Culture & Ethics

Answering the Climategaters

Want to create a scandal?  Just add “gate” to the end of any noun.  Climategate is a good example.  Real Climate ha an excellent post dissecting the charges of error in the IPCC report, which turn out to be quite insignificant  (and some of them not even errors at all.)  Of course, if you come …

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Pesticides, Science and Politics

Those three can make for a toxic environment, literally and figuratively.  Take the case of methyl iodide, a material so obviously toxic that scientists use it to induce cancer in laboratory experiments.  Arysta LifeScience Corporation has obtained a federal pesticide registration from EPA for use as a fumigant, despite a letter from 50 scientists, including five …

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From Songs to Film

So the obvious next step —  in follow-up to the debate about the top ten environmental songs —  is to debate film.  Sean, Cara and I had an e-mail exchange about the topic and decided that environmental films could be divided, roughly,  into three or four categories.  First are the toxic torts/nuclear horror films.  Silkwood, The …

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More on Great Environmental Songs

Two more great environmental songs: or is one of them an ANTI-environmental song?

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Even more green songs

Okay, if Jonathan and Tim are going to go there, I feel compelled to follow up as a former performing musician. Plus, someone has to mention a song written after 1974. Here are mine: 10. “Earth Song” by Michael Jackson. Yes, I know, but the guy did just die, and this song is as explicitly …

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Green Songs

As one Jonathan’s unnamed colleagues, I will take up his challenge and propose three songs for the top ten pop environmental songs: Arlo Guthrie, Alice’s Restaurant (solid waste management and enforcement) The Eagles, The Last Resort (Land use–does that count as environmental law?) Neil Young, After the Gold Rush (well, it does mention Mother Nature on …

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Legal Planet Top 10 List

No, not top 10 posts, silly.  That’s boring.  I mean that Top 10, except with a Legal Planet twist, to wit; What are the Top 10 Environmental Pop Songs of all time? My initial nominee is The Pretenders’ classic “My City Was Gone,” which is known more for its infectious bass guitar hook, but is …

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Best Environmental-Themed Superbowl Commercial

The winner hands-down (possibly based on actual events in the City of Berkeley): [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq58zS4_jvM&hl=en_US&fs=1&] Runner-up after the jump:

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Plastic, plastic everywhere . . . .

Several months ago, I noted a controversy about the chemical bisphenol-A and its former ubiquity in water bottles. Up until very recently, despite reports by the Environmental Working Group and others that suggested significant health risks from BPA, our federal government showed no inclination to regulate the use of the chemical in consumer products. The …

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