The LA TImes is under tremendous pressure this fall. Circulation fell nearly 9% in the last quarter alone, the publisher and the editor were fired, and its owner, the Tribune Company, itself is on the market and likely to be sold off (in parts or as a whole) before the end of the year. ForContinue reading “LA Times Hints Supremes Will Split Difference on CO2 as Pollutant Ruling”
Monthly Archives: November 2006
“Eco-Thug” Loses to Idealist, Helped by President Bush
A charming story yesterday in the LA Times by Faye Fiore looks at how an idealist named Jerry McNerney, unwanted by the Democratic Party, living off his savings, backed by over a thousand volunteers, defeated the "eco-thug" Richard Pombo, the notoriously anti-enviro Congressman from the Tracy area in CA, despite millions of dollars spent inContinue reading ““Eco-Thug” Loses to Idealist, Helped by President Bush”
Betweeness
"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness," wrote John Muir (in a posthumous collection of his notes called John of the Mountains). For years I’ve heard that saying of Muir’s echo in my mind. Only occasionally would the question creep in–yes, but why? Why does a wild forest take us intoContinue reading “Betweeness”
Sunday on the Planet (but not always in the morning)
Who can say what this signal really means? The skies of late have been a little mysterious, but gorgeously so…
The 06-07 El Nino: A Wuss?
A couple of days ago, the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center predicted a warmer-than-usual winter, with El Nino conditions bringing a likelihood of increased rainfall to California and the West Coast. But an excellent follow-up story from Rob Krier at the San-Diego Union-Tribune points out that November in San Diego for the last fortyContinue reading “The 06-07 El Nino: A Wuss?”
Extreme Enviro Bathrooms
A wonderfully warm, funny piece from Orion and Nicole McLelland. The can’t miss quote: "So where do you pee?" I asked Brian. "It’s especially good for the trees, if you’d like to do them the service, Dan," he said, turning his gray-bearded grin toward my companion. I waited, but he didn’t address me. I appealedContinue reading “Extreme Enviro Bathrooms”
The Bush Plan: Burn All the Fossil Fuels as Fast as You Can
Tim Barnett, a leading oceanographer just retired from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, this Monday gave a talk to a convention of fire ecologists in San Diego called Future Climate of Earth: A Sneak Preview. Barnett began by saying that he had seven grandkids, and he didn’t like to think about the world they were goingContinue reading “The Bush Plan: Burn All the Fossil Fuels as Fast as You Can”
McCain Challenges Bush Admin Official on Global Warming Data
Numerous, even countless, examples of the Bush administration’s eagerness to shove the global warming issue under the rug can be cited, but one of the most obvious has been its flat-out refusal to have NOAA file the decadal data, as required by the act that authorized the US Global Change Research Program. Yesterday John McCainContinue reading “McCain Challenges Bush Admin Official on Global Warming Data”
Depression: Beyond a Little Pill
Probably the best book I’ve read this year is Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression, which begins as a look at the New Yorker’s writer’s horrifying and almost inexplicable struggles with depression after publishing a novel. The book becomes a years-long exploration into all aspects of the disease: medical, historical, psychological, personal,Continue reading “Depression: Beyond a Little Pill”
A Heated Question
From Stuart Carlson at the Washington Post:
Kit Stolz 