Emerging Ideas Roundup: Culture & politics

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Wild About Organic

In a crowded, increasingly urban world, farms and other working lands provide essential habitat for many wild animals. Organic farms are even better, according to a comprehensive study documenting how such farms enhance biodiversity. 'We looked at a very large sample of sites throughout England,' says Rob Fuller, a biologist for the British Trust for Ornithology and an author of the five-year study. 'Plants in particular seemed to show big and probably quite rapid responses to organic farming.' When farms go organic and herbicide-suppressed plants return, they create more habitat for wildlife to recolonize these areas. As a result, the study found, organic farms have 105 percent more plant species, 48 percent more winter birds, and 75 percent more bats than their nonorganic counterparts.

Scratch This

Global-warming naysayers, listen up. Big River (July/Aug. 2006) reports on one more reason to believe the threat: colossal poison ivy. Duke and Harvard researchers piped carbon dioxide into a forest plot to mimic the levels expected in northern temperate forests by midcentury. The result? Not only did the itch-inducing plant grow 150 percent faster, but it produced a stronger concentration of urushiol, the compound that puts the 'poison' in poison ivy.

A WORKING Marsh

A soggy situation in Northern California will put a sleepy suburb on the map. The city of Petaluma is building a 270-acre wastewater facility to use wetlands to help process sewage. When the facility is completed in 2009, treated wastewater will drain into two marshes, eliminating one round of chemical treatment. The marshes will filter solids, soak up nutrients, and shade water to retard algae growth, while providing flood protection and wildlife habitat. During the summer, about 4 million gallons of reclaimed water per day from the $110 million facility will green the lawns of nearby golf courses and city parks.

By Kristen Pakonis, reprinted from Sierra (July/Aug. 2006); www.sierraclub.org/sierra.

The Softer Side of CO2

Climate misinformation reached new lows in May when the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) released two television commercials promoting the benefits of-get this-carbon dioxide emissions, the single biggest contributor to that little problem called global warming. 'They call it pollution,' says the narrator; 'we call it life.' The commercials feature children blowing dandelions, animals frolicking in nature, and families happily piling into their cars, all to give some positive attention to the embattled climate-warming gas.

The two 60-second spots were aired in 14 cities a week prior to the release of An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore's documentary on global warming. They are part of a campaign to counter negative media attention about carbon dioxide-and discredit politicians who call for reducing energy use.

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