False Claims

Here's Harlan Watson, the Bush administration's man in Montreal for the climate conference, not only reiterating the White House's opposition to the negotiations but also making extraordinary claims regarding U.S. progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions:

"Look at the data - the United States has done better in the first three years of the Bush Administration in addressing greenhouse gas emissions than the EU ... the UK, France, Germany."

For the record, Reuters reports:

United Nations data shows the US is doing worse than all the nations named by Watson in the longer term. US emissions were 13.3 per cent above 1990 levels in 2003 - the EU average was a fall of 1.4 per cent.

Watson's position is no surprise. As Pulitzer Prize-winning** reporter Ross Gelbspan writes in his book, Boiling Point, when Watson first came on board in 2002, he promptly announced that the White House "wanted no part" of the current review of greenhouse gas reductions underway in Montreal. "The next time we take stock on climate change," Watson said at the time, "has been set by the president at 2012." In other words, no action for 10 years.

**Update 4/18/07: Turns out this itself is a false claim. Although Gelbspan conceived and edited a 1984 Boston Globe series that did indeed win a Pulitzer, he himself was not named as a recipient.

Current Trends

Frightening news from the Atlantic. No, I'm not referring to the just-ending hurricane season. Rather, the Gulf Stream -- that great oceanic conveyer belt that moderates Europe's climate by carrying warm tropical waters to the far north -- has weakened by roughly a third in the last 50 years, according to a new study appearing in the December 1 edition of the journal Nature. A slackening Gulf Stream has been predicted by computer models simulating a warming atmosphere due to greenhouse gases. Some of those models have projected a sharp and rather sudden plunge in European temperatures if the trend continues.

Creative Speed Bumps

A staged auto accident, a giant rabbit statue in the roadway, a living room set in the street: Tom Dewan calls these props "roadwitches." They're part of a series of "traffic-calming happenings" he has orchestrated in the street outside his Oxford home. As this BBC report puts it, "This is where art installations meet road safety." Explains Dewan:

"There's an element of fun and mischief, but underneath is the ambition to encourage people to re-examine how roads are used. With the living room, it was the most direct way of saying "We live here. This is our living space."

Not everyone finds the installations calming however. One 4x4 driver became enraged by the living room display and deliberately smashed into the carefully arranged furniture. Warning: Don't try this at home.

Hurricane History

November 30 marks the official end of the record-shattering 2005 hurricane season, although some tropical cyclones may form in the Atlantic before the year is over. Indeed, Tropical Storm Epsilon is currently moving across the Central Atlantic toward Bermuda and December hurricanes are not unheard of.

Counting Epsilon, the Atlantic has spawned a whopping 26 tropical storms this year, easily outstripping the old record of 21 set in 1933. Thirteen 2005 storms reached hurricane strength, besting the old record of 12 set in 1969. Seven of the thirteen were "major hurricanes"; that is, Category 3 or higher. 2005 marked the first year ever to see three Category 5 hurricanes in one season. Although it did reach Category 5 strength before making landfall, Katrina was only the third strongest hurricane of the season, after Rita and Wilma. At its peak strength, Wilma was the most intense tropical cyclone ever recorded in the Atlantic basin.

The precedents go on and on, but behind the impressive statistics are many grim realities and lingering human suffering. Hurricane Katrina, the costliest and most destructive natural disaster in US history, claimed more than 1,300 lives, and Hurricane Stan was even deadlier, killing more than 2,000 people in Central America. Thousands have been left homeless.

Whether the unprecedented hurricane season can be attributed to global warming or not is still a matter of scientific debate, however many scientists contend that warming trends have already led to increasingly intense storms of longer duration.

In the meantime, the end of the hurricane season only brings temporary relief. With warmer temperatures persisting in the Atlantic, Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center warns that we can expect more hyperactive hurricane seasons in coming years. "You bet I'm worried about next year, and several years after that," Mayfield said at a press conference. "We have six months to prepare for the 2006 hurricane season. It's reality. We've got to deal with that."

In With the New

Just a friendly reminder, folks: It's time to buy your 2006 Sierra Club calendars. They make great gifts.

Have yourself a wasteful little Christmas...

