Monday, 08 Jan 2007

Got friends? Got a camera? Got a spleen full of climate-change indignation? Then listen up. This April 14, the U.S. will see a protest like no other: across the country, groups both large and small will gather to express how they feel about our warming world, then use pictures, videos, and that newfangled internet to give politicians and the media a true picture of their collective passion. In the first of a series of weekly dispatches leading up to the event, noted author Bill McKibben (who is also a brave, strong, and handsome Grist board member) explains why he's launching "Step It Up 2007," what he hopes to accomplish, and how you can be a part of it.

Their Day in Cote

Groundwork begins for Ivory Coast toxic-dumping lawsuit

It's been almost five months since a cargo ship dumped over 400 tons of toxic "slops" in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, leaving at least 10 people dead and more than 40,000 ill. At the time, residents of the African nation responded by blockading streets, burning stuff, and collapsing their government. Now that's direct action! As the $30 million cleanup of 18 local sites continues, British legal eagles are stepping in, suing Trafigura, the company whose London-based arm chartered the ship. Starting today, the Brits will talk to thousands of witnesses, building one of the U.K.'s largest-ever class action suits. Meanwhile, the U.N. Environment Program is appealing to rich nations for help with cleanup costs. "One of the world's poorest countries is having to pay for the recovery, shipment, and decontamination of toxic waste [produced] in the industrialized world," said UNEP's Nick Nuttall. "The Ivorian government is being forced to choose between paying hospital bills and the costs of decontamination."


If a picture is worth a thousand words, John Amos hopes to inspire a loud shout-out against environmental destruction. Amos, president of the nonprofit SkyTruth, uses aerial photography of gold mining and natural-gas drilling to clearly demonstrate the scope of industrial damage to the planet. As InterActivist this week, Amos describes how he turned from a Big Oil-advising professional geologist to a boring-shoe-wearing, SkyTruth-telling environmentalist -- who still cries at It's a Wonderful Life.

Better Not, Pout

North Sea fish population declines as water warms, says new study

For the first time, those meddling scientists have found a direct link between warming seas and dying fish. A heated habitat leads to rapid population decline for the eelpout, a shallow bottom-dweller in the North Sea, according to a decade-long German study recently published in Science. Warm water contains less oxygen, a gas that is helpful for such fish-friendly tasks as "being ready to prey, grow, move, and reproduce," says researcher Hans Pörtner. Eelpouts have relatively few young and generally do not migrate, even to seek cooler waters; soon, though, they may need to relocate or die, scientists say. Temperatures in the area of the North Sea that was studied have risen by about 2 degrees Fahrenheit in the last 40 years, and some estimates predict a further rise of 7.2 degrees in the coming century. Zoarces viviparus (really, could that name get any better?) is an indicator species for the general health of cold-water seas -- and it's indicating that global warming still sucks.


So you do everything you can to reduce your trash: recycle the bottles and cans, compost the orange peels, hide the worn-out socks under the couch. But inevitably, your household still has stuff to toss each week. What's the best way to get rid of it? A reader in Indiana wonders whether burning might be a better alternative than sending more solids to the landfill (hint: no!), and advice maven Umbra Fisk fires up an answer.

Happy Feat

GM unveils plug-in hybrid at Detroit car show, sticks out tongue at greens

The media got a peek at Detroit's North American International Auto Show yesterday, and manufacturers had a surprise in store: cars so green they could play hide-and-seek in a cornfield. The biggest buzz surrounded the Chevy Volt, a plug-in hybrid from General Motors, long vilified for yanking its original electric car in the 1990s. Bob Lutz, GM's vice chair of global product development, took the opportunity to bridge the chasm between the company and its eco-critics. "Well, here it is ... an [electric] car from General Motors. I am shocked, truly shocked," he said. "A GM electric vehicle is an inconvenient truth." Also inconvenient, Bob: the fact that the battery needed to run the Volt doesn't exist yet. As other companies, including Toyota and DaimlerChrysler, unveiled green plans and prototypes, a study released at the show confirmed that hybrid cars save their owners money. We're just going to ignore Ford's reintroduction of the muscle car and call it a great day for engines of change.