podemos's blog

U.S. Supreme Court ruled local goverments can seize homes for private development

Fri, 24 Jun 2005 14:51:03 -0700

WASHINGTON - Cities may bulldoze people's homes to make way for shopping malls or other private development, a divided Supreme Court ruled Thursday, giving local governments broad power to seize private property to generate tax revenue.

Fortunately, almost everyone seems to agree that this ruling is a terrible, terrible thing. For an excellent roundup, visit Arguing With Signposts." He tracks 56+ bog reactions accross the politcal spectrum. Interesting stuff. People on the Left and Right are PISSED.

Dave at Gristmill has a good summary on why this sucks so bad:

Uh, what do I do with this banana peel? Let the city compost it for you, of course!

Fri, 17 Jun 2005 12:50:02 -0700

Got yard waste? Ok, so you have an apartment and no yard. Well, do you have food scraps? Mmmm, so you eat out all the time. Shooooot-- go on and tell you friends about this, then. Seattle is recycling yard waste and food scraps. Yay! The city is almost half way to its goal of getting new easier-to-use receptacles out there for people to take advantage of this cool new program. Cuz guess where the yard waste and food scraps go if they're not composted...

The landfill.

Seattle Times has the full scoop, as well as the nitty gritty of how to compost with the city (like what food counts and where to store your food scraps). More below the fold.

You know that one guy who "edited" Bush's climate change report...

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 17:50:58 -0700

...and by "edited" I mean "completely and utterly mislead the public to favor industry." Well he resigned. Guess where he's working now? Let me tell you because you'll never guess:

ExxonMobil!

Shocking, isn't it?

Why renewable energy is so radical and a threat to existing power structures

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 17:25:46 -0700

Ok, it's going to be hard for me to explain this without quoting Dave's whole post over at Gristmill. So I'll just tell you to go read it and tell me what you think. Oh, and definitely read jimbeyer's comment that Dave points to in his post (I almost didn't). Jimbeyer is a smart, articulate guy.

I was blown away by this post. In a whole new way I really "got" why having a society based on renewable energy was so radical and fundamentally disruptive to our society's current power structures.

Ok, here are a few gems from the post:

"Renewable energy is about the permanent loss of a major source of control of much of modern humanity."

Renewable energy is part of the historical trend putting more and more power in the hands of individuals, fracturing the elites that once held it. That -- not feasibility, or economic viability, or dead friggin' birds -- is the biggest challenge it has to overcome.

Grist interviews Nickels on his pro-Kyoto cities initiative

Thu, 16 Jun 2005 16:21:06 -0700

Hi everyone (Hi Riisa. See- I'm doing it, I really am; I'm finally posting).

I've been invited to blog on betterdonkey about environmental shenanigans, so here I am... blogging about environmental news, tidbits and random thoughts.

Grist Magazine just interviewed Nickels about his initiative to get mayors across the country to "meet or beat Kyoto Protocol targets." This is a big (and cool) deal. While the Bush administration is failing us on climate change (among other things), local governments are coming to the rescue. Here are a few snippets: