• Climate disruption will disrupt volcanism too
• EPA Office of Inspector General finds standard gases not so standard after all
• Driest years in Pacific Northwest drier than expected
• Northeast Passage opened this year for commercial shipping
• 12% of the merchant marine fleet is idled
• Recycling used plastic into fuel
• US Chamber of Commerce and car dealer industry group fight California emissions waiver
• Slowing population growth more effective than renewables at slowing GHG emissions

Nature News reported last week that vulcanologists have concluded that climate disruption will increase the number of volcanic eruptions. According to the article, the reason is that climate disruption is expected to reduce the amount of ice present atop volcanoes and thus reduce the amount of material keeping volcanoes from erupting. Full Story »

Part two in a series

From space, the road system around Shanghai must look like a bowl of Chinese noodles. But traveling on the roads themselves feels like traveling the straight and narrow. The long, straight parkways, well-manicured, roll out across the flat coastal plain that surrounds Shanghai.

Component await shipment at Cooper Industries
outside of Shanghai

The business of the day is business, so we’re visiting a number of manufacturing companies. The industrial parks we visit are laid out in grids that keep things well organized and makes it easy for delivery and cargo trucks to move about. It’s just the most visible indication of the careful planning the government has put into place to attract companies.

We tour a few American-based companies as well as a German-based one, although all are quick to characterize themselves as “global companies.” One company manufactures parts for electricity transmission; another manufactures parts for auto transmissions and brakes; another is an aerospace manufacturer; another specializes in urban development.

China represents a key market for each of them. Business here is booming. Full Story »

S&R has been following Newt Gingrich’s lies about energy and climate since last year when he pushed the “Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less.” lie in response to last summer’s oil price woes. On Friday, Gingrich appeared as a minority witness, on a panel all by himself, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee – Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment hearings on the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES). S&R has reviewed Gingrich’s prepared remarks for today’s hearing and has determined that Gingrich is still up to his old tricks of lying to Congress and the American people. Full Story »

American-style capitalism, sans regulation, has earned its present bad rap. Even so, some market mechanisms do work quite well. Commodities pricing is discovered and costs kept low because markets are very efficient at making sure that metals, oil, food, etc. are moved to where the demand is the highest from where the supply is greatest. Similarly, a market in traded sulfur emissions imposed by the Clean Air Act has enabled fossil fuel plants to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions (the main source of acid rain) dramatically since the market’s inception.

Markets don’t work for everything, however. The sulfur dioxide emissions market works because the effects are not hyper-localized – farmers in Kansas and Iowa won’t notice the difference between the emissions from coal plants in Denver, Boulder, or Fort Collins. However, in the case of mercury emissions from coal plants, an emissions market would be a very, very bad idea. Coal-produced mercury precipitates out of the air in a plume immediately downwind of the emissions source, and so there’s no way to fairly balance the increased emissions of one coal plant with the lower emissions of another. In this case, all the increased mercury emissions would to is poison more mothers and children.

But because markets work so well for so many things, the creation of a cap-and-trade market for carbon dioxide (CO₂) makes a lot of sense. In a similar fashion to sulfur dioxide and unlike mercury emissions, CO₂ emissions mix well with the atmosphere and so trading emission credits between one source and another is viable. Full Story »

On August 14, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said of the new law “[t]his landmark law will strengthen our ability to prevent unsafe toys from being sold, remove from the shelves more quickly products that are found to be harmful, and increase fines and penalties for violating product safety laws.”

Unfortunately, the law of unintended consequences is working overtime on the CPSIA. A law intended to protect children from harmful products will do so partly by driving literally tens of thousands of small businesses and craftspeople out of business, and those businesses that survive will be saddled with tens of millions of dollars of unsellable inventory on their shelves and in their warehouses. Just as the U.S. needs an economic stimulus to create jobs, the CPSIA will add tens of thousands of people to the rolls of the unemployed.

The CPSIA is yet another example of a good idea – protecting children from toxic materials – gone horribly wrong. Full Story »

The data in this post has been rendered out of date due to improved methodology and updated results posted here. The description below is valid, but the data is not.

