Monday, 02 Jul 2007

Wild Thing, You Make My Heart Sink

Wilderness is pretty much a thing of the past, says report

Regardless of whether humankind was given dominion over the earth, we've most certainly taken it. A new report in Science calculates that only 17 percent of global land mass has been untainted by human dwellings, agriculture, or roads. And that was as of 1995; we'd venture to guess that the percentage is even more depressing now. Speaking of depressing: Half of the planet's land surface is used for crops or grazing, says the report, and nearly six times as much water is artificially stored by dams in the world than flows freely. Human-made wilderness areas don't make the cut, writes coauthor Peter Kareiva of The Nature Conservancy: "In the modern world, wilderness is more commonly a management and regulatory designation than truly a system without a human imprint." Things have gotten so bad, says the article, that conservationists should give up on protecting nature and instead shift their focus to managing a domesticated world. Guess Kareiva's employer might want to look into a name change.


With the Fourth of July fast approaching, a reader wonders how to convince her family to ban carbon-spewing fireworks from their festivizing. But advice maven Umbra Fisk wonders if it's really worth causing sparks over such a thing -- and besides, she says, carbon is the least of the problems associated with these colorful celebrations.

After All, She Knows The Secret

Poll respondents pick Al, Oprah, and Kofi as climate messengers

Recent polls have shown that people all over the world ... join hands, start a love train, love train! Oh sorry, we get distracted. People all over the world are worried about the environment -- and the latest poll says that Oprah could help save us. Run by the Nielsen Company and Oxford University, the poll asked 26,000 people in 47 countries to choose from a list of celebs and spokespeople they felt were best equipped to champion the climate cause. Oprah, Al Gore, and former U.N. chief Kofi Annan topped the list, with Bill Clinton and Nelson Mandela close behind. They beat others including Angelina Jolie, Bono, and Brazilian footballer Ronaldinho. The Oprah lovin' follows a Pew Research Center survey of 45,000 people in 46 countries that found an increasing percentage of people freaking about eco-issues, and a UPI-Zogby poll in which more than half the respondents disagreed or somewhat disagreed with the statement that the U.S. is doing enough to fight climate change.


What are the greenest movies you've ever seen? We got to thinking about our favorites, and offer them up for you -- from you-know-who's Inconvenient Truth to Chinatown and Hoot. See what makes our screening list, then add your own favorites in our comment section. (The FernGully crowd is already weighing in -- are you with 'em?)

We Always Thought It Was Industrial Strength

McDonald's to power U.K. delivery fleet with its own grease

Proving once again that everything's cooler in Europe, McDonald's has announced that it will run all its U.K. delivery vehicles on biodiesel -- from its own greasy grills! The chain will convert the 155-lorry fleet to a mix of 85 percent fry grease and 15 percent rapeseed oil by next year, and says the switch will cut its U.K. carbon emissions 75 percent. Mickey D's has already made a similar move in Austria, and is apparently drumming up other plans around packaging and recycling. All this comes on the heels of the late June news that the fast-food giant will buy milk from organic dairies, and a summer push to sell healthier meals to kids. The biodiesel initiative "is a great example of how businesses can work together to help the environment," said Matthew Howe, senior vice president, in what has to be the most nondescript sound bite ever. We prefer Chief Supply Chain Officer Francesca DeBiase, who said European operations serve as an "early warning system" for the U.S. Dum dum DUM.