Today, four stories displayed next to each other, in the National section of the New York Times:
Boise Region Grapples With Smog, a Growing Threat
After years of growth and suburban development, the region that includes Boise and its suburbs, known as the Treasure Valley, is on the brink of violating federal clean air standards, and experts say the only real solution is one that might seem awfully un-Idahoan: persuading people to drive less.
List of Tainted Peanut Butter Items points to Complexity of Food Production
Tracking how the paste travels through the food supply can be challenging, because several companies can be involved in making the final food. For example, one manufacturer might coat the paste in chocolate and make a peanut butter cup, which is then sold to another company that mixes it into ice cream that may or may not also contain peanut butter. A grocery chain might buy that ice cream and sell it under a private label.
Environment Issues Slide In Poll of Public Concern
In the poll, released Thursday by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, global warming came in last among 20 voter concerns; it trailed issues like addressing moral decline and decreasing the influence of lobbyists. Only 30 percent of the voters deemed global warming to be “a top priority,” compared with 35 percent in 2008. “Protecting the environment,” which had surged in the rankings from 2006 to 2008, dropped even more precipitously in the poll: only 41 percent of voters called it a top priority, compared with 56 percent last year.
Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths
Rising temperatures and the resulting drought are causing trees in the West to die at more than twice the pace they did a few decades ago, a new study has found. The combination of temperature and drought has also reduced the ability of the forests to absorb carbon dioxide, which traps heat and thus contributes to global warming, the authors of the study said, and has made forests sparser and more susceptible to fires and pests.
A bit much to take, all at once . . . if you are at all concerned with what sustains us. Of course the one bright spot in this otherwise dire picture, is our new Commander-in-Chief, President Obama. I can feel his sense of urgency, and that gives me hope.
La Marguerite 
Best to go to Whole Foods, get peanuts and make the butter right there! Buy organic, etc. A little more expensive, but our health is worth it.
The mood has been shifting away from conventional green for some time even as problems and the discovery of new problems grow.
A young athlete friend has found potential sponsors laughing at her green program. They see it as irrelevant to their potential customers. The green movement has largely failed for a variety of reasons – which is why I’ve been focused on post-green and encouraging change for other reasons.
But we can be very positive I think. There are other potentially more effective ways of bringing large change and we are at a point where large change can actually happen.
Hail to the new Commander-in-Chief
It is so refreshing to be able to acknowledge and begin to address the formidable, human-driven global challenges that are looming ominously before the family of humanity on the horizon.
Let us hope that the confederacy of dunderheads who have been providing terrible leadership during these earliest years of Century XXI have not done insurmountable damage to the global economy, moral authority, the environment and Earth’s body as fit place for habitation by our children and coming generations.
Steven Earl Salmony
AWAREness Campaign on the Human Population,
established 2001
http://sustainabilityscience.org/content.html?contentid=1176
http://sustainabilitysoutheast.org/index.php
http://www.panearth.org
grassroots grow ever so slowly, while population and marketing grow exponentially; i must concede it’s a sorry checkmate at best.
public opinion will be most unkind until and if the financial crisis repairs the state of disconnect we are now facing.
grocery carts are still being filled with pre-fab foods and new and improved industrial concoctions called food products. price and packaging still rule the household.
will change originate from the top? must we petition the FDA?
harass the Health dept? write to congressmen about the corrupting false nutrition masquerading as low fat, no fat, no food foods?
marguerite, i did not address the full scope of this post.
as for the status of environmental awareness and concern for climate change, it has taken at least a 20% dip since last year.
we don’t need polls to read and observe the personal priorities surrounding us, so…it’s back to full spectrum activism for those of us who have the knowledge and will to do so.
yes, this administration seems headed in the right direction. and environmental disasters such as the TVA coal ash spill(s) may help to convince clean coal believers to drop this alternative, and seek renewable energy instead.
so much on our plates, so little time to chew..
Ecodestination, thanks for the suggestion! Unfortunately in this case, most of the peanut butter being recalled was going to food service.
Steve, Nadine, lots of wisdom there . . . I am with you on the failure of green to engage the people, in a truly impactful way. As much as the current economic disaster hurts, it may be the only way that citizens will start moving in right direction. That and a nudge from a scientifically informed administration.
Great juxtaposition of those pieces. A bit scary to see the disconnect “regular” people have between the economy and environment.
Drafting a related post. Did you see the NYT (speaking of your lapsed subscription ; ) Sunday magazine cover story?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/magazine/01Economy-t.html?ref=magazine
More soon — glad to emeet you.
Thanks Greg. Yes, great piece in the NY Times (I read it online . . . for free)
Huge crisis spells huge opportunity. It is my great hope that the economic disaster is going lead us to a brand new world, based on different values, including a restored balance between man and nature.