Here’s some good news. The wonderfully un-great Spinal Tap will do a reunion gig as part of Al Gore’s rock concert series to raise money and consciousness against global warming. "They’re not that environmentally conscious, but they’ve heard of global warming," [explained their number one fan Rob Reiner.] "Nigel thought it was just because heContinue reading “Rock and Roll Will Never Die–Even on a Warming Globe”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Dick Cheney’s Earth Day
The Onion on Dick Cheney: still funny, as my editor likes to say, and too good to give away the punchline.
Global Warming Extinction: One Species Takes Note
Does Toles know something the rest of us don’t? As far as I can tell, the GOP has little interest in global warming, and no interest in preventing the extinction of vast numbers of our fellow mortals. Despite the fact that numerous anecdotal accounts suggest that the younger generation is turning against the GOP, mostlyContinue reading “Global Warming Extinction: One Species Takes Note”
Earth Day: Remember This
A winter day in Yosemite, courtesy of a local photographer named Larry Janss, tutored by Ansel Adams:
Happy Birthday, John
Here it is April 21st, John Muir’s birthday, and here is a quote from Muir’s notebooks about another great Scot’s birthday, Robert Burns. Like nearly all Scots, Muir was a huge admirer of Burns, and on his birthday in l906, wrote a long appreciation of him. Here’s the part I want to highlight, from theContinue reading “Happy Birthday, John”
Rain! Snow? Rain! Okay, We’ll Take Anything
A couple of months ago, the last time we had any real rain, I was dreaming of enough precipitation to get the creeks flowing again. Didn’t happen. This morning we’re getting what may be the biggest rain of the year to date…in late April! Chances of it starting the creeks in Ventura County (which takesContinue reading “Rain! Snow? Rain! Okay, We’ll Take Anything”
Environmentalism: What We Really Think
In New York magazine, Kurt Andersen has an excellent look at the state of environmentalism, based on a Gallup Poll that came out this week. The poll, in all frankness, doesn’t seem to have gotten much below the surface. It does indicate that a vast majority of Americans (89%) recycle, and a substantial majority haveContinue reading “Environmentalism: What We Really Think”
Farts vs. CO2: An Accounting
For years, Republicans have brought up farts to mock the concept of global warming. (For instance, this year in Congress, in response to testimony by four climatologists, Dana Rohrabacker of Orange County claimed that "Global warming could be the result of dinosaur flatulence.") Now at last, Brian Beutler goes to the EPA statistics to weighContinue reading “Farts vs. CO2: An Accounting”
The Ultimate Working Class
Gary Snyder just published a surprisingly charming book of essays called Back on the Fire. (I’d link to the excellent review by Thomas Curwen in the LATimes, but their freaking search engine can’t find it.) Anyhow! In a characteristically tough-minded essay called "Writers and the War Against Nature," Snyder articulates a thought yours truly hasContinue reading “The Ultimate Working Class”
Newsweek Blesses Richard Lindzen, Ignores Pay-Offs from Western Fuels
Tomorrow Newsweek will publish an op-ed by well-known climate-change contrarian Richard Lindzen, in which he argues that global warming is nothing to worry about and may even be a good thing. "Why So Gloomy?" he wonders, adding "a warmer climate could be more beneficial than the one we have now." Reminds me of Voltaire’s famousContinue reading “Newsweek Blesses Richard Lindzen, Ignores Pay-Offs from Western Fuels”
Kit Stolz 