Mapping Change

Earlier this week, Google launched Google Earth Outreach, a program designed to help non-profits and NGOs use Google Earth mapping software to further their cause. The Sierra Club was one of the first groups to make use of Google Earth, and while we weren't able to make it back to New York City for the actual launch event (featuring the legendary Jane Goodall), we did contribute a case study on our first use of Google Earth, in which we set out to show visitors to our site what was at stake in the decision on whether or not to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. Since then, we've continued to experiment with the program, including, most recently, an ongoing project to map the life and times of Sierra Club founder John Muir.

Rachel Redux

Writing in Salon, ("Rachel Carson's birthday bashing"), Kirsten Weir examines the renewed attacks on the memory of the Silent Spring author, who would have turned 100 this year. (Full disclosure: The Sierra Club receives proceeds from the Carson estate through the sale of Silent Spring.) Carson's critics accuse her of bad science and emotional rhetoric -- rhetoric which, they allege, is ultimately responsible for the deaths of millions of Africans because it led to a ban of the pesticide DDT and thus deprived Africa of a key tool in the fight against malaria. It's an arresting claim and compelling on its face, but the substance of the critique doesn't stand up to scrutiny, as Weir's article adequately shows.

Moreover, the moral outrage summoned by Carson's critics is as dubious as their facts are suspect. Indeed, it appears there is a hidden agenda at work here. Take the example of the group called Africans Fighting Malaria. It turns out the organization has close ties to the free-market ideologues at groups like the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the American Enterprise Institute and that it was once pitched to the tobacco lobby as a way to drive a wedge between environmentalists and their allies in public health. How? By advancing the simplistic and erroneous notion that banning DDT killed millions of innocent Africans. Ultimately, the hope was this: By calling attention to malaria deaths, tobacco companies might head off a World Health Organization campaign against smoking.

The reality is that DDT was never banned outright worldwide and is still manufactured and used for mosquito control. And it's safe to say that Rachel Carson would have supported its judicious application. Her aim was not to eradicate all pesticides but to employ them in such a manner that "they do not destroy us along with the insects." She also felt that science should show "prudent concern for the integrity of the natural world that supports all life."

As Mark Lytle observes in his excellent new biography of Carson, The Gentle Subversive, it is this aspect of Carson's legacy -- not the DDT issue per se -- that the conservative forces find so galling; i.e., "wedded to the notion that humans can and should control nature," they "resent the limits placed on economic growth by those seeking to protect the environment." Which is to say, it's not about African lives; it's about keeping the world safe for unbridled capitalism.

One last note: If you're wondering why the chemical companies are not pushing DDT or leading the charge against Carson, (as they did upon publication of Silent Spring) the answer is simple: The patent on DDT expired long ago. Ironically, constraints on the use of the compound now serves their financial interests as it creates a market for alternative pesticides.

Beltway Removal Mining

It may be hard to make out, but that's a god's-eye view of Washington, DC. The red splotch is the footprint of just one mountaintop removal mining operation -- the 10,000-acre Hobet complex in Boone County, West Virginia -- superimposed on the landscape. (Just to give you an idea of what happen if the geologists ever find coal under Capitol Hill.) The image comes compliments of the excellent Appalachian Voices site, www.ilovemountains.org.

More cities are blotted out here.

The United States of Emissions

By now most of us are aware that the US, representing about five percent of world population, is responsible for roughly one-quarter of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Over at Sightline, Eric de Place gives new perspective to US greenhouse gas emissions by devising a map in which individual states are labeled as nations that have roughly equivalent emissions from energy. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the map, but it's an interesting way to look at it.

The Ayes Have It

Global warming is bunk, says Tom DeLay, the former Texas Congressman who may one day soon have to publish his opinions from a jail cell. How does he know? Simple: "It still gets cold in the winter." Someone please tell me: Is he really that stupid? Or does he just think we are? Meanwhile, the House of Represntatives -- the body DeLay once presided over as Majority Leader -- has passed legsislation that recognizes global warming as "reality." Next, perhaps, they'll recognize gravity and the laws of thermodynamics.

