acceptable. The latest cleanup plan, pending state approval, would cost $500,000 and involve digging up soil from the park's soccer fields and -- wait for it -- dumping it on the baseball fields, which would be shut down. The park was closed this weekend, amid finger-pointing over why it had stayed open at all. "Everyone has fallen down on their responsibility here," said James Clift of the Michigan Environmental Council. Sounds familiar.