Grist News

• Rocker Neil Young says America can take lead in efficient autos
  Dial up "Live Rust" on your MP3 player while you kick back to read Neil Young's auto call to action over at Huffington Post. Young has gotten plenty of mileage lately off of his involvement with Team LincVolt, a 1959 Lincoln Continental outfitted to run on electricity. But if you've missed out on Young's non-musical endeavor, here's a taste:
  
  

  If the Big three cannot agree to make only cars that are fuel efficient enough to get at least 50 MPG by 2011, 75 MPG by 2013 and 100 MPG by 2015, then they should go into bankruptcy and fend for themselves like all the other businesses that are having trouble. The truth is this can be done and innovators know the way to do it.

  sources: Huffington Post, Project LincVolt
  
  
  
  
  
• McKibben wonders if U.S. is mature enough to confront climate change.
  Check out Bill McKibben's essay in the latest Foreign Policy magazine. It's full of straight talk about the reality of climate change, debunking plenty of the skeptics' arguments along the way. For McKibben (a Grist board member, BTW), the real question is whether there's sufficient will in the international community to take on the very hard challenge of climate change. Here's an excerpt:
  
  

  "Despite the rapid industrialization of countries such as China and India, and the careless neglect of rich ones such as the United States, climate change is neither any one country's fault, nor any one country's responsibility. It will require sacrifice from everyone. Just as the Chinese might have to use somewhat more expensive power to protect the global environment, Americans will have to pay some of the difference in price, even if just in technology. Call it a Marshall Plan for the environment. Such a plan makes eminent moral and practical sense and could probably be structured so as to bolster emerging green energy industries in the West. But asking Americans to pay to put up windmills in China will be a hard political sell in a country that already thinks China is prospering at its expense. It could be the biggest test of the country's political maturity in many years."

  There you have it. Is America mature enough to help save the planet?
  
  source: Foreign Policy
  
  
  
  
  
• Monaco's ruler heads to Antarctica
  MONACO, Jan 5, 2009 (AFP) -- Monaco's climate-crusading ruler, Prince Albert II, left on Monday for Antarctica on a month-long expedition to view the impact of global warming at the Earth's southern tip, his palace said.
  
  Prince Albert's trip, which follows a similar journey to the North Pole in 2006, will take in 26 scientific outposts, with meetings planned with climate change experts from 18 countries, a statement said.
  
  The 50-year-old monarch left Punto Arenas in Chile on Monday bound for King George's islands, northeast of Antarctica, and was scheduled to arrive at the South Pole on January 14.
  
  The palace said Albert, who made the environment a priority after acceding to the throne of his tiny Mediterranean principality in 2005, "has decided to take stock of the situation in Antarctica, under threat from global warming." Several recent studies have suggested that Antarctica, which stores some 70 percent of the world's fresh water and until now seemed largely to have escaped the effects of global warming, is melting.
  
  Monaco last May became the 47th state signatory of the Antarctica Treaty which regulates human activities on the continent.
  
  source: Agence France-Presse
  
  
  
  
  
• Scientists and other experts rattle off options for averting climate catastrophe
  London's Independent newspaper asked climate scientists to answer a simple question: should humanity "prepare a 'Plan B' to curb the worst effects of global warming?" Well, ask 40 eggheads a question, and you'll get a very diverse set of responses. Geo-engineering is the answer! No, focus on carbon sequestration. Wrong again, it's all about adapting to the new climate reality! Check out all the responses here.
  
  Meanwhile, the mysterious Edge Foundation released its annual question for 2009, asking smart folks of all disciplines to name what new idea or technology will "change everything." Responses range all over, but there are a few climate-related responses, including British novelist Ian McEwan's prediction that solar technology will really take off and Stanford climatologist Stephen H. Schneider's guess that rapid melting of Greenland's ice sheets will wake up the world to the need to take concerted action on curbing C02 emissions. Read the full list of responses at Edge.org.
  
  sources: The Independent, Edge Foundation
  
  
  
  
  
• Group says Uncle Sam is failing to protect Chesapeake Bay
  A new report out from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation says the EPA's unwillingness to enforce clean air and water standards is turning the huge estuary into a dead zone. Without tough action from the feds, the report concludes, crab harvests will continue to decline, devastating an important industry and threatening others, like tourism.
  