While I didn't completely manage to buy nothing on the day after Thanksgiving--I did spend money going out to dinner with friends--it wasn't hard for me to steer clear of the "Black Friday" shopping binge. After all, there was sleeping in to do, organic turkey (not to mention all that non-organic wine and pie) to work off at the gym, and honestly, I'd rather spend the day getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist than lining up outside a store in the middle of the night only to get trampled by my fellow shoppers.

Getting through the rest of the holiday season without succumbing to overconsumption will be a bit trickier. No slouches in the trash-making department any time of year, Americans create an extra million tons of garbage each week between Thanksgiving and New Year's. Holiday spirit is a beautiful thing, but when 67 percent of us buy--and wrap--gifts for our pets, it's hard not to conclude that the merchandising mania is a bit out of control. During this season, Americans:

* throw away 38,000 miles of ribbon
* chop down 33 million Christmas trees
* buy 2.65 billion holiday cards
* consume 27 percent more electricity

For tips on minimizing holiday waste (or, as the Center for a New American Dream nicely puts it, having "more joy and less stuff"), check out the Center's online guide to simplifying the holidays.

(Get more ideas for living well and doing good in "The Green Life," a new section appearing in every issue of Sierra magazine.)

Rave Reviews

Why should you see Robert Greenwald's new documentary film, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price? We'll give you two reasons right off the top: 1) Critics, including Ebert and Roeper, love it; and 2) Bill O'Reilly hates it.

O'Reilly, that paragon of fair and balanced journalism, calls Greenwald, (whose previous documentary on Fox News was called Outfoxed), "like just to the right of Fidel Castro" and "a ridiculous human being" who "blames America first." Not to stoop to ad hominem attacks or anything.

Go here to find a screening near you.

Storm Redux

If you missed the Frontline documentary on the political response to Hurricane Katrina ("The Storm"), you can now view it online. The site also features transcribed interviews and a detailed timeline of events. Also see the companion site to the NOVA program, "Storm That Drowned a City," which explores the science of hurricanes and the flooding caused by Katrina.

Action/Adventure/Activism

The movie Syriana opens today. The Warner Brothers/Participant film promises to be a whole new kind of action flick, one that makes you think and -- who knows? -- may even inspire you to get off your butt and do something.

To that end, the film launches alongside an online campaign called Oil Change. The Sierra Club is a partner in the project, which advocates a new energy policy for America -- one that would lessen our dependence on oil by investing in clean, renewable sources of energy and more fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Nothing very radical. Just pragmatic, commonsense stuff -- the kind of thing America used to be known for.

Ski Ya Later

The ski industry in America stands to lose a lot in the face of rising temperatures, so it came as little surprise when the National Ski Areas Association launched an environmental charter in 2000 recognizing the threat of global warming.

According to the Ski Area Citizens' Council, however, the industry has not, by and large, lived up to its lofty goals. The independent group has released its annual report card for 77 ski areas around the country and a good many of those resorts receive failing grades. Among other things, areas are dinged for excessive snowmaking and reckless expansion into surrounding wildlife habitat. They are also held accountable for things they aren't doing, like giving skiers incentives to carpool or installing solar and wind power at their facilities.

Click here for a list of 10 best and worst ski areas from the report card. Skiers are encouraged to send resort owners a message letting them know they actually care about this stuff.

To learn more about the ski industry's effect on communities and the environment, check out Hal Clifford's Downhill Slide, from Sierra Club Books.

Modeling for the Masses

In a process known as distributed computing, researchers in England are tapping the unused power of millions of home computers worldwide to model our changing climate. And you can help them. Just go to Climateprediction.net to create an account. Don't worry: The client software you download will only run when your processor is not occupied doing other things. If you choose to, you can watch your climate model operate with visualization software or even make it your screensaver. By the same token, you can ignore it entirely, happy in the knowledge that you're doing your bit to understand climate change even as you sleep.

COP-Who?

The COP-11 is coming. Or haven't you heard? For those who don't know, COP stands for Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, (or UNFCCC) the umbrella framework for the Kyoto Protocol. The meeting, which takes place in Montreal and runs from November 28 through December 9, marks the eleventh such gathering. It also marks the first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, which explains yet another acronym bestowed upon the pow-wow; namely, COP 1/MOP 1.

