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TODAY Tuesday 15 July 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
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TODAY Tuesday 15 July 1997 Each weekday. Conn Nugent on what's new in the world, on the site. |
TODAY IN THE WORLD: Plug for Planet Ark
In the 95 degree heat currently investing Manhattan, we are inclined to small movements and modest efforts. In a display of enviro virtue, we rent an office with south-facing windows and no air-conditioning. Ceiling fans efficiently move the hot, moist air all around the room. "No air-conditioning?!," ask our friends, less impressed with the enviro virtue than we had hoped. "They beat Hitler without air-conditioning," we reply.
Some other time, less listless, we'll have to talk about air-conditioning. How it represents about 25% of the electrical demand in this country. How its now-obligatory installment in automobiles presents an enormous hurdle to energy-efficient transportation. How it encourages the worst kind of architecture. How we probably just have to accept it and design for it anyway (or risk armed rebellion).
But this morning we're interested in passing along beat-the-heat tips for fellow almost-Luddites: enviros too guilty to turn on the AC but too plugged in to forego the World Wide Web. If, like us these days, you're interested in thinking globally, acting minimally, we've got just the ticket.
Sit back and tap into Planet Ark, the most interesting green news site on the Internet. Run by the Reuters wire service and bankrolled bigtime by a number of commercial sponsors, Planet Ark each day offers one-page summaries of about two dozen environmentally significant stories from around the planet. Today, for example, you find out that:
The Yellow River Valley of China is suffering from an unprecedentedly severe drought that will reduce agriculture yields and already threatens several species of river fish.
Officials in Brussels and Washington are arguing whether trade pacts prohibit the European Union's new policy of requiring labels on foods made from crops whose seeds were produced through biotech engineering.
Lions fleeing their flooded habitats in Tanzania have killed 13 villagers.
In recent days we learned that the US House of Representatives voted down a proposal to require loggers to pay for the costs of roads in those portions of the National Forests open to commercial timbering. In Brazil, though, the national government announced plans for auctioning off public forest lands in Amazonia through a process by which bidders would be required to observe "sustainable forestry" standards. On the climate change front, the Canadian government issued a gloomy report on the ways in which global warming would reduce national returns in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries. The Australian government said that it makes no apology for its policy of promoting exports of Australian coal, and would resist "unrealistic" caps on greenhouse gas emissions. Worldwide, carbon dioxide emissions in the period 1990 through 1995 increased almost five percent in already-industrialized countries; in the US, it was six percent. In percentage growth terms, the biggest culprits were the newly-moneyed Catholics at the edges of Europe. Irish CO2 emissions rose 22% over the five-year period, and the Portuguese pumped out an increase of 48%.
This is interesting stuff to know about, and I'm ready to make the case for you that keeping up with it can be described as "policy research" necessary for "outreach" to the "environmental community" on "issues of global change." Just the thing for a muggy day!
Now for the bad parts of Planet Ark. The generally excellent design of the site is marred by too many ads (we're jealous) and for some inexplicable reason we are "welcomed" to Planet Ark by Pierce Brosnan and his attractive wife. Let them sit in this office for a while and we'll see how long they can keep those fabulous smiles.
TODAY ON THE SITE
Wendy Brawer had something of a conversion experience a few years ago, she says, and decided that she would employ her considerable art-and-design talents in the explicit service of ecology. The result of that combination of determination and ability is the Green Map System, an international effort of local activists helping each other make maps of city greenery. It's an interesting story, and the maps are great.
Recent "Today" columns:
7/14: Follow Me
7/11: Blood Sports
7/10: Oil and Taxes
7/09: Mexico
7/08: By the Sea, By the Sea
7/07: Huddled Masses
7/03: Three-Dot Environmentalism...
7/02: Bothersome Science
7/01: Forest for the Trees
6/30: Investing in Pessimism
To access more "Today" columns, click "Archives" below.