If you're not convinced by global warming, maybe you'll be convinced by a frickin' huge pile o' garbage

If you don't believe in global warming, that's fine. But only an idiot would think that human activity has absolutely no impact on the earth or the environment. CNN has just issued an amazing special report entitled "Planet in Peril: Environmental Coverage". This show is a series of reports, produced by the likes of Anderson Cooper, that document environmental degradation at the hands of humans. These reports don't discuss abstract concepts like the rise of carbon gases or future predictions of climate change (cuz really - predictions change all the time, so who takes them seriously?). Instead they just document what is going on right now: deforestation, erosion, disease, pollution, etc. Their cameras and reporters travelled the world to show exactly how much of the rain forest is actually gone; what the most polluted cities in the world actually look like; what colour water is in some places; who is getting sick from what and why. I think this is better evidence of what we're doing to the planet than Gore can offer up; instead of 'suppose this happens' or 'if we continue at our current rate', these specials show how bad things are RIGHT NOW. They take us out of our bubbles and force us to see what's happening elsewhere. Click the link above for the website, which has podcasts of episodes already shown.

Free REM covers -- Automatic, Baby!

Stereogum has put together a cover album of REMs 'Automatic for the People', to celebrate the 15 year anniversary of its release. This has been sanctioned by the boys themselves, and Mike Mills adds his comments for posterity. For a limited time (I don't know how long) this can be downloaded for free at the Stereogum website. Some of this is weak, but some is excellent. I don't think you'd recognize any of the artists (except maybe the Meat Puppets and Sara from Tegan and Sara), but it is worth a listen. Hooray!