Lost? You're not alone. Our friends at Grist have put together this basic refresher on the many climate conferences that have gotten us here, but we can't guarantee you'll come away any less confused. All most of us really need to know for now is that the Montreal Conference will be an attempt to clarify emissions targets beyond the 2012 targets stipulated by Kyoto. The U.S., although not a signatory to Kyoto, is a party to the Framework Convention and will participate in the meeting.

If you really want more, you could visit the official website of the UNFCCC, where, bushwhacking past the tangled thickets of acronyms and bureaucrat-ese, we not only stumbled upon some good background information in plain English. (And Spanish. And French.), we even found some nice art.

As a final note, we hope to be providing daily updates from Montreal, so watch this space for details.

Garage Sale

As the House hammered out its budget reconciliation bill last week, all eyes were on the Arctic and offshore drilling provisions it contained. Thankfully, those were stripped from the package, but meanwhile another particularly heinous provision was snuck in without debate or consideration. As Grist's Muckraker explains, the provision would rejigger the Mining Act of 1872 to

allow the Interior Department to sell tens of millions of acres of public lands in the American West -- including more than 2 million acres inside or within a few miles of national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas -- to international mining companies, oil and gas prospectors, real-estate developers, and, well, anyone else who's interested. The stated aim is to generate an estimated $158 million in revenue over the next five years to help curb the monstrous federal deficit.

As Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope pointed out, since the Mining Law effectively gives the land away in the first place, the move is "akin to trying to balance your household budget by selling a Rembrandt at a garage sale." It doesn't add up. So, who's the genius behind the proposal. Why, Mr. Pombo, of course. Not only does his rewrite of the law lift an 11-year-old moratorium on mining patents, (by which mining companies can buy a mining claim), it also eliminates the requirement that a mining claim contain an economically viable mineral deposit. In fact, Pombo's provision is not about mining at all. Nor is it about deficit reduction. What the legislation is really about is selling off public lands to speculators at bargain basement prices.

Postmortem

Tomorrow night (Tuesday, November 22) on the PBS documentary series Frontline, reporter/producer Martin Smith delves into the "political storm surrounding the devastation of America's Gulf Coast." The hour-long investigation follows a NOVA report called Storm That Drowned a City, examining the science behind Katrina. Check your listings.

Storm Fatigue

Tropical Storm Gamma, the 24th named storm of the 2005 hurricane season, hit Central America on Saturday, killing as many as 14 people. The region is still reeling from earlier storms, most notably Stan, which left up to 2000 dead in its wake.

A Short Walk to a Long Life

Sierra Club founder John Muir loved to walk. He also lived to a pretty ripe old age. Apparently, the two things might not be entirely unrelated. Medical researchers have determined by analyzing data from the Framingham Heart Study just what kind of longevity benefit one can expect from a program of regular exercise like walking:

People who engaged in moderate activity -- the equivalent of walking for 30 minutes a day for five days a week -- lived about 1.3 to 1.5 years longer than those who were less active. Those who took on more intense exercise -- the equivalent of running half an hour a day five days every week -- extended their lives by about 3.5 to 3.7 years, the researchers found.

Anyone lucky enough to be able to walk to work can tell you what a pleasure it is. The extra years? That's just gravy. Work too far from home to walk? Try getting off the bus early or parking a couple of miles down the road. Still not sure? Try this quiz from America's Walking.

'Katrina Patina' and Other Neologisms

There is a man living in my driveway now and I don't find that at all unusual. He makes his bed in the back of his small SUV and sleeps there with his little dog. Many afternoons he can be found sitting behind the wheel, reading the paper, his Shitz Su nestled on his lap. He calls his car "home." It's part of the new vocabulary that is emerging on the Gulf Coast since Katrina.

From a dispatch filed by Sierra Club volunteer and founder of the Coastal Community Watch, Ellis Anderson, who wrote to us from her home in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. It's the latest of our many Notes from the Gulf Coast.

For more about Ellis and her struggle to preserve the character of her town, see this report from MSNBC.

(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Global Warming?

