In a bid to try and meet reduction targets set, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has ordered local authorities to stop giving preferential treatment to energy guzzling projects. The premier has pledged to reform the pricing of natural resources such as water and natural gas and impose higher taxes on pollution emitted. He also vowed to penalize those who violate environmental law by implementing a polluters pay policy. Of the 20 cities in the world with the most polluted air, China houses 16 of them. A recent study suggests that 400,000 premature deaths per year are caused by air pollution and in a country where river water has been known to burn through skin, any curb in pollution is a welcome one.

Cutting preferential treatment to big polluters - what a novel idea: ya reckon we could make it fly in Congress?

more on this at Chinaview.

The Breating Earth site is a simulation of carbon dioxide emissions as well as birth and death rates of different countries in real time. Well worth checking out.

Step it Up 2007 is organizing a rally/installation to help promote climate change action. On Saturday April 14th at Noon in Battery Park, NYC, thousands of participants dressed in blue will create a column along the projected waterlines should the 10 foot sea level rise scenario occur, redifining lower Manhattan.

To take part in this momentous event, register at Step it Up here

For more information on Hurricanes and Sea Level Rise affecting NYC, check out Columbia University’s Center for Climate Systems Research.

Artist Chris Jordan is working on an incredible series of prints using statistics to illustrate our culture. The print above depicts the number of plastic bags used in the US in 5 minutes.

“Statistics tend to feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or $12.5 million spent every hour on the Iraq war. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs.”
Consumption features heavily and the Seurat painting created from 106,000 aluminum cans - the number Americans consume in 30 seconds is a quite incredible. See a sample of his work here

The artist points out that one really needs to see the prints in person in order for the scale to really convey the full impact of the image so please let us know if your aunt, uncle, girlfriend or neighbhor owns a gallery and would be willing to put on an exhibition of this powerful work.

The Wyckoff Farm house is one of few wooden farm houses from the 17th century still standing in the U.S. I took a weekend tour with an extraordinary guide, Lucy, who not only described the lives of the family over the centuries but also the changes in the landscape of Brooklyn. This farm is in Flatbush, which is maybe a 45 minute train ride away from central Manhattan for commuters today. The farmers in this area that used to sell their produce to Manhattan would try to avoid a two day trip through Brooklyn and shipped their products on small boats up the creeks into the Bay and down to the tip of Manhattan, which back then was the entire city. The trip was short and convenient but today these creeks don’t exist anymore, since they have been filled in.

Everything that the family produced was made with great care not to waste any materials and any byproducts would be used somewhere else. There was no garbage in the Wyckoff household. For insulation corn combs were squeezed in the cracks of the clay walls. Their front yard was covered with broken oyster shells since they were abundantly available in New York, the capitol of oysters until the early 20th century. The floors in the original part of the house (it went through 3 stages of additions throughout the centuries) were compacted dirt, a well insulating and water resistant flooring people used back in the day. The basement was for storing foods dry and cool all year around. Candles were never used for frivolous things like reading! And so people went to bed at sundown - a live closely adjusted to the seasons and the environment.

My summary is probably a poor account of the wealth of information I received at the tour. I highly recommend if you haven’t had the pleasure of visiting the farm house yet, to do so and you can get the information here.

The Republican Governor of California may have stood by W’s side during election campaigns, but when it comes to greenhouse gases, Arnie & Georgie are not on the same page. An article in the NY Times today discusses Bill AB32 that Arnold helped put together, which was passed by California’s Senate yesterday.

Big food corporations don’t want you to know what is actually happening to your food before it makes its way into your shopping basket. They are succeeding in getting the laws changed in their favor.

The House of Representatives passed The National Uniformity for Food Act, H.R. 4167 back in March of this year. In short, States will no longer have the power to require food safety labels that are not identical to Federal Law. To find out more about what this means, check out what the Organic Consumers have to say.

I think the problem stems from the fact that powerful interests groups such as the Grocery Manufacturers of America wield too much influence on the federal government. If Federal Law were to require labels informing me which foods were genetically enginnered or contained rBGH, then I would have no issue with uniformity in labeling across the country.

The Senate will be voting on this shortly and this would be a good time to let them know your thoughts on the issue. It will be interesting to see how this moves forward. It seems to me that the federal government could argue its right to dictate food labeling under section 8 of the Constitution, assigning congress the power to regulate interstate commerce. By that same token, the constitution guarantees the rest of us the right not to be force fed rBGH or it should be interpreted that way.