Mar
2
2010

The O.J. tactic: Climate change skeptics sound like Simpson’s lawyers: If the winter glove won’t fit, you must acquit

By Bill McKibben – Guest Columnist | OregonLive.com | March 02, 2010, 5:00AM

Image: 2009 (c) Nancy Battaglia



In recent years, every major scientific body in the world has produced reports confirming the peril of climate change. All 15 of the warmest years on record have come in the last two decades. And Earth’s major natural systems are all showing undeniable signs of rapid flux: melting Arctic and glacial ice, rapidly acidifying seawater and so on.

Yet because of a recent onslaught of attacks on the science of climate change, fewer Americans now believe humans are warming the planet than did just a few years ago.

The doubters of climate science have launched an enormously clever — and effective — campaign, and it’s worth trying to understand how they’ve done it. The best analogy is perhaps the O.J. Simpson trial.





Read on: http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/03/the_oj_tactic_climate_change_s.html

[Bill McKibben is an author, environmentalist, and activist. In 1988, he wrote The End of Nature, the first book for a common audience about global warming. He is the co-founder of 350.org, an international climate campaign that organized the most widespread day of action on global warming in history.]

Feb
24
2010

Waiting to Inhale: Deep-Ocean Low-Oxygen Zones Spreading to Shallower Coastal Waters

Oxygen-deprived areas in the world’s oceans usually found in deeper water are moving up to offshore areas and threatening coastal marine ecosystems by spurring the die-off of some species and overpopulation of others

By Michael Tennesen | Scientific American | February 23, 2010

CONTINENTAL CREEP: Hypoxic seawater from the deep ocean is moving into shallower near-shore environments off the Oregon coast, threatening or killing marine species that make their home there. (iStockPhoto)

A plague of oxygen-deprived waters from the deep ocean is creeping up over the continental shelves off the Pacific Northwest and forcing marine species there to relocate or die. Since 2002 tongues of hypoxic, or low-oxygen, waters from deeper areas offshore have slipped into shallower near-shore environments off the Oregon coast, although not close enough to be oxygenated by the waves. The problem stems from oxygen reduction in deep water, a phenomenon that some scientists are observing in oceans worldwide, and that may be related to climate change.

The hypoxic seawater is distinct from the well-known “dead zones” that form at the mouths of the Mississippi and other rivers around the world. Those areas result from agricultural runoff, which lead to algae blooms that consume oxygen. Rather, the Pacific Northwest problem is broader and more mysterious.

Read on: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=low-oxygen-ocean-coastal

Feb
23
2010

The Great Grocery Smackdown

Will Walmart, not Whole Foods, save the small farm and make America healthy?

by Corby Kummer | Atlantic Monthly | March 2010

(IMAGE CREDIT: ELI MEIR KAPLAN)

BUY MY FOOD at Walmart? No thanks. Until recently, I had been to exactly one Walmart in my life, at the insistence of a friend I was visiting in Natchez, Mississippi, about 10 years ago. It was one of the sights, she said. Up and down the aisles we went, properly impressed by the endless rows and endless abundance. Not the produce section. I saw rows of prepackaged, plastic-trapped fruits and vegetables. I would never think of shopping there.

Not even if I could get environmentally correct food. Walmart’s move into organics was then getting under way, but it just seemed cynical—a way to grab market share while driving small stores and farmers out of business. Then, last year, the market for organic milk started to go down along with the economy, and dairy farmers in Vermont and other states, who had made big investments in organic certification, began losing contracts and selling their farms. A guaranteed large buyer of organic milk began to look more attractive. And friends started telling me I needed to look seriously at Walmart’s efforts to sell sustainably raised food.

Read on: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/201003/walmart-local-produce

Feb
22
2010

What’s in a name? When the issue is “climate change,” plenty, linguist says

by Robert McClure | Dateline Earth as reported on Investigate WEST | February 22nd, 2010

It’s been apparent for some time that the public is not understanding the potential magnitude of the threat of climate change. The percentage of Americans saying it’s even taking place was recently measured at 57 percent, down 14 points since October 2008, according to what appears to be a series of climate stories running this week on National Public Radio. (Recall that we’ve described before how even expert “skeptics” admit the warming is taking place; that big chunks of the public misses that is remarkable.)

So would calling climate change “the climate crisis” make a difference? That’s the contention of cognitive linguist George Lakoff, who was featured on one NPR segment. Lakoff says people think of the “climate” as something positive. And “change” is not bad. “Global warming?” Maybe that’s an even worse term, Lakoff tells host Guy Raz…

Read on: http://invw.org/2010/02/whats-in-a-name-when-the-issue-is-climate-change-plenty-linguist-says/

Feb
18
2010

New wine in old bottles

A European idea is catching on in Washington’s wine country: reusable bottles. It saves money and is kind to the environment.