As you walk through this wicked world searching for light in the darkness of insanity, do you ever ask yourself, 'Is all hope lost?' If so, then man oh man, are you ever in need a good laugh.

You're in luck: This Sunday, on TBS, a slew of comedians including such yukmeisters as Jack Black, Steve Martin, and Bill Maher will mine the rich comic vein that is global warming. The 2-hour show, called Earth to America!, airs at 8/7 Central.

In preparation for the event (airing live from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas -- pretty much the poster child for unsustainable America, wouldn't you say?), Grist chats with Larry David of Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm fame. In what sounds rather like a sitcom plot, it seems Larry's been dragged into the eco-trenches by his firebrand wife, Laurie David. For an MTV campaign called Curb Global Warming, Laurie gives away Larry's Prius. Hilarity ensues.

Book Notes

Coming to U.S. bookstores in March 2006 are two new global warming titles from a couple of heavyweight authors: Tim Flannery's The Weather Makers is already on the shelves in the author/scientist's home country of Australia -- the only industrialized country other than the United States not to ratify the Kyoto Treaty. In the words of the American publisher (Atlantic Monthly Press) the book is both "an urgent warning and a call to arms." Guns, Germs and Steel author Jared Diamond calls it "a clear and readable account of one of the most important but controversial issues facing everyone in the world today."

The other title is journalist Elizabeth Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe. The book reportedly grew out of a three-part series on global warming ("The Climate of Man") which Kolbert produced for the New Yorker magazine, where she is a staff writer. In an interview about that series, Kolbert was asked to comment on the disconnect between the scientific community and the general public on the issue. She answered:

I think there is a surprisingly large—you might even say frighteningly large—gap between the scientific community and the lay community’s opinions on global warming. ... I spoke to many very sober-minded, coolly analytical scientists who, in essence, warned of the end of the world as we know it. I think there are a few reasons why their message hasn’t really got out. One is that scientists tend, as a group, to interact more with each other than with the general public. Another is that there has been a very well-financed disinformation campaign designed to convince people that there is still scientific disagreement about the problem, when, as I mentioned before, there really is quite broad agreement. And third, the climate operates on its own timetable. It will take several decades for the warming that is already inevitable to be felt. People tend to focus on the here and now. The problem is that, once global warming is something that most people can feel in the course of their daily lives, it will be too late to prevent much larger, potentially catastrophic changes.

Otter Madness

For years, U.S. Fish and Wildlife personnel have been in charge of a curious "translocation program" designed to keep sea otters out of Southern California waters coveted by fishermen who compete with the otters for such frutti di mare as lobsters, sea urchins and abalone. As the AP explains, the process of relocating the furry sea mammals is somewhat involved.

After waiting for an otter to fall asleep, wildlife crews would sneak up beneath it with a propeller-powered craft manned by a diver and snare it in a net. The otter then would be flown in a chartered plane or driven hundreds of miles to a Northern California beach for re-release. Some died from the stress.

Total cost: $6,000 to $12,000 per otter.

The total cost for the program has run into the millions with little to show for it. All too often the otters (those that didn't expire en route) would come back, navigating hundreds of miles to frolic in the same kelp beds they had been evicted from. Sensibly enough, Fish and Wildlife would like to ditch the failed program. The agency is taking taking public comments through January.

By the early 1900s, the southern sea otter was thought extinct. Today, there are more than 2,000 animals, all descended from one tiny colony discovered in 1938, off Big Sur.

Photo: NPS

Vampires, Wall Warts and Modems, Oh My!

Think just because the TV's off it's not using any energy? Think again. As this story in the New York Times makes clear, many ordinary household appliances and electronic devices -- everything from phone rechargers to cable modems -- are sucking energy from the grid 24/7. Not a ton of energy, mind you, but multiplied across the country, it's a horrendous waste -- roughly a billion dollars a year in squandered electrons. The answer: Government regulation. Why not let market forces do the trick? Well, as the Times explains:

It doesn't cost much to make a more efficient device: sometimes just 50 cents a unit.... But consumers don't consider invisible energy use - "there's no labeling of power use in 'standby,' " Mr. Meier [a senior energy analyst at the International Energy Agency] said, and "no way for people to recognize what a low-standby device is" - making government-imposed energy efficiency the best hope.

