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Move over evolution:  Now you can add climate change to the list of controversial science topics taught in public schools.  That’s right, the governor that sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t want to mandate California’s children are educated on climate change.  Why the apparent contradiction?

SB 908:  Global Warming Education in Schools, sponsored by Senator Simitian (D-Palo Alto), would have revised the existing state framework to include climate change as part of children’s environmental education, but unfortunately it was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Not only did the bill include climate change in public school science curriculum, but also added to the science framework, and thus science textbooks, seven other topics:

1. Integrated waste management
2. Energy conservation
3. Water conservation and pollution prevention
4. Air resources
5. Integrated pest management
6. Toxic materials
7. Wildlife conservation and forestry

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I’m a big fan of California. I’m almost as far from the state as I could be, here in Vermont, but I usually wholeheartedly agree with the environmental and public health decisions made by the California legislature to protect their citizens.

The ban on phthalates for one. The chemical and toxin labeling law (hence all those “May Cause Cancer in the State of California” labels you see all over cheap goods from China). And the higher fuel efficiency standards, which have considerably reduced smog. Then, they were poised to ban BPA (bisphenol A and PFOA (a chemical in food wrapping). No dice.

What happened? In a close vote, the California legisture voted not to ban BPA and PFOA.

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By David Roberts

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has become the politicians other politicians love to love, and he came on stage in the wake of a glowing introduction from Harry Reid, greeted by enormous applause.

Most of Bloomberg's speech covered familiar ground, bashing federal politicians for inaction on clean energy, lamenting how far behind America has fallen, and boasting about PlaNYC, his city's ambitious green agenda.

The one new announcement had to do with NYC's issuance of a formal expression of interest for firms with experience in small- to mid-sized renewable energy generation. Bloomberg says he doesn't know what it will end up looking like -- could be tidal power on the Hudson, small wind turbines on buildings, solar PV on buildings, or ocean energy off the coast -- but that NYC is committed not only to using less energy but to generating its own. He wants NYC to become "the No. 1 city in the world" for green energy, and for America to become the No. 1 country in the world.

The other recurring theme -- not new for Bloomberg but much more vehement this time than the last time I saw him -- was the need for new transmission. The kind of NIMBYism and short-sightedness that stand in the way of cross-country high-voltage transmission lines drive Bloomberg nuts. The CEO in him wants to cut through all the red tape.

I suspect much of the Bloomberg worship, at least from other politicians, has to do with mayor envy. To Harry Reid, it must look like Bloomberg has almost unfettered power to make things happen, without Congressional protocols or an opposition party (Bloomberg's an Independent) to hold him back. Hizzoner reportedly flirted with a presidential run this year. From what I've seen, if the voting public was composed of business and political elites, he'd win in a landslide.

The REACTIVATE!! exhibition at the at the Espai d' Art Contemporani de Castelló, near Valencia (Spain), being an almost endless source of wonders i tried to cover last week (see REACTIVATE!! Part 1, Urban reanimations and the minimal intervention and REACTIVATE!! Part 2, Instant urbanism), i still have a last story in my magic bag to share with you:

Some of the projects presented in Castellon were commissioned by the contemporary art center to engage in a site-specific fashion with the theme of 'remodeled spaces and minimal interventions.'

The most poetical installation was created by ex.studio, two Barcelona-based Mexican architects Patricia Meneses and Iván Juárez with an impressive portfolio chock-full of projects that investigate and experiment with new ways of relating space with society.

Designed as minimal spaces for auto-reflexion, the Refugios Urbanos are 6 suspended semi-transparent pods that temporarily invade the building of the EACC and its public space.

Looking like chrysalids, the flexible structure can only contain one person. Its very delicate walls allow the inhabitant to enjoy privacy as well as a softly blurred view of the surrounding world.

I first came across the name of this extraordinary place in one of the BBC's Imagine-documentaries about German director Werner Herzog, who asked to be met in what he called one of his favorite places in Los Angeles, The Museum of Jurassic Technology. After locating it in Culver City, BBC's Alan Yentob remarks: "I begin to understand why Herzog likes it here. The exhibits in the museum cross the line between fact and fiction, between reality and imagination."

Front of the museum in Culver City, Los Angeles

The collections of the museum, which was founded in 1989 and is being curated by David Hildebrand Wilson and Diana Wilson, span over three little buildings and consist of pieces from about a dozen sub-collections which are often centered around a certain subject such as belief and knowledge or personalities like Athanasius Kircher and their work. But, unlike what one might expect of a technology museum, throughout all of the exhibits, the boundaries between history and fiction, magic and reason, narrative and scientific method are in fact completely fluid (and the curators pleasurably make no effort to make things more clear, even indulge in elaborate descriptions and allusions that make it even more mysterious).

