Some random bits I’ve been meaning to get to:
ThinkProgress says:
This morning on ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos reported that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) "is considering setting up a special committee in the House to deal with climate change and global warming."
Also on ABC, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) called climate change "the most serious environmental problem" we face, and said "we’ve got to get action on it" and "not wait until everybody around the world is going to do it."
The Washington Post reports:
After years of close association with the Republican Party and hard-nosed opposition to federal land-use regulation, the National Rifle Association is being pressured by its membership to distance itself from President Bush’s energy policies that have opened more public land for oil and gas drilling and limited access to hunters and anglers.
Big news from GM as the company introduces its first electric vehicle system and the first car to use it: the Chevy Volt. Details about the system at Green Car Congress and droolworthy pictures of the car at EcoGeek.
Worldwatch’s coming State of the World 2007 report will be about how ever-increasing numbers of people will live in huge megaslums in coming years. The Pentagon’s response? Figure out how to kill those people.
A short but interesting NYT interview with Paul Hanrahan, CEO of AES, a ginormous power company that plans to move aggressively into renewables.
Big Gav pulls together a nice tribute for the late, great Billmon.
I meant last week to link to this fascinating post from frequent Gristmill commenter (and if my skills of relentless nagging persuasion prevail, contributor) Laurence Aurbach on Traditional Neighborhood Developments, or TNDs. Lots of interesting examples.
Speaking of this latter subject: One of the areas where Grist/mill hopes to boost its coverage in the coming year is placemaking — the overlap of green building, urban design, public transit, traffic control, urban agriculture, walking and biking issues, etc. etc. This stuff doesn’t have a great name or distinct boundaries yet, but I think it’s going to be one of the most interesting and fertile areas of the green world in coming years. That said: I’m looking for someone to write about it for Gristmill. I can’t promise any money (at least not at the beginning), but I can promise a large, influential, and engaged audience. Are you knowledgeable about this stuff? Perhaps you’ve started your own blog on it, but don’t relish the long, difficult, exhausting slog of building up an audience and the relentless pace of daily posting? Gristmill is the place for you. By the end of the year that stuff is going to have its own section on our site, with multiple contributors. We plan to become the go-to place for reading about it. You could get in on the ground floor. Get in touch with me.