Feast on This

Eating greener doesn't mean giving up traditions. Holiday revelers are opting for organic turkeys in increasing numbers. Find out where you can get your own healthier bird—raised in open spaces without antibiotics or growth stimulants—at theorganicpages.com. For further culinary inspiration, check out the recipes for Fall Greens Salad with Pumpkin Seeds and Asiago, Brine-Cured Roast Turkey with Maple-Ginger Glaze, Savory Apple-Shallot Stuffing, and other tempting dishes in the O'Mama Report's festive Organic Holiday Menu Guide.

(From Sierra magazine's "The Green Life," November/December 2005.)

When It Rains It Pours

The Eastern United States went from record high temperatures and drought in September to record high rainfall and flooding in October. The anomalous weather is mapped here in the NASA Earth Observatory.

Stuffing Turkeys

As you well know, every year at Thanksgiving, one lucky Tom is granted a presidential pardon. And while it's always a big, handsome bird that gets its neck spared, we guarantee you it's hardly the biggest turkey in town. So, this year, we thought we'd invite you to pick the top turkey in Washington, D.C.: Is it Michael "Brownie" Brown, the disgraced former FEMA Director; Don Young, the great Alaskan porkslinger; James "Global Warming is a Hoax" Inhofe; or who? You tell us.

Mower Nation

NASA scientists have produced a map of the first "observation-based estimate of lawn surface area in the United States," which displays "fractional turf grass area" in varying shades, from white to deepest green. The result is a verdant constellation spreading from sea to shining sea. The scientists who produced the map say that more surface area in the U.S. is devoted to lawns than to any other single irrigated crop in the country, and that lanws appear to cover more than three times the number of acres that irrigated corn covers!

Looking for alternatives to turf? See our E-File on the subject.

Deny, Deny, Deny

Last week, in a joint hearing of the Senate Energy and Commerce committees, Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) asked five oil execs whether or not they had met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001, as the Sierra Club and others have long alleged. The answers came back: No; no; no; I don't know; and Not to my knowledge. A document obtained by the Washington Posts now shows that yes, yes, yes, they did so.

Go here for more background on Sierra Club v. Cheney, et al.

Eerily Reminiscent

Writing in Slate magazine, Amanda Schaffer notes that "the failure of governmental agencies to protect people against long-term health risks [in the wake of Hurricane Katrina] is eerily reminiscent." Reminiscent of the government response post-9/11, that is.

You'll remember that the EPA gave the 'all-clear' for workers to return to Ground Zero shortly after the WTC attack without, as the agency's inspector general would later report, "sufficient data and analyses to make such a blanket statement." Not only that, but the White House Council on Environmental Quality also prevailed upon the EPA "to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" from press releases and other public announcements.

Now, with nagging and widespread respiratory problems (dubbed "Katrina Cough") afflicting residents and workers who have returned to clean up in the hurricane's aftermath, the official response seems equally lame and suspect. The EPA has largely downplayed health risks and declined to issue any definitive statements about who should and should not return to flooded sites; as it did after 9/11, OSHA has abdicated its enforcement role in favor of a purely advisory one; and respirators, which should be required for anyone involved in cleaning up flooded housing, are currently sold out and unavailable to those who want them. At the very least, it seems, that state of affairs could be easily corrected.

Instead, the Senate is now moving to relieve contractors of liability and to suspend environmental regulations. Go figure.

New Life for Grundies

Patagonia, the outdoor clothing manufacturer, has launched a new campaign to recycle old polyester underwear -- a petroleum product, in case you didn't know. In order to use less of the fossil-based fiber, the Ventura, California-based company is now asking customers to return old, worn-out Capilene base layers (only the really ragged and tattered stuff, please). Those will be sent to a factory in Japan where the fabric is broken down to the molecular level and purified (good thing, that) before being re-polymerized and resurrected as spanking new undies. Even taking transportation into account, Patagonia says it's a good deal for the environment.

