Here are some great stories from major media that merit a look. Beyond these stories, these publications have consistently great coverage on climate change and matters directly relevant to our subject. There’s also a book here for your consideration.
National Geographic – This old and universally respected magazine has had an increasingly high profile on critical environmental stories over the past several years. Here is one startling and, frankly, depressing article about the decimation of Borneo’s rainforests in the service of producing palm oil for junk food. At the NGM page for Borneo’s Moment of Truth, you will find a video, some of the stunning photography, and the article itself.
Borneo seems a microcosm of much of what’s wrong in the world: our appetite for energy and cheap consumer goods, our disdain for biodiversity and the lives of indigenous peoples, and our indifference to rainforest destruction and how that relates to global warming. The photographs and video remind me of the havoc wreaked in Appalachia, another breathtakingly wild and diverse environment, by mountaintop removal coal mining. (See last post below.)
For more on palm oil, see this report from Greenpeace: Forest destruction, climate change and palm oil expansion in Indonesia.
© Greenpeace / Natalie Behring Chisolm
There’s another compelling story at NGM, on light pollution: Our Vanishing Night. The excellent environmental writer, Verlyn Klinkenborg, writes about the surprisingly enormous burden imposed on wildlife by the lights of cities and industrial complexes , even fishing fleets. As an urban dweller (a small metropolis called New York City), I can attest to the fact that we’ve got too much light. The article references the work of the International Dark-Sky Association, a nonprofit “dedicated to protecting and preserving the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting.” See also the Dark Sky Society.
I’ve noted the amazing, now-annual phenomenon of Earth Hour. Light pollution not only disrupts the natural cycles of wildlife, it also sucks thousands of megawatts of power, unnecessarily, from our grids, hugely exacerbating global warming. Simple stuff, it seems to me.
Update: See this article from the “NY Times” on efforts in the Big Apple to cut down on unnecessary lighting.
The NY Review of Books – This eminently intelligent and readable periodical has had, like NGM and many others, more and more to say about climate change. Their go-to environmentalist is the incomparable Bill McKibben. (See any number of references I’ve made to him and his writing at the blog, including talking about the “Step It Up 2007” campaign.)
In the most recent issue, McKibben reviews Tom Friedman’s new blockbuster Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution‚ and How It Can Renew America. The review is titled “Green Fantasia.” McKibben both praises the book for some of its emphases and damns it for an overabundance of conventional thinking. Indeed, the review opens by saying: “Thomas Friedman is the prime leading indicator of the conventional wisdom, always positioned just far enough ahead of the curve to give readers the sense that they’re in-the-know, but never far enough to cause deep mental unease.” Ouch.
An example of praise: “His basic policy guidelines, and most of his specific suggestions, for managing this crucial transition are sound.” McKibben here notes another useful insight: “Friedman knows that innovation in the financial services industry will be almost as important as progress in engineering.” But McKibben also derides Friedman for, for all intents and purposes, dismissing the important arena of international climate regimes: What was finalized in Kyoto and what will be, ostensibly, finalized in Copenhagen in December 2009 to replace the existing protocol, are of utmost importance.
He also gets to the crux of the title of his review here: “Does it ever occur to him, in the grip of a fantasia like this, that if the sun is shining brightly, or the breeze is blowing steadily, you could dry your clothes on a $14 piece of rope strung off your back deck, or for that matter on a foldable rack in the apartment hallway? And that since most of the world already knows how to do it, we might be smarter moving in their direction instead of insisting that they buy into our entire high-technology suburban dream?”
That’s been one of my thoughts, and occasionally an argument here: Why don’t we try to get more bang out of the low-tech buck? Solar-box cookers and, indeed, hanging the laundry out to dry! I wrote about Galloping Consumption a while back. I said then, in conclusion: “Can we reduce our dangerous rates of consumption and maintain and improve our standards of living worldwide? You bet. Making Peace with the Planet will also make us happier. You can take that to the bank.”
Great review. Check it on out.
“Der Spiegel” – This venerable German periodical has a most useful section devoted to Climate Change here. For a particularly good and well-informed look at what’s going on in Germany and Europe, you should check in here from time to time.
DK – Dorling Kindersley has a fabulous series of “Eyewitness” books that illustrate all sorts of important subjects with interesting text and eye-catching, vivid graphics. When I visited the AMNH exhibit on climate change (see post below from Oct. 20), I picked up their new volume Eyewitness Climate Change. This is great for kids, particularly, but it’s perfectly great reading for adults too. It’s quite informative, very good at making some complex ideas accessible. With a CD-ROM of clip art, and a great poster too, you can’t miss.
