Of all the stories I have heard of in this year's environmental journalism convention (held in New Orleans) none dropped my jaw quite like Meera Subramanian's long-form piece in VQR India's Vanishing Vultures. I hope to quote just enough to convince you folks to read the whole thing — it's just great. And it's worthContinue reading “Missing in India: Vultures”
Category Archives: disaster
IPCC report leaked: global warming a disaster of poverty
Seth Borenstein of the AP leads the national press in reporting on a leaked IPCC report starkly warning that global warming will give us a poorer, sicker, more violent world. And he puts the language of the report itself front and center: "Throughout the 21st century, climate change impacts will slow down economic growth andContinue reading “IPCC report leaked: global warming a disaster of poverty”
Uncorking catastrophic climate change? Tom Toles
As usual, Tom Toles finds a funny way to dramatize a disaster: a methane explosion in Siberia. Which raises the question: Well, how dangerous is the methane that is emerging from the Arctic? Is it just blowing holes in the permafrost, or does it presage global atmospheric doom? It's not a small volume of methane,Continue reading “Uncorking catastrophic climate change? Tom Toles”
Flying tumbling vehicles: #1 movie visual today?
Took a look at the classic old disaster movie, Earthquake, from 1974, which has a great preview/trailer: This movie surprises, first of all, because its strongest images inadvertently connote 9/11. Not what one expects from a movie set in a natural disaster. Of course the plausibility question, so often an issue with disaster movies, cannotContinue reading “Flying tumbling vehicles: #1 movie visual today?”
Overrated movie of the year: Snowpiercer
Yours truly sees all sorts of movies with alleged environmental messages (even the recent Godzilla, for crying out loud) to see how pop culture understands the on-coming prospect of planetary disaster. One of the best such movies in recent years was "The Host," from South Korean director Bong Joon-Ho, which at least one other criticContinue reading “Overrated movie of the year: Snowpiercer”
Ojai “too conservative” w/water: California DWR
From a panel discussion I covered, here's a fascinating anecdote from Steve Wickstrum, who has managed Ojai's Casitas Municipal Water District for many years. Ojai actually is doing okay with water through the drought right now — unlike many communities in the state. According to Wickstrum, Casitas water costs about $400 an acre-foot, which isContinue reading “Ojai “too conservative” w/water: California DWR”
Climate change a factor in the new war in Iraq: Expert
From another striking climate change story from Eric Holthaus, complete with superb photos: "Could there be a connection between climate change and the emerging conflict in Iraq? The short answer is a qualified yes, according to Frank Femia of the Center for Climate and Security, a Washington-based policy institute advised by senior retired military and nationalContinue reading “Climate change a factor in the new war in Iraq: Expert”
A Nostradamus for today: 1978 forecast of Antarctic melt
On a recent book tour, promoting his delightful new memoir Little Failure, the mordantly funny essayist/novelist Gary Schteyngart — who in his last book predicted an economic crash, urban chaos, and the rise of a movement that sounded very much like Occupy — joked that he was "the Nostradamus of two weeks from now." TheContinue reading “A Nostradamus for today: 1978 forecast of Antarctic melt”
Why are we having Santa Ana conditions in May?
Just got another Santa Ana winds warning via phone app. Winds expected through Monday. The umpteenth such warning in the last few weeks. National meteorologist Dr. Jeff Masters laid out the harsh weather experienced in Southern California this week already: Record May heat sent temperatures soaring above 100° in much of Southern California on Wednesday,Continue reading “Why are we having Santa Ana conditions in May?”
Kingsnorth: Environmental activism doesn’t work
Because the scientific news about climate change continues to cast a gloomy shadow over our future, and perhaps because the press is bored with the usual happy Earth Day talk, two prominent magazines featured this week scathing denunciations of climate activism.
In Pacific Standard, James McWilliams of Texas State University calls for a Kafka-esque "narrative of complete and utter ruin," as opposed to the false hope offered by the likes of activist Bill McKibben:
…the problem with climate change discourse isn’t the skeptic. It’s the true believer—and the fact that, for him, the slow burn of global warming obviates radical action despite knowing that nothing else will do. This paradox leaves many of us who take climate change seriously more or less speechless—or merely talking about building codes—while the planet cooks due to our hyper-charged consumerism.
Meanwhile The New York Times Magazine features the journey in thought of Paul Kingsnorth, formerly a British environmental activist, now a man who has now simply had it with efforts to slow or halt climate change and environmental degradation. He thinks it's useless.
“Everything had gotten worse,” Kingsnorth said. “You look at every trend that environmentalists like me have been trying to stop for 50 years, and every single thing had gotten worse. And I thought: I can’t do this anymore. I can’t sit here saying: ‘Yes, comrades, we must act! We only need one more push, and we’ll save the world!’ I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it! So what do I do?”
Kit Stolz 