Recently in Environment Category

Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church (sort of like our Archbishop of Canterbury -- he's the figurehead, but he has no local jurisdiction, as the Pope does for Catholics), has long been called the "Green Patriarch" for his commitment to the environment. The other day, he published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about what our commitment to the earth should entail. Excerpt:

Climate change, pollution and the exploitation of our natural resources are commonly seen as the domain not of priests but rather of politicians, scientists, technocrats or interest groups organized by concerned citizens. What does preserving the planet have to do with saving the soul?

A lot, as it turns out. For if life is sacred, so is the entire web that sustains it. Some of those connections--the effects of overharvesting on the fish populations of the North Atlantic, for example--we understand very well. Others, such as the long-term health impacts of industrialization, we understand less well. But no one doubts that there is a connection and balance among all things animate and inanimate on this third planet from the Sun, and that there is a cost or benefit whenever we tamper with that balance.

Moreover, just as God is indivisible, so too is our global environment. The molecules of water that comprise the great North Atlantic are neither European nor American. The particles of atmosphere above the United Kingdom are neither Labour nor Tory. There can be no double vision, no dualistic worldview. Faith communities and nonbelievers alike must focus on the common issue of the survival of our planet. The natural environment unites us in ways that transcend doctrinal differences.

Not all Orthodox agree. From one priest's criticism:

As an Orthodox theologian, Patriarch Bartholomew knows that the human heart seeks not abstract unity but personal communion, not bureaucracy but communion, not the tyranny of sin but true and lasting freedom. In Orthodox theological terms all of this rests in the Most Holy Trinity itself although not on the level of ousia, that is, through the shared divine nature, but by the hypostasis, that is the union of Divine Persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Whether in the Holy Trinity or in the human family, personal communion is radically different then the union possessed by "molecules of water" or by "particles of atmosphere." The union of the physical creation is impersonal. There is no communion between molecules of water or particles of air.

Thus the comparison of the human to the non-human world in these terms makes all conversation about what is in our best personal or national interest meaningless. When particularity is subsumed into an abstraction, the differences between people ultimately have no meaning.

This seems wrong to me, by which I mean, I think Father is reading the EP's remarks in a mistaken way. Granted, I'm no theologian, but I don't see what's wrong with what the EP said, in terms of Orthodox metaphysics. Orthodox Christianity is panentheistic , meaning that God is seen as literally present, in his divine energies, in all aspects of Creation. It is a profoundly sacramental view of Creation. To my lay understanding, the EP is simply pointing to the environmental implications of Orthodoxy's panentheism. (Which, by the way, is not the same as pantheism; pantheism says that all things are God; panentheism says that God is in all things. Big difference.)

The pretext many defenders of the more extreme racial statements of Limbaugh and others on the right use for racializing their criticism of Obama is that liberals started it. That is (they say), liberals have been calling any and all criticism of Obama racist, so nobody should be surprised when the right makes fun of them.

I don't believe this is true. Seriously, I don't. I remember blogging here or somewhere else last year, during the Jeremiah Wright controversy, that if Obama got elected, the left would racialize all policy differences with Obama, making any criticism of him out to be racism.

That has not happened. At least until very recently, I haven't seen that in the mainstream of commentary. Which surprises, me, actually. Maureen Dowd wrote her column last week calling some of the Tea Partiers racist, and now Jimmy Carter has said he sees racism behind the protests. Suddenly it seems on the right, there's a powerful meme holding that the left has been doing this since the Inaugural, and the right has finally, finally started to fight back.

Again, I don't think this is true, but I don't know for sure. Can you provide me meaningful examples of liberals characterizing non-racist criticism of Obama's policies as racist? By "meaningful examples," I don't mean some fringe nut on Daily Kos, or a blogger few people have heard of. I mean well-known pundits, politicians or widely read bloggers. There may well be a goodly number of such people that I've simply overlooked, as I don't read nearly as widely on the left as on the right. So I'm making an honest request here.

It should be said that to discern racism as an animating force in the anti-Obama protests is not automatically an unfair charge. To say that it is always unjust to accuse Obama critics of racism is a form of political correctness that is in its own way as hostile to the truth as people who say that criticism of Obama can only be motivated by race hatred. If racism isn't behind at least some of the hostility to Obama, how do you explain this image making the rounds on the right?

Sobering piece from Chip Ward about how the American West is drying and dying. Would love to know what you readers who live out West think of this. Excerpt:

After decades of frantic urban development and suburban sprawl across the states that draw water from the Colorado, demand has simply outstripped supply and it's only getting worse as the heat builds. Not surprisingly, a debate is building over what to do if there isn't enough water to fill both Lakes Powell and Mead, the principal reservoirs along the Colorado. Should the seven states that depend on the river live with two half-full reservoirs or a single full one, and if only one, which one? River managers have now realized that both massive "lakes" were always giant evaporation ponds in the middle of a desert and only more so as average temperatures climb. There is no sense in having twice as much water surface as necessary, which means twice as much evaporation, too.

