Green News Round-Up
California Wildfires
The LA Times its focus from how the fires started to more reflective analysis. In its critics notebook, reporter Christopher Hawthorne writes:
This country’s culture as a whole is in the midst of a profound shift from the unshakable confidence that marked the so-called American Century to a new recognition of risk, conservation, even fragility. Green architecture, with its rather old-fashioned emphasis on paying attention to site and climate, is part of that shift. But those who build and approve new hillside developments — “the lords of subdivision,” as nature writer Richard Lillard called them, the “replanners of the Earth’s surface” — have barely acknowledged it.
Even though the fires are being contained, the region will have to deal with the lingering effects of the smoke for much longer, NPR reports.
Climate Change
NPR considers the complicated effect climate change will have on the global food supply. A separate story warns that climate change could affect the production of maple syrup.
Conservation
National Geographic points out the ironic quandary facing hunters – the sport’s dwindling numbers is actually threatening the species that are usually killed by hunters. Traditionally, hunters have donated time and money into wildlife preservation, but the younger outdoor-enthusiasts prefer more passive activities like bird-watching. But is this new generation forming the same emotional bond to the outdoors as hunters? It’s too soon to say if they are willing to invest the same time and money into wildlife preservation, the article says.
In his new blog, Dot Earth, NY Times’ Andrew C. Revkin asks whether the planet can sustain its resources for the planet’s projected population growth of nine billion in a few decades.
Policy
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff last week allowed for the building of a seven mile fence along the American-Mexican border in Arizona. The project has been suspended since Oct. 10 to determined the environmental impact of the construction, but Chertoff has waived the suspension, reports E Magazine.