The Compleat Mangler

The Washington Post has been running a 4-part series called "The Angler" that examines the life and work of Vice President Cheney, "the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office." It culminates with today's article on Cheney's role in environmental policy within the Bush administration -- everything from his secret Energy Task Force to his stealth role in reversing management decisions in the Klamath River watershed -- a reversal that ultimately lead to the die-off of some 77,000 fish and the declaration of a "commercial fishery failure" on the West Coast. Strong work, Dick.

Plus ça change

It's all about the netroots. Open Source democracy. You and me and all our friends and neighbors logging on and taking control from the Man. Sure it is. Mother Jones examines Politics 2.0 and finds that it resembles, well, plain old politics. Same as it ever was.

But that's just Ma Jones talkin'. What do you lot think? Does Web 2.0 change politics as we know it?

Better Off

"She blamed the victim," said Gleason. "If she had stood on the pile and told us how bad it was, she could have saved tens of thousands." Instead, Whitman—who emphasized at the hearing that in a war-like situation it was important "to speak with one voice"—toed the administration's, and Giuliani's, line. As a result, argued Suzanne Mattei, a former New York City Sierra Club executive present at the hearing, the EPA "encouraged people to ignore their own common sense. The air looked bad and smelled bad. Using common sense, many people would have guessed that the air was unsafe for themselves and their children. … The sad irony is that if the EPA had said nothing at all, the public would probably have been better off."

Passage pulled from this item: Whitman: EPA Knew 9/11 Contamination Put Workers, Residents at Risk

No Papal Bull

In keeping with Pope Benedict's sermonizing on themes of environmental justice and 'creation care,' the Vatican has announced plans to go solar. The first project in the Holy See involves replacing deteriorated cement panels on the roof of the Paul VI auditorium with photovoltaic cells that will illuminate, heat and cool the structure. When not in use, the electricity will be used to power other Vatican buildings. Well, hosanna to that.

Motoring For the Multitude

In India, there are currently about 7 cars per 1,000 persons (as compared to nearly 500 per 1,000 in the US). With the advent of the 100,000-rupee (or $3,000) car, that is about to change. The UK Independent's Andrew Buncombe reports from Delhi.

Lago Desaparecido

Missing: Large lake in southern Chile

And you thought you'd heard it all...

Anarchy on the Installment Plan

We will pay for this one way or another. We will pay to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions today, and we'll have to take an economic hit of some kind. Or we will pay the price later in military terms, and that will involve human lives.

That's retired Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, former commander of US forces in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Horn of Africa, quoted from a report authored by a group of retired admirals and generals on the threat climate change poses to national security.

Down By Law

After Bob Texeira converted his Benz to run on Wesson oil (or Mazola, canola, soy oil, you name it), he slapped a bumpersticker on the back to advertise the achievement: "Powered by 100 percent vegetable oil." Then the cops pulled him over. As Marketplace explains:

Texiera was breaking a number of obscure laws. First, he owed the state a $2,500 bond to run his car on vegetable oil. And he owed a thousand dollars for neglecting to pay monthly state road taxes normally levied on gasoline. Federal penalties were involved, too.

Nine Zeroes

It's official: China has now surpassed the US as the world's leading producer of carbon dioxide.

It also has a billion more people.

Offset Outlaws

A Silicon Valley company called Planktos is preparing to seed thousands of square kilometers of Pacific Ocean near the Galapagos with tons of iron particles as part of a for-profit carbon-offsetting scheme. The idea is this: Iron fertilization stimulates the growth of plankton which in turn draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and into the deep ocean, where it will stay for a long, long time. That's the theory, anyway.

Alas, it may not be so simple. Many researchers are questioning the efficacy of the method for drawing down carbon and say it could exacerbate ocean acidification. Meanwhile, the EPA is warning that seeding without a permit may be illegal. Undeterred, Planktos says it will fly a flag of convenience if the EPA attempts to intervene with what it calls its "Voyage of Recovery."

The controversy points to one of the more glaring problems with the idea of geo-engineering solutions to climate change: When it comes to tweaking planetary systems, who decides the what, when, where and how?

No Sweat

Bush Calls For Development of National Air Conditioner

Dirty Drawers

John Tierney, who somehow managed to grab space in the New York Times science section, is now taking cues from the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the geniuses who gave us the "We Call it Life" ads. Remember those? The tag line was: "Carbon dioxide: They call it a pollutant. We call it Life." CO2 can't be bad, you see, because "we breathe it in" and plants "breathe it out." Uh huh, right. And, similarly, water is a good thing -- until you're drowning in it!

