The niagara of Earth Day stories in the dailies, mostly on local events but others considerably more substantial, is simply too vast for this site to get its arms around. The weeklies offer a more convenient target.

Not everybody’s happy about Time Magazine’s inspired, green cover this week. It jolts one to see a redwood tree substituted for flag in old friend, and the late, Joe Rosenthal’s Pulitzer-winning Mt. Suribachi photo (years ago at the SF Chronicle The Tracker, awed, went often on routine news assignments with the guy). A few jarheads think the pastiche of a photo tantamount to sacrilege, according to Jeff Poor, a blogger at NewsBusters. He’s a resident of the right wing of political discourse. Some feel that way, no doubt. But others in the Corps including vets of Iwo Jima’s cauldron, one imagines, might say saving the world for the world is a noble enough cause to claim common cause with – and to borrow imagery from – saving it for democracy.

A measured look at this year’s Time environment issue and imagery comes from Prof. Matthew Nisbet at the blog Framing Science.He compares it to the mag’s cover two years ago showing a polar bear on thin ice alongside a thematic “Be Worried, be VERY Worried” pennant. That previous approach has been common in media coverage, Nisbet says in his dissection, and tends to overwhelm readers into despair and despond. This year’s angle inspires vigor: buckle up!, it’s time to be heroes together.

Inside the package is led by Time’s Bryan Walsh and his bullish prescription, aimed almost entirely at the US, for green leadership. Its plan just might take a whack at CO2 buildup on a scale big enough to merit the mightiest nation on earth. It could be a lot stronger, one suggests. It puts most of its stress on a robust carbon cap and trade system. It seems to regard the challenge as a win-win opportunity. Hope so, but it calls for nothing notably painful. That includes anything as drastic as a fast ban on new coal plants designed without provision for sequestration, a ukase for which some worthies (ie Jim Hansen at NASA) plead. Walsh doesn’t pay much attention to economic arguments that harsh carbon taxes are more direct, and less prone to manipulation – ie, how does one accurately monitor the legitimacy of purchased carbon credits without bureaucratic nightmare? But the piece is calm, muscular, and has a nice turn of phrase. It urges we “price the sky” rather than let it continue as a free, public sewer for greenhouse gases.

Time does have one long piece on carbon capture. It’s sequestrated online as a “web exclusive” It’s an optimistic explainer, by Eric Roston and Bill Chameides ;

A few others:

Newsweek (Apr 14) – Cover shows a green leaf on a twig, embossed with the Seal of the President. Jerry Adler story’s on which candidate is greenest.

USNews & World Report (April 21) – In the News You Can Use vein, and inside a cover entitled “Why America Needs an Energy Diet” USNews’s David LaGesse and Marianne Lavelle provide tips to a lower-carbon lifestyle. None are as major as living off the grid, using public transit and a bicycle, or composting your own poop. But one might try a better hot water heater, not purchasing an always-on video wall picture, or eschewing a gas mower for an electric one.

NY Times Sunday Magazine – Table of Contents. Great cover, with green leaves falling through an hourglass and a them “Low Carbon Catalog.” It’s mostly short items on inventions, gadgets, profiles of green researchers, etc. It’s light and fluffy in spots – such as a spotlight on eco-mad celebrities (Ed Norton, Daryl Hannah…) – but solid and remarkably diverse overall. One could spend all day with this.

If you want to read a long meaty essay in the NYT magazine, try Michael Pollan’s on “Why Bother?” summarizing beautifully the ironies, contradictions, and frustrations of being green in this fractious world.

Autoweek -Table of Contents. Okay it’s a niche pub but I subscribe and am a recovering gasoholic fast-car, whining-small-bore-twincam-engine working up through the gears fan. The mag tends to dote on ridiculously overpowered roadburners that execute maneuvers like cheetahs, oh boy. But its current double issue focusses on new and upcoming, fuel-sipping cars even a car guy (or gal) might like.

…and we are happy to add links to other weeklies or monthlies with notable covers devoted to Earth Week and its issues – use suggest stories button above, thanks. Registered users may choose to use the comment function.

-CP

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 11:42 am and is filed under Environment & Energy Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.