The role of the United States in climate disruption is far greater than most people realize. Not only does the U.S. emit more carbon dioxide (CO₂) than any other nation besides China, not only does the U.S. have one the highest per-capita emissions in the world, but the U.S. economy also accounts for a massive amount of emissions released by the rest of the world too. S&R has investigated just how much CO₂ the United States economy is actually responsible for, and the results suggest the real emissions are 20% greater than official estimates. Full Story »

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has accused Executive Recycling (ER) of Englewood, Colorado of violations of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations regarding electronics waste (e-waste). As a result of the GAO report, the EPA is now investigating ER. But an S&R investigation into the findings of the GAO report, the EPA regulations and ER’s actions has discovered that ER’s guilt of CRT rule violations may depend greatly on how the EPA classifies the “waste” shipped overseas. The investigation also discovered evidence of possible conflicts of interest on the part of the non-profit environmental advocacy group Basel Action Network (BAN) and one of BAN’s affiliates with respect to the investigation. Full Story »

A couple of days ago I posted a 60 Minutes segment that shows how illegal e-waste recycling work, with Colorado-based Executive Recycling (ER) as exhibit A. ER has since posted two responses to the 60 Minutes piece on their website, but later removed the first. Thanks to the miracle of Google’s cache system (and some concerned readers who have emailed us over the last few days), I have posted below the link to the cached page, released originally on November 14, the day after the 60 Minutes piece ran, and the text contained therein.

E.R. Response to 60 Minutes Report November 2008

Executive Recycling is a respected and law abiding business that recycles computers and electronic parts in a responsible and lawful way. Our company has reviewed the recent report of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the 60 Minutes story on E-Waste and we agree on the dangers of unregulated disposal of electronic and computer waste. Full Story »

UPDATE: Google has a cached copy of the (since removed) response by Executive Recycling to the 60 Minutes piece below and the GAO report mentioned in the 60 Minutes piece. Here’s the Google cached page (for as long as it stays cached, anyway), and page 25 (pdf page 29) of this GAO report has the exact reference used in 60 Minutes. It’s possible that the 60 Minutes story got some of their facts wrong – the GAO report doesn’t mention Executive Recycling by name, so another source to make that connection would be required – and so the EPA should investigate this and, if appropriate, bring all 43 companies that the GAO “stung” up on charges. This GAO report says the EPA is investigating.

It’s illegal to dump electronic waste on developing nations. But it still happens. And sometimes it turns out to be a hometown company that’s “recycling” lead-filled TV tubes and printed circuit boards in China, probably against the law. 60 Minutes ran this story on Executive Recycling (ER), of Englewood, Colorado, and the company that my hometown uses for e-waste recycling twice a year.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Interestingly enough, ER had a response to the 60 Minutes piece for a while, but it’s vanished from off the ER website. Full Story »

Wealth is created through an economic sleight of hand. All the money in circulation is a promise, not only of the value already in existence, but of the future value that people have promised to create.

When you pay for groceries with a credit card, you are making such a promise. You are declaring that, through the power of your effort, you will create sufficient value during the month ahead to earn an income. You do not earn your salary merely by showing up at a place of work. You earn it by applying your skill and time to performing a task that creates value. The more of the intellect and learning you bring to bear on that task, then (hopefully) the greater that pay-check.

Only once you have earned that money can you pay off the debts — the promissory notes — that you incurred. You, through your behaviour, have brought new value and new cash into the world.

Only with this ability to borrow money that does not yet exist can we overcome the inertia of needing cash to create new value. Without being able to borrow we are limited by what we already have. Debt creates real opportunities for equality. Full Story »

Periander, however, understood Thrasybulus’ actions. He realised that he had been advising him to kill outstanding citizens, and from then on he treated his people with unremitting brutality.

Herodotus, Histories

What Herodotus knew in 440BC, some 2,500 years ago, was this: opportunity is set on the margin. It is the historical power to choose either astonishing innovation, or “unremitting brutality”.

