Conned Air
EPA chief twisted particulate pollution advice, say scientists
U.S. EPA chief Stephen Johnson "twisted" and "misrepresented" recommendations on regulating soot and dust pollution from the agency's own air-quality experts, according to, um, the agency's own air-quality experts. In an unprecedented move, the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee is urging Johnson to change course on the pollution proposals he announced in December, which ignore the scientists' haze-reduction advice, significantly weaken their recommendations on controlling the smallest, most health-hazardous particles of soot, and -- most controversially -- propose entirely eliminating regulation of dust in the agriculture and mining industries in rural areas. Several panel members say Johnson misleadingly credited the committee with supporting these exemptions. Bart Ostro of the California EPA says the White House Office of Management and Budget, along with industry trade associations, played major roles in gutting the particulate controls.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Janet Wilson,
straight to the source: The Sacramento Bee, Chris Bowman,
see also, in Grist: EPA seeks to rescind clean-air protections for rural areas
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Itching to replace that 30-year-old shagadelic carpet but unsure about your eco-friendly flooring options? In today's column, advice maven Umbra Fisk gives a quick rundown of the pros and cons of the most common flooring materials, and uncovers some others you might not have considered. She's so grounded, that one. 
new in Ask Umbra: I'm Floored
sign up: Receive word by email when new Ask Umbra columns hit the scene
Wait, We Thought He Was a C Student
Bush, Congress get D+ on ocean protection efforts
Ocean advocates are urging the Bush administration to wake up and smell the marine decay. The
straight to the source: Cape Cod Times, George Brennan,
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Charles Pope,
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press,
Meter Aid
New power meters help customers cool juice use
Millions of California households will soon be able to see at a glance how much electricity and money is being gobbled up as they flip on their hairdryers and plasma TVs. California regulators and two of the state's biggest utilities are rolling out a $2 billion program to install "advanced" electricity meters in select homes. The devices display how much electricity a customer is using and how much it's costing in real time, encouraging folks to cut back during peak hours. The utilities will use the data provided by the meters to offer variable-rate plans that reward good power behavior -- like running dishwashers off-peak -- to help alleviate California's perpetual power crunches. In a pilot project, electricity use fell by an average of 13 percent in the 2,500 participating homes. Similar programs have cut electricity consumption in
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Marc Lifsher,
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To skiers and snowboarders, climate change is no distant abstraction -- it's already messing up their powdery playgrounds. To ski resort owners, it's more sinister still, threatening to melt them right out of business. Some in the industry are stepping up and working to reduce greenhouse gases. Others, not so much. Daniel Shaw surveys the ski scene for signs of green.
new in Main Dish: Ski Bummer
Singin' in the Rainforest
Deal will protect vast Great Bear Rainforest in
We love the smell of vast tracts of protected rainforest in the morning. Smells like ... victory. Today in British Columbia, Canada, a coalition including the provincial government, Native groups, forest advocates, and timber companies is expected to announce an unprecedented agreement to protect the 15 million-acre Great Bear Rainforest -- fully a quarter of the world's remaining coastal temperate rainforest. Almost 5 million acres will be closed to logging, while 10 million will remain open to selective cutting in consultation with Native nations. The pact, which ends a 10-year battle, will help preserve one of the highest concentrations of grizzly bears in
straight to the source: The Vancouver Sun, Gordon Hamilton,
straight to the source: The New York Times, Clifford Krauss,
see also, in Grist: Photos of the Great Bear Rainforest
Money for Nothin'
Bush's 2007 budget includes Arctic Refuge drilling, cuts EPA funding
Unsurprisingly, greens will find little to love in President Bush's proposed $2.77 trillion budget for fiscal year 2007. It calls for oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, estimating $7 billion in revenue by 2008 from leasing drilling rights -- nearly triple the $2.4 billion forecast in last year's budget (how'd that work out?). The U.S. EPA's allocation would decrease by 4 percent to about $7 billion, with cuts to many clean-water programs -- that would be the fourth annual decrease to EPA's budget in a row. $10.8 million would be slashed from clean-air and climate-change research, but grants to promote less-polluting off-road diesel engines would rise dramatically, from $7 million to $50 million. The budget includes an expected initiative to revivify nuclear power, via $250 million for research into the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel. Sadly, the $10 million in funding for scrappy little environmental internet magazines again failed to pan out.
