Climate Change

"This is not a decision that I've made lightly. But the bottom line is this: given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth, produce jobs, and keep our businesses competitive, we're going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel even as we ramp up production of new sources of renewable, homegrown energy," (President Barack Obama on his decision to allow oil and gas exploration off U.S. coasts, April 2, 2010).

Audio interview with Brian Tokar, an ecological activist and author, director of the Institute for Social Ecology, and a lecturer at the University of Vermont. He is the author of The Green Alternative and Earth for Sale, edited two books on the politics of biotechnology and co-edited the forthcoming collection, Crisis in Food and Agriculture: Conflict, Resistence and Renewal (Monthly Review Press).

Springtime’s burst of energy is always refreshing, but the churning unpredictability of recent weather (via climate change) saps some of the excitement about rising temperatures. As dead zones balloon in the oceans, the UN is grasping for direction and memories of the Copenhagen Summit now linger like the stench of thawing permafrost. All that being said, spring is still pretty frickin’ awesome.

“I reject your reality and substitute my own.”
- Adam Savage, Mythbusters

Perhaps “reality” can be added to the list of products being produced in great quantities by China these days. In the past year, China talked boldly about their environmental leadership, military prowess and effectiveness in dealing with separatists within their own borders – all topics where the Chinese version of events sounds impressive, at least until you compare it with reality.

As 2009 fades into history the urge for anyone with access to a media outlet is to compile some sort of year-end list. I am not going to put together a list of top stories or year end awards, but in the column below I am going to highlight seven stories that I think deserved more attention than they received, either because they challenged the conventional wisdom in international affairs, help to explain where our world is or where it may be heading, or, in the case of the science story at the end, because it is just too bizarre not to note. So without further ado, here is my humble year-end collection:


The US Navy, Climate Change Believers

I'm currently dying from finals so I'll be short and sweet.

This is a video on biking culture in Copenhagen and it is nothing less than cool. As a New Yorker I wish my city was set up this way.

Props to Street Films for the find.

In light of "A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall" being chosen by the U.N. as its anthem for the climate change summit in Copenhagen, here's some ol' skool footage of Bob Dylan performing the record itself. Dylan orignally released the song in 1962, at the height of the Cold War.

Even though I'm not a huge Dylan guy, the lyrics are apropos.

For more on the climate change conference, hit up COP15.

According to reports, Tapei 101, Taiwan's landmark skyscraper and one of the world's tallest buildings, will go through an 18-month "eco-friendly" renovation. The plan, which will cost $1.8 million is expected to yield $20 million in annual savings. At 509 meters high, this would make it the world's tallest green building in existence.

Spotted at Arch Daily

In 2006 I read Elizabeth Royte’s Garbage Land(Little Brown, 2005), wherein Royte traces her trash through the labyrinthine American waste system. Royte asked, after we toss it into the garbage can, where does it go? What is the impact of the item’s life post-use? What does the vast and growing collection of too-easily disposable products in our landfills say about American lifestyle, priorities and, yes, morals? Since reading Royte’s accounts I have been composting all my food waste, and I strive to maintain a higher conscience of wasteful purchasing habits (e.g. I try to buy used or pluck from the trash rather than buy new).