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Coal spokesman says, "don't believe anything I say, ever again"

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OK, so I'm practically a media whore for the Alliance for Climate Protection, but I can't imagine being someone's bitch in service of a better cause. The latest clip they're circulating, and that I'm sharing below, is the incredible — that's "incredible," as in "not credible" —  comment from King Coal mouthpiece Joe Lucas ... 

 


A denier entitled to his opinion

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Many readers know that my "other" issue is food addiction, driven by my experience of being above 300 pounds for most of the time between ages 16 and 33, topping out at 365 in 1991. I am as sure I'm an addict (now in recovery) as I am sure that I'm alive.

You may well believe that there is no such thing as food addiction, if you're in the mainstream.

Sometimes, in my efforts at persuasion, I ask those I'm speaking with to just pause and imagine if it were true, to just allow for the possibility, nd then to take in what the implications might be.


March against coal

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A large-scale act of civil disobedience is planned for Monday in Washington, at the site of the coal-fired plant that powers Capitol Hill, and like you, I'm not going to get there.

But my friend Maggie Zhou of the Secure Green Future movement tells me there will be protests at three Mass. coal-fired plants on Sunday, the day before.


Same idea, different source

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The previous post expressed pleasure at the latest anti-clean-coal ad released by the Alliance for Climate Protection, and semi-giggled over the prospect of "my" side having the cash to match an evil-industry group's ability to puts its view before a slack-jawed television nation.

This one will semi-giggle about "my" side having a firm-enough foothold in the zeitgeist that entertainment television can find profit in creating the same sort of energy-titan spoofs that the "Reality" ads are doing.


Fouling the air

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The Alliance for Climate Protection is out with another Reality ad about the utter dishonesty perpetrated by the coal industry every time it promotes the term "clean coal." This one has the added attraction of having been directed by Ethan and Joel Coen, creators of some of the funniest, darkest, most engrossing films ever (Raising Arizona, Miller's Crossing, Blood Simple, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, etc.).


The Ecology of Commerce

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Well-read readers may recognize the headline as the title of Paul Hawken's 1993 book, which I recently read for a book group started by fellow members of Sustainable Arlington, a group committed to helping the town become more ... sustainable. We met to discuss it a week ago; here are some thoughts from my notes:


Another green letter day

The obvious news yesterday was Obama's signing the stimulus bill, which provides "$78.6 billion in clean energy, energy efficiency, and green transportation. ... When fully implemented, these provisions will prevent approximately 68 million tons of global warming pollution annually, reduce oil consumption by 15 million barrels per year, and create more than 1.5 million jobs," according to the advocacy group Environment Massachusetts.


Reconsidering bigness

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A story from marketwatch.com reports that prospective homebuyers may finally be over their space lust. 

The average size of homes started in the third quarter of 2008 was 2,438 square feet, down from 2,629 square feet in the second quarter, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Similarly, the median size of homes started in the third quarter was 2,090, down from 2,291.


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