Serena
In case you missed this in Tuesday’s Sightline Daily news picks (which you can get delivered fresh to your inbox each morning if you like!), check out this fascinating article on what makes an environmentalist. Chris Mooney writes up the top factors, which include having an “open” personality, having high levels of empathy, and—according to newly published research—spending more time with your neighbors. “The implications of the research, the authors conclude, is that we shouldn’t just be targeting people individually to get them to change their environmental or energy-related behaviors. Rather, we should be targeting their social interactions.”
Alan
Agriculture uses more than 60 percent of California’s water, and recent immigrants don’t tend to have big, irrigated lawns; swimming pools; or golf club memberships. So blaming recent immigrants for California’s drought is a bit like blaming transit riders, rather than oil companies, for climate change. But a California group is doing it anyway. Facepalm.
Eric
At Whatcom Watch, Michael Riordan crunches the numbers on coal ship “deck washing” and concludes that the terminal planned for Cherry Point would result in “90 to 100 tons of coal flushed into our waters every year.”
At High Country News, Sarah Tory enumerates the many ways that Northwest tribes are blocking coal, oil, and gas export projects.
At Truthout, Dahr Jamail explains why doctors are warning that oil trains don’t have to explode to be hazardous.
And, finally, evidence-based justification for my behavior: NRDC explains why food expiration dates are really more like suggestions.
Anna
Here’s another great (short, snappy, smart, illustrated) video from Robert Reich. This time: Make Polluters Pay Us.
A new New York Times/CBS News poll shows that Americans are troubled by inequality. A strong majority said that wealth should be more evenly divided and that it is a problem that should be addressed urgently. As for the American Dream: Across party lines, most Americans said the chance to get ahead was mainly a luxury for those at the top.
Kristin
This week, the top executives of six large European oil and gas companies called for a tax on carbon emissions. And the NY Times ED Board called on world leaders to implement a carbon tax.
Sometimes the failure of people in authority positions to listen to women is annoying or demoralizing or bad for a woman’s career. And sometimes its a matter of life and death. Like when a pregnant woman goes to her doctor to say something’s wrong, and he tells her she’s just hormonal and should go home. Which shse does, and then goes into premature labor and is bleeding out when her next door neighbor finds her and rushes her back to the hospital. American women are twice as likely to die in childbirth as Saudi Arabians.
