Monday, 19 Mar 2007

Blue Monday

Russia's going nuclear, the U.S. is going nowhere, and Cambodia's going wild

We hope you had a chance to relax this weekend, to cast aside your cares and spend hours soaking in the jasmine-scented bubble bath of life. Because now it's back to the putrid mudbath of reality. From Russia comes news that the country is planning to build two nuclear reactors a year through 2015 and four a year by 2020, aiming to generate at least 25 percent of its energy the Chernobyl way by 2030. And really, what could go wrong? From Germany comes "news" that the U.S. stood in the way at a G8 summit as delegates discussed addressing climate change through carbon trading and developing-country reforestation. The stubborn mofos' position, said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, was "regrettable," but "not a surprise." And from Cambodia comes a report that part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail has become a haven for threatened wildlife. Oh wait, that's good news: it means even a hopeless quagmire has its heartwarming follow-up stories. We'll look forward to that Fallujah bird sanctuary in 2040.


Fresh off a bender, a reader asks advice maven Umbra Fisk if there's organic liquor he could be drinking in order to feel less guilty when he indulges. Is there ever! Strictly for research purposes, Umbra delves into the world's liquor cabinet, coming up with a sampling of available organic varieties of rum, gin, vodka, and more. The good news is, you can drink to your heart's content and still be green. The bad news is, you'll be just as green the next morning. If you catch our drift.

Aren't You Glad You Use Dial?

World sweats through warmest winter on record

Congratulations, global citizens, for weathering the warmest winter in the Northern Hemisphere since record-keeping began in 1880. From December to February, combined land and ocean temperatures were 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit above average, says a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration study published Friday in Science. El Niño helped make January the warmest January ever; the only places in the world that did not experience above-average temperatures were Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and the central U.S. Another study published in Science on Friday suggests that the North Pole -- where end-of-summer ice has declined 8.6 percent per decade, or 38,000 square miles per year, since the 1970s -- could be end-of-summer ice-free by 2100. And that's the conservative estimate; one climate model predicts a watery September Arctic by 2040. Yet another study published in Science on Friday cites concerns about the effect on sea-level rise of four glaciers in the Antarctic. And you thought Mondays were bad.


Karen Bowman claims to have the best job in the world. An occupational- and environmental-health nurse whose eponymous company serves communities from Seattle to Cambodia, her day's work might include instructing police officers on prison decontamination, testifying about toxins, or informing workers about health hazards. As InterActivist this week, Bowman talks about the tragedy that makes her so dedicated to her work, the many different hats she wears, and why she always backs up her computer. Send Bowman a question by noon PDT on Wednesday; we'll publish her answers to selected questions on Friday.

Cob Report

Coalition of ranchers and farmers fights subsidies for corn ethanol

It's one thing when dirty hippies oppose your energy-independence scheme, but when ranchers, chicken farmers, and pork producers pile on the hate, that's trouble. An ad hoc coalition is opposing U.S. corn ethanol subsidies and pushing to end U.S. tariffs on Brazilian sugarcane ethanol. "This [corn] ethanol binge is insane," says Oklahoma rancher Paul Hitch, president-elect of the coalition-cobbling National Cattlemen's Beef Association. "This talk about energy independence and wrapping yourself in the flag and singing 'God Bless America' -- all that's going to come at a severe cost." Critics say federal and state ethanol subsidies -- which hit $5 billion to $7 billion in 2006 -- are sending corn prices sky-high, with effects rippling through the farming world. While fuel fans say cellulosic ethanol will begin to ease that frenzy by 2012, Hitch and others worry. "This ethanol thing is driving everybody half nuts," he says. "As far as presenting a united front ... we certainly can and will."