Consider the power of the margin. Say the average inter-city passenger airplane can carry a maximum of 150 passengers. Now, they may fly full at peak times, but they don’t at others, so the airline will set themselves a target of 85% occupancy. Plus, they’ll want a 15% profit (at least) on their capital.

This means that the airline doesn’t begin to make a profit until the 109th person gets on board. Everyone is important, but a plane that flies with only 108 people on board runs at a loss.

These subtle marginal effects can rock markets, bankrupt companies, and destroy nations. Full Story »

When the Beijing Olympics begin Aug. 8, the ability to speak publicly will depend on what you say — or what you pay.

The Olympics Games have always been one of the largest possible megaphones for espousing a cause — either political or commercial. Terrorists have used it. Athletes have used it. Host nations have used it. And certainly, sellers of goods and services have used it. Be it boycott, black power or big business, the Olympics offers maximum volume for any message.

This year the early gold medal of the Politicize-the-Games Sweepstakes has gone to the Free Tibet sloganeers, although their gamesmanship was hardly challenged. The Olympic torch relay made an exceptionally easy — and highly visible through media — target for protesters. Much of the pre-Games press has focused on how well or poorly host nation China will bury pro-Tibet protests or encourage pro-China, home-team support.

But there’s far more at issue regarding speech in Beijing than proclamations for or against Tibet.
Full Story »

On the heels of news that millions of American flags are actually imported from China, Republican presidential nominee John McCain addressed the issue this Fourth of July morning outside a flag factory in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

“All options must be on the table to deal with China’s infiltration of our flag market,” McCain said to a cheering and U.S.-made flag-waving crowd. “If we find that China manufactured and sold us these millions of American flags intentionally and for the purpose of tainting our great country in any way, we might have no other option than to bomb these Chinese flag production sites and trade routes, their business associates, and their friends and family.”

McCain went on to declare, “My friends, our flag is all we have. I’ll say this to you as plainly as possible – if an American flag and a baby were on fire, you have my solemn word I wouldn’t think of coming to that baby’s aid until every last ember was extinguished from Old Glory. My friends, babies of course come and go, but our forefathers fought and died to preserve that flag, and” – pounding the podium – “I will not stand by while the Chinese sell millions of them to us through their handiwork and our mutual trade deals!” Full Story »

by Douglas J. Belcher

In the absence of a grand technological theory that can explain the Universe, such as a Unified Field Theory (nerds can hope), or resolution of the questions raised by more dialectical interpretations of history, many scholars opt for media theory because the items such theory discusses are more accessible in our day-to-day lives. The science-fictional proliferation of portable gizmos and the ubiquity of the silicon chip can give the ordinary citizen pause, and books about media theory are frequently written to answer the somewhat vexing questions that arise.

Media professor and popular blogger Siva Vaidhyanathan investigates with 2004’s The Anarchist in the Library. Mr. Vaidhyanathan, hereafter referred to as V, notes in the inlet of the book that “battle lines are being drawn,” between Freedom and Control, and that the real world has begun to resemble the virtual world. (Or is it, the other way around?) On the one side, he writes, are corporations, judges, the military etc, and on the other are “liberators”, hackers, libertarians, artists and dissidents.

Full Story »

We are all going to die.

When we do, an industry with 100,000 employees will annually collect about $11 billion in revenue from our survivors, who presumably love us and wish to put us to rest with appropriate pomp and circumstance. Requiescat in pace, although survivors’ wallets might not.

Since 2002, after authorities found the remains of 339 people scattered about the grounds of a Georgia crematorium, the funeral industry has been visited by a wave of regulatory activity in many states. Not surprisingly, the funeral industry, a monopoly in many ways, wishes to influence that regulatory activity. It has also sought to influence drafting and revision of federal regulations, most notably the Federal Trade Commission’s “Funeral Rule.”

According to a richly detailed and footnoted report by Scott Jordan of the National Institute on Money in State Politics, from 1999 to 2006 the industry has coughed up $6 million in political contributions spread over political parties and state-level candidates in 46 states, positioning itself “to have a hand in shaping legislation and regulation” [emphasis added]. Millions more have gone to federal candidates.