Now, the CEI is gloating over a recent Consumer Reports article that found that some top-loading clothes washers are more expensive and less effective at cleaning since the advent of government regulations mandating increased energy efficiency. CEI is so bent out of shape, in fact, that they're asking folks to send the Undertreasury of Energy their underpants in protest. Yeah, that'll teach 'em to make regulations!

In his latest column (Green Isn't Clean In the Laundry Room), Mr. Tierney, who prides himself on "questioning the conventional wisdom on science" eats out of CEI's hand, dutifully reporting that:

Thanks to new federal standards, washing machines are using less energy — but as a result they cost more and clean less, as Consumer Reports concludes in its new issue:

"Not so long ago, you could count on most washers to get your clothes very clean. Not anymore. Our latest tests found huge performance differences among machines. Some left our stain-soaked swatches nearly as dirty as they were before washing. For best results, you’ll have to spend $900 or more."

Which is precisely what Sam Kazman of the Competitive Enterprise Institute predicted six years ago when the Bush administration enacted the new efficiency standards with promises that new technology would clean clothes better and save money.

So many things are wrong here, but let's start with the fact that Consumer Reports found plenty of machines that wash very well indeed while meeting the new energy standards. The fact that some don't would seem to be the fault of the particular manufacturers, not the government, no?

Even a cursory reading of the Consumer Reports item shows that the biggest problems were found in conventional top-loaders. It did not find many problems with front-loaders, which clean very well and which not only save energy but water too. What's more, even among top-loaders the more expensive, high-efficiency models score well.

But that's too nuanced for Tierney. In the polemic he has formulated, government, with the connivance of environmentalists, has made all clothes washers worse and more expensive, period. For CEI's part, here is what Sam Kazman (an attorney) wrote in a 2001 New York Times opinion piece:

The new rule is likely to restrict the availability of low-priced top loading clothes washers, replacing many with European-style frontloaders. Yet many people hate bending down to load laundry, and like being able to quickly open a machine in mid cycle to add a misplaced sock. Low-income families will also lose out, given their difficulty financing the new washer's higher prices.

Yes, well, God forbid you should have to bend down or throw that sock in the next load! Not in the Home of the Brave, we don't!

As for the high-minded concern for low-income families, it's worth remembering that CEI is a libertarian organization that would yank every last shred of government support out from under low-income families just on principle.

So, to sum up: Yes, washers are getting more expensive, but isn't that what competition within the marketplace is for -- to bring those prices down, over time? Finally, both Kazman and Tierney dismiss the fact that the costs are offset by energy and water savings. And Tierney doesn't see fit to mention that many utilities and water districts now offer rebates to consumers who buy more efficient units, further reducing the cost. No surprise there; such considerations undermine an already weak case.

Fish Follies

A District Court judge in Seattle has ruled that the Bush administration cannot lump together wild and hatchery-reared steelhead (an anadromous rainbow trout much like a salmon) when determining the health of a particular run. Seems like common sense. As the judge said in his ruling: "A healthy hatchery population is not necessarily an indication of a healthy natural population." Quite so. But there's more to it than that. Salmon and steelhead hatcheries are also prone to crashing after initially strong returns and have to be periodically buttressed by wild stock. Ultimately, hatchery populations are dependent upon wild fish to maintain their viability.

Sadly, the ruling runs counter to an earlier, inexplicable one by a different judge. The Sierra Club was one of the groups that filed suit to reverse the decision. So, the whole thing seems likely to wind up in the Court of Appeals. The judge in the latest ruling said that would welcome that as a "happy result." Sounds like a man who knows he's right.

Coal Notes

A few gleanings with respect to coal:

• You may be aware that the US gets more than 50 percent of its electricity from coal, but did you know that, in China, the figure is more than 70 percent?
  
  
• According to Robert Socolow, the Princeton professor known for co-developing the so-called stabilization wedges made famous in Al Gore's film, it's estimated that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) may have to be implemented at more than 1,600 coal plants by 2050 -- a third more than the world's total coal power capacity now.
  
  
• Projects are on the drawing board, but at the moment, not a single large coal-burning facility is equipped to capture and bury carbon anywhere in the world.

The Green Concert Paradox

Jon Pareles at Bonnaroo.