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, John J. Fialka,
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Amy Goldstein,
straight to the source: The Seattle Times, Alicia Mundy and Alison Granito,
straight to the source: Reuters, Lisa Lambert,
straight to the source: The Sun Herald, Associated Press,
That'll Teach You to Put Pee in Frogs
Lethal frog fungus spread by pregnancy test, researchers suspect
Weird non sequitur of the day: A skin fungus that's killing off frogs worldwide may have been spread by a pregnancy test. Yeah, we got that same confused look. A few decades ago, African clawed frogs were used to detect pregnancy -- with surprising accuracy. The hopper would be injected with a woman's urine, and if she was preggers, the frog would spawn within a few hours. These foretelling froggies were exported all over the world, and may have taken with them the chytrid fungus, which has been found on all continents except Asia and Antarctica and is likely responsible for the extinction of about 75 harlequin frog species in South and Central America in the last 17 years. Thanks to global warming -- and what can't we thank global warming for these days? -- warmer tropical temperatures have provided a perfect climate for the fungus to spread.
straight to the source: Reuters, Ed Stoddard,
straight to the source: The Independent, Michael McCarthy,
Well, They Had to Chop Something
BLM suspends funding for forestry research that contradicts Bush policy
The Bureau of Land Management has abruptly suspended funding for a team of scientists who published findings undercutting a Bush administration timber policy. The
straight to the source: The Oregonian, Michael Milstein,
straight to the source: Corvallis Gazette-Times, Mary Ann Albright,
The Only Boy Who Could Ever Teach Me
Evangelical leaders launch new campaign to fight global warming
Eighty-six evangelical Christian leaders have joined together to launch an "Evangelical Climate Initiative" and call for federal legislation to reduce carbon dioxide emissions via a cap-and-trade market system. This move comes after 22 evangelical leaders -- including Bush-friendly political heavyweights James Dobson and Charles Colson -- warned the National Association of Evangelicals against issuing just such a statement earlier this month. The NAE didn't sign on to the new statement, but its president Ted Haggard says he's personally convinced global warming is real and dangerous, and NAE VP Richard Cizik helped persuade other leaders -- including best-selling author and megachurch leader Rick Warren -- to get on board. The initiative plans to spread its message via programs at churches and Christian colleges and an ad campaign in targeted states. Says a planned TV ad, "The good news is that with God's help, we can stop global warming, for our kids, our world, and for the Lord." Hallelujah!
straight to the source: The New York Times, Laurie Goodstein,
discuss in Gristmill: Hallelujah!
straight to the statement: Statement of the Evangelical Climate Initiative
see also, in Grist: Evangelical association decides not to fight global warming after all
see also, in Grist: An interview with green evangelical leader Richard Cizik
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Enviros are, by nature, optimistic types (well, except for that whole "the world is melting and we're all doomed" thing). That's why, when a product seems to serve our needs while being kind to the planet, we get all giddy-like. Today, a reader wonders if bamboo is the magical flooring material she's been looking for. Ever so gently, advice maven Umbra Fisk bursts her bambubble.
new in Ask Umbra: Bamboozled
sign up: Receive word by email when new Ask Umbra columns hit the scene
You'll Eat It, and You'll Like It
WTO says E.U. illegally blocked genetically modified crops
After years of striving to pry Europe open to biotech crops, Washington scored a crucial victory yesterday: A World Trade Organization panel found that the European Union had illegally blocked imports of genetically modified crops, and that several E.U. nations had no legal right to impose their own bans. Although the E.U. has licensed limited GM crop imports recently, the Bush administration says the issue now is clearing a decade's backlog of trade applications -- and dispelling the chilling effect E.U. resistance has had on sales worldwide. European consumer and eco-advocacy groups say the ruling is an attack on the rights of E.U. nations to decide what kinds of foods they will approve. A coalition of 170 European regions and 4,500 smaller areas has vowed to be gene-mod free, and the foods remain extremely unpopular with European consumers. The E.U. may appeal -- or could opt to accept penalties instead of complying with the ruling.