Given the stakes, the debate over what to do if there isn't enough water is playing out like the preview to the all-out water war to come when the reality actually hits. Westerners are well aware that, as always, there will be winners and losers. The constituency for Lake Mead will no doubt prevail because of its proximity to Las Vegas and Phoenix, two cities that grew bloated on cheap but, as it has turned out, temporary water from the dammed Colorado. Already desperate to make up for their lost liquid, they will surely muster all their power and influence to keep the water flowing.

Las Vegas is now aiming to tap into an aquifer under the Snake Valley that straddles eastern Nevada and western Utah. Recently, a rancher friend who ekes out a precarious living there mentioned the obvious to me: the dusty surface of that arid high desert is barely held in place by a thin covering of brush, sage, and grass. Drop the water table even a few more inches and it all dies. The dust storms that would be generated by a future parched landscape like that might make it all the way to the Midwest or even farther. After decades in which Easterners ritualistically visited the American West, the West may be traveling east.

Those we pay to look ahead are now jockeying like mad for position in a future water-short West. A new era of ever more pipelines, wells, and dams is being dreamed up by the private contractors and bureaucrats swelling up like so many ticks on the construction and maintenance budgets of the West's heavily subsidized water-delivery infrastructure. It is unlikely, however, that their dreams will be fully realized. The low-hanging fruit -- the river canyons that could easily be dammed -- were picked decades ago and, unlike in the good ol' days when water simply ran towards money, citizens of our western states are now far more aware of the ecological costs of big dams and ever more awake to the unfolding consequences of dependence on unreliable water sources.

Making more water available never led to prudent use. Instead, cheap and easy water led to such foolishness as putting a golf course with expanses of irrigated green in every desert community, not to speak of rice and cotton farming in the Arizona desert.

I think Krauthammer is spot-on re: Van Jones and why he had to go. It's not that he was a young commie, or blamed white people for environmentally abusing poor minorities, or even that he called Republicans a-holes (like Krauthammer says, big deal; we shouldn't be so prissy):

He's gone for one reason and one reason only. You can't sign a petition demanding not one but four investigations of the charge that the Bush administration deliberately allowed Sept. 11, 2001 -- i.e., collaborated in the worst massacre ever perpetrated on American soil -- and be permitted in polite society, let alone have a high-level job in the White House.

Unlike the other stuff (see above), this is no trivial matter. It's beyond radicalism, beyond partisanship. It takes us into the realm of political psychosis, a malignant paranoia that, unlike the Marxist posturing, is not amusing. It's dangerous. In America, movements and parties are required to police their extremes. Bill Buckley did that with Birchers. Liberals need to do that with "truthers."

You can no more have a truther in the White House than you can have a Holocaust denier -- a person who creates a hallucinatory alternative reality in the service of a fathomless malice.

But I will credit Van the Man for understanding how to manipulate the middle-class professionals in newsrooms today. A supporter of his named Judith Lewis writes in today's L.A. Times:

At the annual Bioneers convention in 2007, Van Jones described to an audience of scientists, activists and environmentalists how he had spent 20 years trying to get Americans to pay attention to the urban poor. "We would call newspapers, television stations, saying kids are dying, we're going to funerals every weekend. 'Not interested.' We'd say we've got kids going to school in Oakland, 30 kids in the classroom, six books, no chalk.' 'Not interested.' "

Finally, the Yale Law School graduate turned community organizer told the crowd, "We said, 'Well, we want green jobs and not jails for our youth.' And they said, 'Green? Green? Green!' GIVE THAT MAN A MICROPHONE!' "

Stuff White People Like strikes again!

My friend David sends along this Financial Times story about how various factors are forcing a fundamental shift in supply chains. Excerpt:

Manufacturers are abandoning global supply chains for regional ones in a big shift brought about by the financial crisis and climate change concerns, according to executives and analysts.

Companies are increasingly looking closer to home for their components, meaning that for their US or European operations they are more likely to use Mexico and eastern Europe than China, as previously.

"A future where energy is more expensive and less plentifully available will lead to more regional supply chains," Gerard Kleisterlee, chief executive of Philips, one of Europe's biggest companies, told the Financial Times.

The story goes on to talk about how the economic downturn, plus concerns about climate change (and resulting new government regulation) are driving this. What seems implicit in Kleisterlee's remark, but doesn't get mentioned in the FT piece, is peak oil.

[An aside -- last week in Alaska, I met an oilfield worker from the North Slope, who asked me what I thought about peak oil. I didn't want to get into an argument, so I gave a noncommittal answer. "Well, up on the slope, we all know it's real," he told me. "Alaska is screwed." We had an interesting conversation from there.]

Anyway, David says that the point I raised in the earlier post about how the military accepts climate change as a clear and present danger, even as many conservatives deny it, might also, per this FT story, be made about business.

The Pentagon is war-gaming climate change, and planning for major disruptions because of it. Excerpt: Recent war games and intelligence studies conclude that over the next 20 to 30 years, vulnerable regions, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and South...

In his Crunchy Con chapter titled Environment, Rod had me with the first paragraph, where he confesses to being an "avid indoorsman" who thinks of the outdoors as "...where the snakes live." I am so there. My poor husband ends...