Stormy Mooney

Chris Mooney's Storm World hits shelves on July 9. In an advance review, Real Climate gives the book a very enthusiastic thumbs-up. Mooney, a New Orleans native and SEED magazine contributor whose first book was The Republican War on Science, turns his attention away from the GOP and toward what is perhaps the most hotly contested aspect of the global warming debate; i.e., the link, if any, between climate change and hurricane activity. You can read an excerpt here.

Right (and Wrong) of Capture

T. Boone Pickens, the billionaire corporate raider and oil tycoon, has set his sights on a new underground resource that could prove every bit as lucrative: Water. With bone-dry Texas facing looming water shortages, Pickens and investors have been busy buying up rights to the 'fossil' H2O held in portions of the vast Ogallala Aquifer underneath the Texas panhandle. Pickens likes to refer to the water as "surplus" -- "more water than [local landowners] can ever use." He neglects to note that the Ogallala Aquifer, which is vital to irrigating the American breadbasket, recharges at a snail's pace and that water levels in parts of the aquifer have dropped by 300 feet in 60 years.

So far, Mesa Water hasn't started pumping and doesn't have any contracts, but with supply diminishing and population increasing, most observers say it's only a matter of time before one of America's wealthiest individuals is profiting from the West's drought.

But wait a minute, you say: How is it Pickens can buy and sell groundwater in the first place? Good question. As Jacques Leslie explained in a Salon story years back:

In most states, Pickens wouldn't enjoy the right to buy and sell groundwater, but Texas is the heart of the heartland, where regulation is considered inconsistent with the God-given right to make a ton of money. Thus, it's the only state in the arid West that legally acknowledges the "right of capture," by which landowners have title to the water beneath them.

Leslie noted, however, that even in the hyper-conservative, regulation-averse West Texas, Pickens's scheme was about as popular as a rattlesnake in a sleeping bag. Now local interests are looking for ways to head him off. According to the Omaha Herald:

Many local water districts are adding regulations for pumping groundwater, but that could present legal problems down the road.

Legal experts say the districts can't modify rules to the extent they affect the state's rule of capture law, adopted more than 100 years ago. The law allows property owners to withdraw virtually unlimited amounts of water from beneath their land.

Local restrictions could spawn lawsuits under the takings clauses of the U.S. Constitution and Texas Constitution. Those clauses bar the government from taking private property unless it's for the public good.

Bee Serious

Interesting piece by Scott Thill in AlterNet about Colony Collapse Disorder, as experts have taken to calling the widespread honeybee die-off. Thill turns to entomologist Dewey Caron for answers and, for the most part, winds up with a lot of 'maybes' and 'don't knows.' Which is to say, we need to get serious about investigating this thing. Two quotes worth highlighting, methinks:

"The honeybee is so important for pollination of hundreds of agricultural crops, because humans have made it so," Caron explained. "We destroyed the natural pollinators, plowed up the area they needed to live and continued to replace their habitats with strip malls and housing developments. So, farmers have come to rely on honeybees because of mushrooming human populations and our own destructive habits to the natural ecology."

And:

"Twelve cats died from tainted foodstuffs and six vets at Cornell University alone were studying the losses. Meanwhile, we have a few dedicated pathologists and bee experts on this issue. What is wrong with this picture? Twelve cats or the loss of one-fourth of America's bee colonies? Not to say the cat deaths didn't need to be investigated, but the resources we are prepared to pour into that issue versus the disappearance of our honeybees is what is out of whack."

In the Pipeline

Which country in the world is the leading exporter of oil to the United States? Depends on when you're asking. In 1975, the answer was Canada. And in 2005, it was ... Canada. Surprised? The image above is taken from the US Import Timeline found on the website for Oil on the Brain, a new book by journalist Lisa Margonelli. Ted Conover calls it a "timely sequel" to Daniel Yergin's 1992 Pulitzer-winning opus, The Prize.

Corn Gravy

The ripple effects of the president's enthusiasm for corn-based ethanol are beginning to be felt. For starters, as Michael Rosenwald writes in the Washington Post, "The corn price increases flow like gravy down the food chain," to everything from meat and dairy to soda and cookies -- meat and dairy because of the importance of corn as fodder, and soda and cookies because of the prevalence of corn syrup as a sweetener. With corn prices having doubled, the prices for these corn-dependent products inevitably go up as well -- at least until farmers start producing to a level that meets or exceeds demand, in which case prices could again level off.