This is what lobbyists principally do — act to influence legislation and regulation. And they’re really good at it. Therefore it’s important to take notice when presidential candidates spout rhetoric promising to “curb this industry” and “control that industry.” How will they do that?
Full Story »

This is actually a boost to remind people that we can produce this kind of journalism at any time. We’re going to have a large enough newsroom to continue to produce this kind of quality journalism.

— Leonard Downie Jr., editor of The Washington Post, winner of six Pulitzer Prizes for 2008; The Post’s front-page story by media critic Howard Kurtz did not mention the paper has endured three rounds of staff cuts since 2003, but the AP’s story did; April 7; emphasis added.

I can only confirm that the route is dynamic.

— Nathan Ballard, a San Francisco city spokesman, as, said The New York Times, “The precise route remained in flux on Tuesday as the torch extravaganza threatened to become more civic migraine than celebration in the face of potential protests by those upset with China’s human rights record and recent crackdown in Tibet”; April 9.
Full Story »

I was deeply amused to read the breathless news coverage of Hammerin’ Hank Paulson’s “ambitious” and “sweeping” plans to restructure the federal financial regulatory structure. It says something about how far the goalposts of this country’s discourse have been moved towards rampant, unchecked, unbridled “law of the jungle” financial pillaging that modest reforms like these are considered a major move.

If these pathetic hot-flashing stenographers that call themselves “reporters” would actually take a closer look at the plan itself–hell, even just the fact sheet–they would see that not only is Paulson’s reform agenda miniscule at best, but that it’s a shell game, a distraction designed to accomplish the long-held mantra of the Bush administration–centralizing federal power and weakening consumer protections at the state level. Full Story »

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, believes that a Yahoo / Microsoft tie-up would be awful for the Internet. Schmidt issued the vague sequitur that we should all beware of, “the things that it has done that have been so difficult for everyone.” Of course, everyone knows that Microsoft is the Great Satan, so it stands to reason that anything they do should be regarded as automatically the equivalent of making baby stew.

Here, though, it is Google – owner of 62.9% of all Internet searches ($16.4 bn in ad revenue) – which dwarfs any tie up (Yahoo-Microsoft have a combined search share of 15.7% and $ 9.8 bn in ad revenue). Could it be that Google is trying to pull a Microsoft and protect its home-turf advantage from a healthy rival? Full Story »

[He has] accepted responsibility for the columns published under his name in his local newspaper, and has apologized for not upholding the standards expected by the president.

— White House press secretary Dana Perino in a written statement expressing President Bush’s disappointment that White House aide Timothy S. Goeglein, originally recruited to work in the White House by former adviser Karl Rove, had plagiarized from the Dartmouth Review for columns he wrote for the News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Ind.; March 1; emphasis added.

You’re used to making $17 an hour with benefits, and now you have to take any job for $8 an hour. I’ve literally sat and cried, but my friends with double degrees are doing worse. It’s the economy. It’s really bad.

— Nicole Flennaugh, 36, a widow who has a college degree and who was laid off as a customer service representative at an educational services company, and who, even after applying for dozens of full-time jobs, has been getting by with occasional stints as an office temp; March 1.
Full Story »

The results of the most recent S&R poll are in. Readers were asked:

What issue do you feel has not been adequately covered in the presidential debates thus far?

1: Civil liberties (26)
2: Green energy (15)
3: Media consolidation (11)
    Net neutrality (11)
5: Executive power (10)
6: Mercenary forces (9)
    Sibel Edmonds/corruption conspiracy (9)
8: Native American rights (7)
9: Infrastructure (6)
10: Student loan debt (5)
    AFRICOM/US military control of Africa’s resources (5)
12: Other (4)
13: Nuclear proliferation (3)
    Economy (3)
15: Trade policy (2)
16: Sub-prime lending crisis (0)

You’re invited to vote in our newest poll, which asks about your voting plans for November. The poll is live in the column to the right.

All S&R polls and results are non-scientific. At least, they’re not very good science. For amusement purposes only – no betting, please…