I just went out into the backyard to admire the new back steps a carpenter built for us, and I could barely stand to be out there for more than a minute. It's 103 degrees here in Dallas this afternoon....

Scary stuff. Here's Nick Kristof: Now scientists are connecting the dots with evidence of increasing abnormalities among humans, particularly large increases in numbers of genital deformities among newborn boys. For example, up to 7 percent of boys are now born...

I met a friend in Colorado Springs yesterday for a beer. We got to talking about gardening, and he said he and his wife have lots of trouble making things grow here. I told him that as gorgeous as it...

Really challenging piece by the young environmentalists Nordhaus & Shellenberger in The New Republic, pondering why the "green bubble" -- that is, cultural enthusiasm for environmentalism -- keeps bursting. Their bottom line: because it's a project through which the liberal...

Thomas Friedman today. Excerpt: It is not an exaggeration to say that the team that President Obama appointed to promote his green agenda is nothing short of outstanding -- a great combination of scientists and policy makers committed to building...

Slate's Christopher Beam went to that conservative anti-Earth Day protest I wrote about the other day. There were 12 people there. You might remember that I got whacked by some on the Right, including NR's Iain Murray, for saying that...

You can commercialize the birth of the Saviour of the World, Mister, but when you've commodified Earth Day, you've taken it too dang far! Oh, the humanity....

This flopped over the transom this morning: The Young Conservatives Coalition (YCC), an advocacy organization dedicated to leading the next generation of the conservative movement, will hold a rally on Earth Day at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to...

Sorry for the light posting today. Lots o' work to get down at the newspaper today, plus we're all dealing with the delightful news that those of us lucky enough to have jobs after the next round of layoffs, which...

Here's a great read: a NYT Magazine profile of the theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, a widely respected grey eminence in the world of science who has cheesed off many folks with his skepticism of global warming orthodoxy. Excerpt: FOR MORE...

(Two points to any one who gets the Violent Femmes reference!) Yesterday we were talking with a couple of friends about where would be our escape-to place if conditions, economic or otherwise, became so bad in Dallas that we felt...

What do you think of the Suleman mess in California? When I first heard that Nadya Suleman had had eight babies, I was thrilled. When it came out that not only did she already have six kids at home, but...

Sharon says, in part: In this sense, my own feeling is that those who understate the costs of mitigating climate change actually do more harm than good. I don't blame them for their preference for the politically palatable - I...

Not good: Even if by some miracle the nations of the world could bring carbon dioxide levels back to those of the pre-industrial era, it would still take 1,000 years or longer for the climate changes already triggered to be...

Says James Lovelock, the Gaia hypothesizer, in an interview with New Scientist: Do we have time to do a similar thing with carbon emissions to save ourselves from climate change? Not a hope in hell. Most of the "green" stuff...

Remember Texas oil mogul T. Boone Pickens' ambitious green energy scheme, the Pickens Plan? Whatever happened to it? Texas Monthly reports that it has collapsed, along with the price of oil and the stock market. Says T. Boone: "For now,...

Matt Taibbi writes a skull-crackingly hilarious take-down of the New York Times columnist and his pretensions. Here's how it starts: When some time ago a friend of mine told me that Thomas Friedman's new book, Hot, Flat, and Crowded, was...

I'm not one of those who is completely convinced that our present data shows incontrovertibly that the bulk of measurable climate change is anthropogenic; that said, though, it has been a frustration of mine that so many on the right...

In a way, it's great that Al Gore has all these ambitious plans for a green energy infrastructure, and that he might play a key role in the Obama administration -- but he and his fans are overlooking an incredibly...

Also today on Culture11 -- why haven't you bookmarked it yet? -- Freddie deBoer admits that many environmentalists (among whose number he counts himself) think and act as if humans aren't part of the environment. A more realistic environmentalism would...

A reader writes: Your "Little Green Spy Kids" post raised some interesting questions for me. I'm a 4th grade teacher down in Houston, and I plan on requiring my kids to take part in an environmental initiative project this year....

I'm all for making kids more aware and morally sensitive about environmental stewardship, but green activism in Britain is creepy as hell. Excerpt from the Spiked Online article: Turn Your Parents Green is just one instance of a broader campaign...

Andy Revkin, the environmental reporter for the New York Times, fisks Al Gore's crazypants environmental speech the other day. Megan McArdle adds: Don't get me wrong, I think that Al Gore has a hobby. I just think it's a pity...

This WSJ Page One feature on the perils of arranging a green political convention is worth a read: The host committee for the Democratic National Convention wanted 15,000 fanny packs for volunteers. But they had to be made of organic...

Naturalmom yesterday drew our attention to a lengthy article in the current issue of Discover, discussing the ubiquitous danger of plastics, which mimic estrogen and appear to be changing human genetics. It's very sobering reading, and worth excerpting at length....

Reader Lorlee Bartos here in Dallas sent me this link to a sobering Mother Jones cover story from a couple of months ago detailing the meaning of the rise of China's economic leviathan for the global environment. Really, read the...

I've mentioned here before that our son Matthew has a very sensitive autoimmune system. This sensory processing disorder that he's got is an autoimmune disorder (it's at the mild end of the autism spectrum). We've noticed in the past that...