But there's more. In converting acreage to corn, American farmers are moving away from other major crops, like soy, which has the benefit of fixing nitrogen in the soil. Corn, by contrast, demands copious amounts of nitrogen fertilizer, which has a tendency to run off into streams and rivers, triggering oxygen-depleted dead zones, like the one which forms annually in the Gulf of Mexico. Experts fear that the corn boom will greatly exacerbate the problem.

It's not inevitable, however. As this item in American Agriculturalist notes, the 2007 Farm Bill offers an opportunity to encourage farmers to exercise "greater precision in fertilizer use, wetlands restoration, production of perennial crops such as switchgrass, and other conservation innovations." The item also notes that, "While Corn Belt watersheds account for less than nine percent of the land that drains into the Mississippi, land in these watersheds contribute about one-third of the nitrogen reaching the Gulf." A smart policy would focus efforts there.

Trail's End

Colin Fletcher, the 'man who walked through time,' came to the end of his earlier this week.

The peripatetic Welshman and author, with Chip Rawlins, of The Complete Walker -- the veritable bible of backpacking -- devoted his later life to walking and writing. His published journeys include: A walk from Mexico to Oregon, recounted in The Thousand Mile Summer; a journey, on foot, across the length of the Grand Canyon, the subject of The Man Who Walked Through Time; and a journey down the Colorado, from its source to the sea, retold in River.

Fletcher prized solitude and, as such, loathed guidebooks, but all his work helped the uninitiated to know the simple joys and lasting rewards of walking away from civilization to camp under the stars. Sounding like a latter-day Muir, he wrote in The Complete Walker that, "Under most conditions, the best roof for your bedroom is the sky. This commonsense arrangement saves weight, time, energy, and money."

Sadly, his days in the outdoors were few toward the end. As this eulogy in Backpacker explains, Fletcher never fully recovered from injuries he sustained in 2001, when he was struck by an SUV near his home in Monterey, California. A year later, he told an editor from that magazine:

Before the accident, I was ready to do magnificent trips at 80. We all fail at some point. That's why it's better to let it happen sometimes -- to give up. I haven't given up yet, and I don't think I will, but I can see the advantages of it.

Colin Fletcher died on June 12. He was 85.

Blowers Suck

Ontario is going to ban leaf blowers and gas-powered lawn mowers and I say, hoo-fricking-ray for that! I can't get as worked up about mowers, but leaf blowers! I mean, forget the pollution for a second. The leaf blower has to be in the running for the worst invention of all time. Let's face it: There's nothing a leaf blower does that a rake can't do better. I take that back. There is one thing: For getting leaves off a composite shingle roof without removing all the grit, a leaf blower is handy. Otherwise, man, they're the devil's own power tools: Noxious and obnoxious both.

Okay. As long as we're banning stuff, what else should go?

Reality Bites Back

"The problem with offsets is that they always involve comparing a real situation with a counterfactual situation." That's the Caregie Institute's Ken Caldeira, as quoted in this excellent article in Conservation Magazine ("That Sinking Feeling," by Nick Atkinson) about the practice of planting trees, or, better yet, avoiding deforestation, in order to slow global warming. The concept is simple: trees sop up C02, so by planting more of them, we can (theoretically) offset the emissions from that flight to New York or road trip to Vegas. Alas, it's not so simple.

A Fine Example

More news of out-of-place critters. This time it's crawdads off the east coast of Scotland. Actually, the story says crawfish, but judging from the picture, it's what we'd call spiny lobster. A fisherman pulled one up from the Firth of Forth near Gullane -- Muir country, or thereabouts. Suffice to say, there weren't any of these in the water in Muir's day. The local fishmonger tells the East Lothian Courier:

A few years ago you wouldn’t have dreamt about seeing these exotic species, but sea bass, red mullet and velvet crabs are now caught on the Forth and it could be a growing market in the future. Who knows? I think it’s a fine example of global warming as these fish are making their way into northern waters.

The spiny specimen was given to a local aquarium for display.