And while we're on the subject, it seems that U.S. hosiery manufacturers are launching a line of biodegradable corn-based socks in Japan. According to this item, the initiative is "backed by the U.S. Grains Council, which aims to bolster demand for U.S. corn by creating new markets." Of course, the corn glut in America is dependent on petroleum-based fertilizers, so the product may not be as earth-friendly as it purports to be. Now, give us organically grown corn-based socks and you're talking.

Hanging Judgment

Ten years ago today, the Nigerian writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other members of the Ogoni tribe of the oil-rich Niger Delta were hung on trumped up charges by the military dictatorship of Sani Abacha, which drew support from the multinational oil company Shell. Before he was executed, Saro-Wiwa made this statement:

"I repeat that we all stand before history. I and my colleagues are not the only ones on trial. Shell is on trial here, and it is as well that it is represented by counsel said to be holding a watching brief. The company has, indeed, ducked this particular trial, but its day will surely come and the lessons learned here may prove useful to it, for there is no doubt in my mind that the ecological war the company has waged in the delta will be called to question sooner than later and the crimes of that war be duly punished. The crime of the company's dirty wars against the Ogoni people will also be punished.

On trial also is the Nigerian nation, its present rulers and all those who assist them. I am not one of those who shy away from protesting injustice and oppression, arguing that they are expected of a military regime. The military do not act alone. They are supported by a gaggle of politicians, lawyers, judges, academics and businessmen, all of them hiding under the claim that they are only doing their duty, men and women too afraid to wash their pants of their urine.

We all stand on trial, my lord, for by our actions we have denigrated our country and jeopardized the future of our children. As we subscribe to the subnormal and accept double standards, as we lie and cheat openly, as we protect injustice and oppression, we empty our classrooms, degrade our hospitals, and make ourselves the slaves of those who subscribe to higher standards, who pursue the truth, and honor justice, freedom and hard work."

The Sierra Club's Stephen Mills remembers Ken Saro-Wiwa.

“Yes, It's Hot in Here”

To help promote an upcoming news special on global warming, FOX News surveyed Americans and found that

"...77 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening and, of those, more than twice as many think it is caused by human behavior (46 percent) than by normal climate patterns (17 percent). About a third says it is a combination of both (30 percent)."

The poll also found that Republican voters are almost twice as likely as Democrats to believe that the United States is doing more than other countries to reduce global warming (48 percent vs. 25 percent).

Let us hope that 34 percent of voters overall who think the U.S. is doing more than other countries at least watch the special on Sunday evening.

Full poll results here.

Amazon Tofu

Two quotations leap out of this Guardian Unlimited story ("The New China: A hunger eating up the world"), about the growing China-Brazil trade axis and the toll that massive soya plantations are having on the Amazon Basin. The first is from a Brazilian economist who says, "Foreign environmental activists worry too much about a few trees, a few species and a few tribes. They don't want us to develop. All we want is health and money." The second is from a Chinese diplomat. "Since 2003 China has pursued a policy of sustainable development. But how Brazil protects its environment is up to them." Satellite data shows that last year alone, the Amazon lost 10,000 square miles of forest, and some researchers believe the real figure could be twice that. Go here to see pictures.

A Different Kind of Global Warming

Japan, which lent the name of its sixth-largest city to an international protocol on climate change, is not resting on its global-warming laurels. First, reports BBC News, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi urged Japan's office workers to ditch their neckties to save on air conditioning. Now, "lingerie giant" Triumph has developed a fluffy, heated bra for winter wear. The idea is that, with the Japanese government requesting people to set their thermostats no higher than 68F (20C) this winter, a little added warmth might be welcome.

We hope this will not only help prevent global warming but also provide a little fashion chic to the office," the company said in a statement.

The "Warm Biz" bra, which comes only in white, features a pendant shaped like a chili pepper dangling on its front.

Flat Light and Ice

Photographing the natural world is so easy to do but so hard to do well. For those of us who insist on trying anyway, The Morning News has an interview with freelance photographer Tim Gasperak that touches on subjects such as how to "keep your nature shots from looking dull."

"Once I have some idea of what I’m trying to communicate (and sometimes it’s just a feeling), I try to challenge myself to do it in a way that isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Sometimes it takes a few tries to purge the stock, dull attempts, and in that struggle I think is where the magic lies."