By David Roberts

A note to conference organizers everywhere: it's been documented by science that extended periods of exposure to light jazz leads to terminal dyspepsia and even brain tumors. So perhaps you should find something else to play in the lulls between speakers.

By Kate Sheppard

Hurricane Dolly blew away John McCain's planned visit to an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico last month, but the senator made another go at it today.

On a Chevron-operated rig 150 miles off the coast of Louisiana, McCain reiterated his call for more offshore drilling and bashed his opponent for not being enthusiastic enough about oil exploration. "Sen. Obama opposes new drilling," said McCain (who himself opposed new offshore drilling until this summer). "He has said it will not 'solve our problem' and that 'it's not real.' He's wrong, and the American people know it. This platform we are at today sits above a field of 160 million barrels of oil, and is capable of producing on a daily basis 55,000 barrels of oil and 72 million cubic feet of natural gas."

Actually, to the chagrin of enviros, Obama has said in recent weeks that he's open to a compromise on energy legislation that includes some offshore drilling -- if that's the only way to get a comprehensive energy bill that promotes renewables and measures to curb oil use. As for the question of whether more drilling would "solve our problem," experts from the federal Energy Information Administration and even the American Petroleum Institute posit that it would take about a decade for new offshore drilling to lead to an increase in oil production, but McCain says he's heard from oil execs that results could come much sooner.

Speaking on the rig, McCain also emphasized other solutions to rising energy prices, including conservation and investment in alternative energy sources.

By Jason D Scorse

Just months ago there was a palpable sense of optimism that no matter who is elected president this November that the U.S. would soon embark on serious climate change legislation. I think recent events have shown that the chances of that happening are slim to none.

Let's start with if McCain is elected.

Today the senator from Arizona is going to do a photo-op on an oil rig because he has become the biggest champion of increased drilling this side of the Middle East. He wants to extend major tax breaks for oil companies and open up virtually all of America to more drilling.

I was always highly skeptical of McCain's commitment to serious climate change legislation and the way he has talked about cap-and-trade on the campaign trail has only increased that skepticism. He has said repeatedly that he is against capping greenhouse gas emissions even though that's exactly what a cap-and-trade system does. In addition, he is in favor of freely allocating permits to energy companies, which is a trillion-dollar give away to big business.

By Tom Philpott

When I lived in New York City, I used to marvel at the weeds that would force their way up through sidewalk cracks. What a will to live, I thought: From clumps of dirt crammed between concrete slabs, these vigorous shoots fended off the hard, slapping heels of a thousand rushing city dwellers, just to claim a place in the sun.

The effort to save South Central Community Farm in Los Angeles reminds me of those defiant survivors. Stepped on by the city, evicted two ago years by a developer who gained title to the land in a sweetheart deal (as I laid out in this 2005 article), these pioneering urban farmers aren't done fighting back. Miraculously, there still seems to be a slim chance of restoring the formerly lush 14-acre property as a site for food production and green space in one of the city's poorest and bleakest areas.

When developer Ralph Horwitz bulldozed South Central Community Farm in 2006, rumors swirled that the site would be converted into a vast warehouse for Wal-Mart. But now Forever 21 -- a clothing chain noted for its flimsy clothes, its past abuses of immigrant workers [PDF] in L.A.'s sweatshop district, its blatant knockoffs of haute fashion, and the fervent Christianity of its owners (John 3:16, anyone?) -- wants to lay down roots on the former farm site.

By David Roberts

A few more bits from Clinton's Q&A were of interest.

First, he was asked how he would respond to ordinary people's pocketbook concerns on energy, and that's when he really shined. (Responding to average folk was always Clinton's strength.) He said that of course some of these reforms will raise the unit cost of energy -- any time you invest in a new area you raise the cost of doing things the old way. The question is whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

And speaking of the costs, these economic doomsayers hardly ever take into account the rising, crippling costs of the status quo. This is a decade's worth of work ahead of us, which will create new jobs, which will tighten the labor market, which will raise wages -- the benefits to the country's working class will completely swamp the higher unit costs. If we'd listened to people like this we never would have built the highway system or gone to the moon.

I wish other Dems could be as eloquent and unapologetic about green energy and the working class.

Second, Clinton was surprisingly tepid about politics. When asked directly about the presidential race, he said he preferred Obama's plan but that McCain was good too -- "I'm encouraged by the rhetoric" in the presidential race. Perhaps he hasn't been paying attention lately. If Dems want to pull out of this tailspin they're in on energy, it might be advisable to stop praising the other side while its shiv is still stuck in them.

And third, Clinton was asked whether the new president should be given authority to force the building of cross-country transmission lines for wind and solar over NIMBY objections. (Nobody used the words, but eminent domain was clearly implied.) He said "yes." That makes me very, very nervous.