Safety Last

With Congress looking at raising fuel economy standards, the auto industry is suddenly concerned about safety.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is running radio spots in at least 10 states that suggests new regulations will endanger motorists by forcing automakers to produce smaller, more vulnerable cars. But a new report authored by experts from the national laboratories say the issue is a red herring. According to the authors: "The public, automakers, and policymakers have long worried about trade-offs between increased fuel economy in motor vehicles and safety. The conclusion of a broad group of experts is that no trade-off is required."

It's worth remembering that more than 12,000 people died in SUV rollover accidents over a ten-year period in which the industry did little to remedy the issue and instead focused public attention on defective Firestone tires that led to a mere 300 deaths.

Hybrid Trends

Toyota announced that it has now sold 1 million hybrids and forecasts sales of 1 million hybrids per year early in the next decade.

Honda, meanwhile, has decided to pull the plug on its Accord hybrid. The 'performance' hybrid (as opposed to 'economy' hybrid) had stiff competition from the gas-electric Toyota Camry, which had significantly higher mileage than the Accord and a lower sticker price.

The gas-electric Honda Civic continues to sell well, and the hybrid market as a whole is strengthening. Green Car Congress reports that hybrid sales hit a new high last month, accounting for nearly 3 percent of sales. Also in May, the Toyota Prius became the first hybrid to break into the top ten bestsellers.

Start Making Sense

For immediate release: Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles Far Better Choice Than Coal-to-Liquid Fuel Projects, Say Carnegie Mellon Experts

Their conclusion:

A major program to subsidize coal-to-liquids makes no sense, since the goals of energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions can be achieved at lower cost through plug-in hybrid vehicles charged with electricity from reduced carbon sources.

And furthermore:

Even the most carbon-intensive scenario using plug-in hybrids has
substantially less greenhouse gas emissions than the best
possible coal-to-liquids case.

In other words, better to just make electricity with coal and run cars off that electricity than to turn coal into fuel at enormous expense and with greatly increased carbon emissions. Better still, make the electricity from less carbon-intensive sources in the first place.

(via Gristmill)

Mudtrails

What's a mudtrail? It's a bit like a contrail in the ocean, only it's mud from the ocean floor instead of condensed water vapor in the sky. We're all familiar with contrails because all we have to do is look up and see the streaks of white criss-crossing the blue yonder. In certain times and places, mudtrails are nearly as ubiquitous in coastal waters as contrails are overhead; we just don't have the same appreciation for them because we're down looking up, not up looking down. If we were, here's what we might see during shrimping season:


The satellite image shows a section of the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. The white dots are shrimp trawlers -- fishing boats that drag weighted nets across the ocean floor, a technique that is not only indiscriminate in what it catches but also destroys reefs and the benthic habitat of the ocean floor. By stirring up the organic matter in the sediment, it may even contribute to the formation of so-called "dead zones," such as the giant one that appears annually in the Gulf of Mexico.

Trawling has been likened to hunting game by clearcutting the forest. It's clearly unsustainable and yet it continues at be practiced at all-time record levels. For more on this, read this pdf, or go here to take a Google Earth tour of mudtrails worldwide. Finally, shrimp lovers go here for the 'skinny on shrimp.'

Global Grub

The husband/wife team of Faith D'Aluisio and Peter Menzel, authors of Sierra Club books, Material World and Women in the Material World, have come out with a new volume called Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, which explores the global diet by looking at what families around the world eat in an average week. Time magazine has a photo essay from the book on its website, and NPR talks with the authors.

Sparring Over Nukes

Energy guru Amory Lovins and Nobel-winning physicist Burton Richter squared off over the role nuclear power should or shouldn't play in the fight against global warming. Lovins, who preaches the gospel of efficiency and renewable alternatives, said nuclear was a dying beast, economically uncompetitive and dangerous. Richter questioned Lovins's projections for the viability of solar and wind to meet growing demands, and cited a lack of storage as a major weakness. The back-and-forth is related here.

In a related story, more he-says/she-says, this time about Chernobyl. Depending on who you listen to, the no-man's land around the Ukranian reactor site has either become a wildlife haven, blessed by the absence of man, or a nuclear nightmare, where mutations run amok.