  And if you missed it over the weekend, The Washington Post ran a two-part series on failed efforts to clean up the Chesapeake Bay. The gist: states and agencies tried to hide just how badly the clean-up effort was going in order to guarantee continued funding from the federal government.
  
  sources: Chesapeake Bay Foundation, The Washington Post, The Post's Special Report
  
  
  
  
  
• California lawmakers set to take lead on enviro policy
  Monday's Washington Post notes a fact that's been on many a green activist's mind in the past two months: California lawmakers are set to play key roles in setting the nation's environmental policies. The two congressional committees with the biggest say in environmental legislation are chaired by Californians (Barbara Boxer in the Senate, Henry Waxman in the House), and President-elect Obama has already tapped Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Nancy Sutley to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Oh, and don't forget Steven Chu of U.C.-Berkeley being tapped for Energy secretary.
  
  From the Post: "One longtime Capitol Hill observer cautioned that although these Californians are in key positions to shape federal policy, they don't necessarily share a single California philosophy. Still, they have been shaped by experience in a state that has led the nation in regulatory policy."
  
  source: The Washington Post
  
  
  
  
  
• Massive coal-ash spill in Tennessee threatens water supplies and public health
  More than a billion gallons of coal ash have spilled from a coal-burning power plant in eastern Tennessee since Dec. 22, when a retention wall at the plant burst. That's billion with a "B," which means the amount of gunk spilled is about 100 times larger than the mess from the Exxon Valdez disaster. Gray sludge has spread across 300 acres, wiped out three homes, oozed into a tributary of the Tennessee River, and made a lot of local residents worried about their health and water supplies. Coal ash contains mercury and traces of heavy metals like arsenic and uranium. In the wake of the spill, high levels of arsenic have been found in some rivers and wells near the spill site, though authorities insist that drinking water is still safe. Enviros are seizing the opportunity to point out that "clean coal" is an oxymoron.
  
  sources: The Chattanoogan, Associated Press, Chattanooga Times Free Press
  
  
  
  
  
• S.F. Chronicle says Bush admin. is racing to open up the state's coasts
  The Interior Department is rushing to open up California's coasts to offshore drilling exploration, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today, a move that could lead to oil derricks being built within three miles to the state's shoreline. Government estimates show there could be 10 billion barrels of oil off of California's entire coastline, enough to power the United States for 17 months. But enviros note that could come at a high cost to the marine ecosystem.
  
  source: San Francisco Chronicle
  
  
  
  
  
• Sen. Cornyn offers up simplistic recipe for energy security
  Sen. John Cornyn of Texas says tumbling gas prices have had the bad effect of making voters less interested in tackling the nation's energy problems. True. But the Republican lawmaker from one of the reddest states in the union says the biggest stumbling block to energy security isn't reliance on fossil fuels and an unwillingness by energy companies to invest in renewables. No, that would be too "simplistic." Instead, Cornyn says its big government regulations that are preventing good capitalists from opening up more domestic energy production. And while he notes some of those new-fangled renewable sources like wind and biomass, Cornyn's op-ed is really all about one thing -- drill here, drill now, drill everywhere.
  
  source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram
  
  
  
  
  
• Old Man Winter declares war on renewable energy
  Guess what. The sun doesn't shine as much in winter, so your home solar system won't generate much power in the cold months. Oh, and it might SNOW on your solar panels, so you're gonna have to get out there and sweep them off. But relax solar fans. You've got it better than those wind junkies, who could be hurt or even KILLED by ice chunks being shot off the ends of turbine blades! The N.Y. Times coughs up an odd piece today looking at how renewable energy systems can be challenged by Mother Nature's wintertime tantrums. What's next in the series? A piece on kite-eating wind turbines in March???
  
  sources: The New York Times
  
  
  
  
  

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Common Dreams | News & Views

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