straight to the source: The Guardian, Julian Borger, Nicholas Watt, and John Vidal,
straight to the source: Reuters,
Bodies, Asbestos, and Motion
Controversial bill to create asbestos trust fund moves ahead in Senate
An epic drama is playing out in the U.S. Capitol over ... asbestos. Seriously. A bill -- which, after a 98 to 1 vote in the Senate yesterday, will now move to the floor for debate -- would create a $140 billion industry-financed trust fund for victims of asbestos-related illness, but would also put a halt to the hundreds of thousands of pending asbestos lawsuits. Veterans came to D.C. to lobby for it; asbestos victims have collected 150,000 signatures against it. Lawsuit-fearing manufacturers support it, while an array of insurers, labor unions, and trial lawyers oppose it. The White House and GOP leadership support it, as do some Democrats, but bipartisan opposition means passage is far from assured. Said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), "One would have to search far and wide to find a bill as bad as this." With so many of
straight to the source: The New York Times, Stephen Labaton,
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Shailagh Murray,
straight to the source: Reuters, Susan Cornwell,
Researchers discover treasure trove of new tropical species in
Just when we thought we'd colonized it all: Scientists have discovered a jungle in
straight to the source: CNN.com, Reuters,
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Robert Lee Hotz,
straight to the source: The Times, Nick Meo,
straight to the source: The Independent, Terry Kirby,
A Subsidy by Any Other Name ...
Sen. Barack Obama and Rep. Jay Inslee propose a deal: The feds pay some of American automakers' health-care costs; in return, the companies invest in fuel efficiency. Brilliant? Or silly? Discuss.
Less Money, Mo' Problems
Bush's 2007 budget slashes funding for energy conservation
When President Bush said "
straight to the source: The Boston Globe, Rick Klein,
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Associated Press,
A Woman Needs a Fish Like a Bicycle Needs ... Oh, Never Mind
One in five U.S. women have high mercury levels, suggests new report
You weren't thinking of having children, were you? Good: One in five American women of childbearing age may have unsafe levels of mercury in their bodies, according to a new report by the Environmental Quality Institute at University of North Carolina-Asheville. In the largest test of mercury contamination in the U.S. to date -- commissioned by Greenpeace and the Sierra Club -- hair samples from over 6,500 volunteers were analyzed. Of the 2,834 women ages 16 to 49 who were tested, 23 percent had mercury levels exceeding the U.S. EPA's recommended safe level of 1 part per million. New York participants had the highest incidence of elevated mercury levels, with Florida, Colorado, and California close behind -- and Asian Americans had average levels significantly higher than African Americans, Latinos, or whites. But, cautions study coauthor Steven Patch, the study sample wasn't random enough to be representative of the overall U.S. population.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Marla Cone, 09 Feb 2006
straight to the source: Chicago Tribune, Michael Hawthorne, 09 Feb 2006
straight to the source: United Press International, 08 Feb 2006
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You could grow ravenous just gazing at the photographs in two new books on farming and food: In Fields of Plenty, Michael Ableman visits small-scale farmers around the U.S. and chats with these quirky characters about their work, and in Hungry Planet, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio visit families around the world and watch them eat. Tom Philpott reviews these tasty tomes.