As a postscript, reporters are often blamed for bad headlines, but they rarely if ever write them. And it's interesting to see how headlines differ on newswire stories from outlet to outlet. In this case, Yahoo! News went with the one-sided "Chernobyl area becomes wildlife haven," which makes you wonder whether the editor read past the lede. The Philadelphia Inquirer ran it under "Wildlife returning to Chernobyl," but with the necessary subhead: "The big question: Are the animals healthy?"

Simply RED

As much as one-fifth of the world's annual greenhouse gas emissions result from deforestation or other types of land degradation. Now, some scientists and conservationists say that paying poor countries to keep their forests intact would be one of the easiest and least expensive measures to check global warming. To some critics, no doubt, this sounds like blackmail; i.e., give us money or the forest gets it. But, compared to the current, rather perverse situation -- where, for example, farmers in the Amazon can receive carbon credits for planting eucalyptus trees on freshly cleared land, but none for leaving the forest standing in the first place -- and the RED initiative (that is, Reducing Emissions from Deforestation, not to be confused with the other RED initiative to fight AIDs in Africa) makes good sense.

Speaking with Mongabay's Rhett Butler, Dr. Daniel Nepstad of the Woods Hole Research Institute, says RED is "the hottest thing going at climate negotiations the last few months." He adds:

There's a lot at stake. We're talking about what could become the biggest flow of funds ever into tropical forest conservation with all kinds of potential win-wins for improving rural livelihoods and protecting biodiversity.

Already, Ecuador, is asking the international community to pay some $350 million per year to keep oil deposits in part of its biologically rich Amazon territory untouched. The country's president, Rafael Correa, says Ecuador will give the world a year to respond to the proposal.

Seriously. No, Seriously!

As Sheryl Stolberg reports in the Times, the G-8 meeting is always "one part substance and one part political theater." This time, the theatrics included protesters in clown suits and riot cops with water cannons. Hardly a fair match. All the clowns have are those little lapel flowers... But I digress.

Ms. Stolberg's piece carries the headline, "At Group of 8 Meeting, Bush Rebuffs Germany on Cutting Emissions." Straightforward enough. Germany's Chancellor Merkel was pushing for 50 percent emissions cuts from 1990 levels by 2050. Bush reiterated his rejection of any binding targets on emissions, and instead spoke, in the lead-up to the G-8, of convening the top 15 greenhouse gas polluters to set what he called "aspirational goals." Wait, aren't all goals, by their very nature, aspirational? ... Again, I digress. Sorry.

These "aspirational goals" would be set by the individual countries, who would also devise their own strategies for meeting them. They would also be voluntary and non-binding. Sort of like New Year's resolutions, in other words -- promises you make to yourself, then forget about.

If you're determined to do nothing about global warming, this is a brilliant strategy. If, on the other hand, you are determined to stave off catastrophe, it's utterly unacceptable. So, then, how is it that Merkel, Blair and others at the G-8 came to declare this meeting a victory? Well, it seems that Bush relented in the end. That's right. After considerable diplomatic pressure had been brought to bear, he agreed to -- get this -- "seriously consider" the cuts that Merkel proposed and to participate in negotiations going forward. Stunning, isn't it?

Chancellor Merkel characterized the outcome as "very great progress and an excellent result," and Tony Blair seconded her enthusiastic appraisal. While admitting that no real agreement whatsoever had been achieved, he stressed that "there is now a process to lead to that agreement." And that, he said, is "a major, major step forward."

Major.

Kangerlussuaq Direct

File this one under "signs of the times." Greenland Air has inaugurated a weekly flight to the United States. Where travelers once had to go through Copenhagen to reach the icy, continent-sized island, they can now fly to Kangerlussuaq from Baltimore, direct. Time in transit: just five hours. In the "high season" -- mid-June to mid-August -- the airline will add a second weekly flight to handle the traffic. As the Arctic warms, Greenland is suddenly a hot destination. How long, you have to wonder, before someone builds an eco-lodge on Warming Island?

Nano Nano

Most experts agree that nanotechnology -- the control and manufacture of materials and devices smaller than a micro-meter -- will transform the world in fundamental ways, both good and ill. And yet, according to a recent Yale study, more than 80 percent of Americans have heard little or nothing about it.