By Harris Meyer | Crosscut.com | February 18, 2010

Refillable wines, at Whole Foods in London (Image: Flickr)

Wine drinkers in many Pacific Northwest towns get frustrated that there’s no place to recycle the heavy glass bottles that hold their beloved vino. In Europe, people go to their local winery and cheaply fill a jug with fresh table wine for the week. Inspired by that tradition, two Northwest winemakers have begun selling wine in reusable liter bottles that local customers can return for refills. Besides giving you a virtuous buzz, it’s a good deal for a solid, relatively inexpensive house wine.

Read on: http://crosscut.com/2010/02/18/food/19605/?utm_source=Crosscut+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=81e21f53ba-Crosscut_E_mail_2_18_102_18_2010&utm_medium=email

Feb
17
2010

Slow Trip Across Sea Aids Profit and Environment

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL | The New York Times | February 16, 2010

A view of loading operations from the bridge of the Eugen Maersk at Bremerhaven, Germany. (Image: Gordon Welters for The New York Times)

It took more than a month for the container ship Ebba Maersk to steam from Germany to Guangdong, China, where it unloaded cargo on a recent Friday — a week longer than it did two years ago.

But for the owner, the Danish shipping giant Maersk, that counts as progress.

In a global culture dominated by speed, from overnight package delivery to bullet trains to fast-cash withdrawals, the company has seized on a sales pitch that may startle some hard-driving corporate customers: Slow is better.

By halving its top cruising speed over the last two years, Maersk cut fuel consumption on major routes by as much as 30 percent, greatly reducing costs. But the company also achieved an equal cut in the ships’ emissions of greenhouse gases.

Read on: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/17/business/energy-environment/17speed.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Feb
16
2010

Fog Decline Threatens California’s Towering Redwoods

By Tia Ghose | Wired Science | February 15, 2010

(Image: sharloch/Flickr)

The California coast has seen fewer foggy days in the last century, threatening the health of the region’s majestic redwood trees.

Over the last century, new research suggests the average daily fog has decreased more than three hours, causing the coast redwoods to lose more water in the dry summer season, leaving them more susceptible to drought.

“Redwoods are an iconic species and we all love them, but I think it’s important to note that lots and lots of species depend on fog,” said climate scientist Phil Duffy of Climate Central in Palo Alto, California, who was not involved in the study. “So if you really do increase or decrease the fog, then that will have effects on whole entire ecosystems in these coastal hills.”

Read on: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/02/fog-decrease-threatens-coastal-redwoods/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+wired/index+(Wired:+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Feb
13
2010

Slumburbia

By Timothy Egan | The New York Times | February 12, 2010

A new housing development in Lathrop in 2006. One in eight houses in the town are now in some stage of foreclosure. (Photo by Jim Wilson/The New York Times)


LATHROP, Calif. — Drive along foreclosure alley, through new planned communities that look like tile-roofed versions of a 21st century ghost town, and you see what happens when people gamble with houses instead of casino chips.

Dirty flags advertise rock-bottom discounts on empty starter mansions. On the ground, foreclosure signs are tagged with gang graffiti. Empty lots are untended, cratered with mud puddles from the winter storms that have hammered California’s San Joaquin Valley.

Nobody is home in the cities of the future.

Read on: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/10/slumburbia/?th&emc=th

Feb
9
2010

who needs terrorists when you’ve got the GOP Senators crippling government (since Bush, Cheney and Gang are no longer there to lead the charge) and Wall Street now backing them

Senate Republicans made a persuasive case for abolishing or reforming the filibuster on Tuesday night when they blocked a routine nomination to the National Labor Relations Board that had been held up since April.

Read on: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/09/carl-levin-filibuster-cou_n_455814.html

Feb
9
2010

Cisco’s Big Bet on New Songdo: Creating Cities From Scratch

By Greg Lindsay | FAST COMPANY | February 1, 2010

Cisco's Wim Elfrink and developer Stan Gale plan to standardize many elements of New Songdo (rendering above) in other cities. (Photograph by James Whitlow Delano)

The world is bracing for an influx of billions of new urbanites in the coming decades, and tech companies are rushing to build new green cities to house them. Are these companies creating a smarter metropolis — or just making money?

Stan Gale is exultant. The chairman of Gale International yanks off his tie, hitches up his pants, and mops the sweat and floppy hair from his brow. He’s beaming like a proud new papa, sprung from the waiting room and handing out cigars to whoever happens by. Beckoning me to follow, he saunters across eight lanes of traffic toward his baby, delivered prematurely days before.

Read on: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/142/the-new-new-urbanism.html