new in Arts and Minds: Back to the Garden
The Sweden Hereafter
Sweden aims to be oil-free in 15 years
It's official: Sweden is the coolest ... country ... evar. Already widely admired for meatballs, Ikea, and, um, other Swedish stuff, the country has now announced its aim to have an oil-free economy by 2020. The Swedes cut the percentage of their energy coming from oil from 77 percent in 1970 to 32 percent in 2003, and they're favoring biofuels over nuclear power to get them down to zero. Only 8 percent of Swedish homes are heated by oil today, and thanks to tax breaks, Swedes can fill their Saabs with ethanol-based fuel for a third less than they'd spend on ordinary gasoline. Upon hearing that President Bush had declared America addicted to oil, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson expressed relief that "at last there's one more who understands the problem." Guess he didn't get Bush's "didn't mean it" follow-up memo. Awkward! (Note that this blurb contained not a single Swedish Chef joke -- that's the kind of maturity we bring to environmental journalism.)
straight to the source: The Guardian, John Vidal,
straight to the source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Associated Press, Mattias Karen,
straight to the source: The New York Times, Alan Cowell,
Derrick Cheater
Bush admin proposes drilling off Florida, Virginia, Alaska coasts
When President Bush said "America is addicted to oil," we thought ... wait, did we say this already? Yesterday, the administration proposed new oil and gas drilling off the coasts of
straight to the source: Richmond Times-Dispatch, Peter Hardin,
straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Tom Doggett,
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, John J. Fialka,
From Dreams to Desert
Skeezy girls in bikinis dance on crushed cars and ... well, do you really need more? This week in The Grist List. Sign up to get The Grist List by email.
The Bear Necessitates
Feds to consider listing polar bears as threatened
Congressional Republicans waging jihad against the Endangered Species Act may soon have a new reason to hate it: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering giving polar bears federal endangered-species protections because climate change is melting their Arctic sea-ice habitat. If the feds are compelled to protect polar-bear habitat, and the habitat is threatened by climate change, then the feds may be forced -- horrors! -- to do something about climate change. Recent data show that Arctic sea ice has declined by 15 to 20 percent in the past 30 years; some climate experts think that there will be no summer sea ice in about 50 years. Some polar bears in
straight to the source: The Washington Post, Juliet Eilperin,
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Jane Kay,
speak up: Email the feds with a public comment
Have They Asked the Conservative Think Tanks About This?
Climate change really screwing things up, say scientists around the world
Global warming, neither a far-off abstraction nor the myth some (still!) claim it to be, is already causing mayhem worldwide, according to the latest rash of studies on the topic. In the late 20th century, the Northern Hemisphere experienced its most sustained warm stretch in 1,200 years, report a team of
straight to the source: The Independent, Steve Connor,
straight to the source: The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Associated Press,
straight to the source: MSNBC.com,
straight to the source: OneWorld.net,
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Former Gwich'in village chief Evon Peter is none too happy about efforts to extract what oil is left in
new in InterActivist: Return of the Native Movement
And You Were Worried!
Expert panel backs Energy Department nuke-waste transport plan
An expert panel organized by the National Academy of Sciences has concluded that it's likely safe to ship tens of thousands of tons of spent nuclear fuel to
straight to the source: The Boston Globe, Associated Press, H. Josef Hebert,
straight to the source: The Wall Street Journal, John J. Fialka,
Win Some, Luge Some
WWF gives
For the next few weeks the world will be glued to its TVs for a spectacle of heartbreak and triumph called ... American Idol. But some folks might also watch the Olympic Winter Games. Are they green? WWF has given the Turin Games a mixed score, noting seven eco-positive outcomes including cleanly fueled public transport and recycling in the Olympic villages. But it slammed two ski jumps that cut into sensitive alpine slopes and dinged heavy artificial snow-making for damaging the ground and wasting water. WWF also blasted the 16-foot high Olympic flame as a "monument to waste," saying it would burn roughly 105 million cubic feet of gas during the 17 days of the Games -- enough to supply a town of 3,500 for an entire year. Olympic organizers counter that they are offsetting all carbon emissions produced, and also that Paris Bennett is totally winning Idol this year.
straight to the source: CNN.com, Reuters,
see also, in Grist: How the Olympics are becoming a sustainable business
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