This feature in Consumer Reports sets out to change that, by examining both the upsides and potential risks of nanotech. Consider, for example, the environmental applications: Nanotechnnology has the potential to revolutionize battery technology and make solar cells both cheap and plentiful; and nanoparticles are already being deployed to clean toxins from polluted water. What's not to like? On the other hand, while the health and ecosystem risks of nano-particles are still largely unknown, some lab studies raise serious concerns. Take the case of fullerenes, aka Bucky Balls. Researchers found that when largemouth bass were exposed to fullerenes at concentrations of just 0.5 parts per million, the fish suffered brain cell damage after just 48 hours.

Not good, but guess what? Fullerenes are already found in many products, including one $300-an-ounce night cream that boasts "Nobel Prize-winning ingredients." In fact, as Consumer Reports makes clear, there are nano-ingredients in any number of off-the-shelf products in everyday use, from paints to sunscreens to auto parts. You just wouldn't know it.

Top 10

Here's how the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) ranks the Top 10 states in terms of energy efficiency.

1. Vermont, Connecticut, and California (tie)
4. Massachusetts
5. Oregon
6. Washington
7. New York
8. New Jersey
9. Rhode Island, Minnesota (tie)

These states tend to have traditionally higher energy costs, but also higher economic growth, giving the lie to the notion that energy-efficiency hurts the economy. Au contraire.

Geography in Action

Where maps showed only ice-bound nunataks -- "lonely mountains," popping up out of the glaciers -- explorer Dennis Schmitt found an island. "Warming Island," he called it. Click here to view Landsat images of the transformation. In an excellent article about this and similar arctic discoveries, ("The Warming of Greenland)," Schmitt told the New York Times: "We felt the exhilaration of discovery. We were exploring something new. But of course, there was also something scary about what we did there. We were looking in the face of these changes, and all of us were thinking of the dire consequences."

Your Tax Dollars

The AP's John Heilprin has a story today about the government's critically underfunded climate monitoring satellite program. Here's the lede and nut:

The Bush administration is drastically scaling back efforts to measure global warming from space, just as the president tries to convince the world the U.S. is ready to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gases.

A confidential report to the White House, obtained by The Associated Press, warns that U.S. scientists will soon lose much of their ability to monitor warming from space using a costly and problem-plagued satellite initiative begun more than a decade ago.

Because of technology glitches and a near-doubling in the original $6.5 billion cost, the Defense Department has decided to downsize and launch four satellites paired into two orbits, instead of six satellites paired in three orbits.

Going forward, the cut back means NASA, NOAA and the Pentagon will have to rely on European satellites for much of the climate observation data. Rick Piltz, of Climate Science Watch, calls it criminal negligence. The news comes on the heels of comments by NASA chief Michael Griffin to the effect that global warming, while real, is not a priority concern. Meanwhile, billions are budgeted to Buck Rogers stuff like building a permanent moon station.

Oh Man, Oman

A powerful Category 4 tropical cyclone grazed the desert coast of Oman today. The oil producing country has evacuated some areas and shut down its oil exports in response to the storm, which is not expected to disrupt Saudi or Emirati oil supplies. News still sent prices of crude past $70 per barrel. According to NASA's Earth Observatory:

Though rare, cyclones like Gonu are not unheard of in the northern Indian Ocean basin. Most cyclones that form in the region form over the Bay of Bengal, east of India. Those that take shape over the Arabian Sea, west of the Indian peninsula, tend to be small and fizzle out before coming ashore. Cyclone Gonu is a rare exception.

Before coming ashore, the storm reached max winds of 160 mph, making it a Category 5 storm. Latest reports have it moving, at Category 2 strength, toward Iran, across the Gulf of Oman.

She's Dolly and So Are Ewe

Remember Dolly, the cloned sheep? It has only been ten short years since our short-lived, cloven-hoofed friend (preserved as the taxidermied specimen above) was lambed in the lab. The Why Files looks at what's been happened in cloning circles since Dolly first made headlines. Among the developments: better rodeo broncs; transplant-friendly pig organs; and -- get ready for the future -- cloneburgers.

Image Problem

At a policy conference in the car-free environs of Mackinac Island, United Auto Workers president Ron Gettelfinger said he has come to "believe in the reality of climate change," but lamented that, "Unfortunately, there is an impression among the car-buying public that the Big Three build nothing but gas guzzlers, while Toyota is a division of Greenpeace." Huh. Wonder why that is. The quote is reported in a New York Times story headlined: Detroit Finds Agreement on the Need to Be Green.