Deep Agriculture: Michael Pollan at Long Now

Our entire agricultural system is built on cheap oil. As a consequence, our agriculture sector actually is contributing more greenhouse gases than our transportation sector. And in the mean time, it’s creating monocultures that are vulnerable to national security threats, are now vulnerable to sky-high food prices or crashes in food prices, huge swings in …

Welcome, Wachovia. Seriously.

A while back, Wachovia bought World Savings, a bank I use for CDs. I received a few letters in the mail describing the process and telling me what I had to do. The first thing I had to do was register for an account with Wachovia’s online banking. I do. Mistake #1: Only three of …

Ladies and gentlemen, start your bicycles

Paris is about to get what could be the world’s largest Yellow Bike Program(ish): On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance …

Who Killed the Electric Car?

I had the privilege of seeing Who Killed The Electric Car alongside the director back May at the Tribeca Film Festival and was very impressed. There are several good stories here, and I was particularly disappointed with the actions of the California Air Resources Board. Who Killed The Electric Car is now the 60th highest-grossing …

Carbon dioxide worst in 800,000 years

Researchers in Antarctica have analyzed ice cores going back 800,000 years, 150,000 years further than before. The news isn’t good: “Ice cores reveal the Earth’s natural climate rhythm over the last 800,000 years. When carbon dioxide changed there was always an accompanying climate change. Over the last 200 years human activity has increased carbon dioxide …