Gasperak's gallery of images from a recent trip to Iceland shows that he knows how to practice what he preaches.

Drilling Ourselves Deeper

Author Peter Canby, who is also head of the New Yorker's vaunted fact checking department, weighs in on the Arctic drilling question in the November 17 edition of the New York Review of Books. Canby contrasts the Clinton/Babbitt approach to balancing energy and conservation in the Arctic to the "drill it all" policy of the Bush/Norton camp by looking not at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) but at the neighboring National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPR-A), which, after ANWR, may be the largest onshore oil deposit on federal land.

As a refresher, Clinton's Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, brokered a deal to set aside some 800,000 acres surrounding the super-rich Teshekpuk Lake in the NPR-A, while leaving the rest open to oil and gas exploration. (The idea being that those 800,000 acres were the biological wellspring of the region and thus deserved "maximum protection.") Not satisfied with a mere 87 percent of the NPR-A, the Bush administration has since announced its intentions to scotch the conservation area altogether -- maximum protection be damned.

What does any of this have to do with the Arctic Wildlife Refuge? As Canby writes,

The future of the National Petroleum Reserve is currently tied up in lawsuits, but the prospect of the entire twenty-three and a half million acres being leased to oil companies is deeply troubling to environmentalists. The authors of Cumulative Environmental Effects of Oil and Gas Activities on Alaska's North Slope write that "if commercial discoveries extend to the vicinity of Barrow, the pipeline system would extend more than 250 miles from east to west, with spur lines twenty to fifty miles long trending north–south from the trunk lines." If the 1002 section of the wildlife refuge were also developed, a similar web of pipelines would extend a further one hundred miles east—thereby covering 350 miles of the North Slope coast, and turning what had not long before been a wilderness into something resembling a frozen version of northern New Jersey.

Still, Canby stresses, even that specter misses the greater point, which is simply that we are running out of oil. Indeed, we have already reached the end of cheap, easy oil. And with global warming threatening the very fabric of the Arctic, it seems rather clear that we will not drill our way free of the current energy crisis. To the contrary, we are only drilling ourselves deeper.

Terre Vue du Ciel

Any excuse to parlez a leetul Franch. You may remember the May/June issue of Sierra, the cover of which featured the work of French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand who has spent 15 years capturing sumptuous images of the earth whilst aloft. The magazine featured a photo spread of Arthus-Bertrand's work spanning three continents. Now, some enterprising soul has taken the time to map a good portion of Arthus-Bertrand's opus to Google Earth, the digital atlas everyone is raving about. If you've downloaded the client on your PC, you'll find a link to the file here. Have a look.

Smokin' Emails

The cybersleuths at The Smoking Gun have published emails sent by disgraced FEMA Director Michael Brown around the time that Hurricane Katrina was breaching levees and flooding New Orleans, leaving people trapped on rooftops and living on K-rats in the Superdome. What was Brown doing? Apparently, he was worrying about his wardrobe, trying to find someone to take care of the pooch, and bemoaning the bad food he has to suffer on the road. Oh, and it seems he also felt trapped in his job.

You may remember that on September 2nd, the man who appointed Brown do his job commended him on television. Speaking before cameras in the Mobile Regional Airport, President Bush said, (to quote the White House transcript): "Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 -- (applause) -- they're working 24 hours a day." Two days later, Brown got an email from his press secretary reading: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt...all shirts. Even the President rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this crises (sic) and on TV you just need to look more hard-working...ROLL UP THE SLEEVES!"

The Hurricane Funnel

The Mississippi River Gulf Outlet is known around New Orleans as "Mr. Go." The ship canal, which the Army Corps of Engineers built in the 1960s, has long been derided as a hurricane highway by locals who suspected the channel would funnel storm surge into the city. Turns out they were right. The BBC reports that:

According to new modelling and field observations from Louisiana State University, the MRGO may have made the storm surge 20% higher, and two or even three times faster as it crashed into the city.

St Bernard Parish, which lies just south of the canal, was one of the most devastated by the storm. Without the funnel effect of MRGO, says one expert, there would have been "maybe 2 to 3 feet of flooding at the max, but not everybody's house underwater. It's still flooding, but one is significant and one is catastrophic."