TreeHugger |
1 hour ago
Where LEED Once Led: California Has A Conservation Rush On With Green Building Code. California has proposed a new statewide building code aimed at improving energy efficiency and water consumption.In what was described as the United States' first statewide "green" building rules, the California Building Standards Commission said the code would help reduce the carbon footprint of every new structure in the state. The Commission proposal is still in the public comment period, but let's assume that something resembling what [...]
TreeHugger |
1 hour ago
This is the first in a series of video blog posts about biking across America to raise awareness about how to stop global warming. Hi there. We're Carson and Eric, friends and transportation consultants in Boston, where we share an office adorned by a large pirate flag. We've taken some shorter trips (Mount Washington, Death Valley, etc.), but when Carson, the endurance athlete, came up with the idea of biking across America, Eric, the planner, figured ...
TreeHugger |
2 hours ago
The Bombardier CSeries: Marketed as a "green jet" (image from Wikipedia). Life hasn't been so easy for the airlines lately. As fuel prices reek havoc with the industry's bottom line, carriers have responded by dumping older, less efficient jets, lowering flying speeds and carrying less weight - not to mention
EcoToolBox |
3 hours ago
AP reports here at Yahoo News: BEIJING - Beijing's Olympic shutdown begins Sunday, a drastic plan to lift the Chinese capital's gray shroud of pollution just three weeks ahead of the games.
Triple Pundit |
3 hours ago
Looking to report to the international community and U.S. donors, the Wildlife Conservation Society???s???Forever Siberian Tigers??? project team at the Hunchun Nature Reserve in northeast China has put out the third edition of its English language newsletter, in which it reports on recent conservation, public outreach and educational efforts to protect the endangered Siberian tiger, including the implementation of MIST, a conservation management information system. Only an estimated 330-370 adult Siberian tigers are believed to exist in the wild and [...]
Celsias |
5 hours ago
What aims to be the greenest building in Europe has just been un-earthed and is expected to be complete at the end of next year. And using the snafus of the greenest building of 20 years ago, they may well have all the bases covered regarding efficiency and environmentalism. It's fitting that the World Conservation Union (IUCN) would be housed in the greenest building, which aims at exceeding 2 sustainable building standards- LEED and Minergie (similar to LEED certification, used in [...]
Celsias |
6 hours ago
Click for full view Courtesy: Throbgoblins ...you need to know the story of the Niger Delta, a once lush land of mangrove swamps at the base of Nigeria. In the late 1950s, in the final days of British imperial rule, Shell's local subsidiary discovered it lay on top of vast pools of oil. Britain immediately became its number one user, with the US close behind. In the long decades since, more than $200bn worth of oil and gas has been [...]
Celsias |
6 hours ago
The 25-member African organisation CEN-SAD (Community of Sahel-Saharan States) has initiated a project to build a Great Green Wall across the continent from Mauritania in West Africa to Djibouti in the East. The project is an attempt to stop growing desertification in the northern regions of the continent. Other key objectives of the Great Green Wall initiative include conservation and recovery of existing vegetation, introduction of new plantations, promotion of modern bioenergy instead of unsustainable biomass use, and improved range and water resources [...]
Celsias |
6 hours ago
It seemed like such a good idea in 1999 with the launch of the first e-book reader, the Franklin EBookMan. E-books were predicted to not only revolutionize the publishing industry, but help save a lot of trees. Storage space would also be saved by carting around entire personal libraries in a pocket-sized bright shiny toy. Yet do you know anyone who actually uses an e-book reader? The mighty Amazon.com is banking on e-book readers becoming the next iPod, despite the [...]
TreeHugger |
6 hours ago
While the world (understandably) remains focused on the melting Arctic ice caps, those of us living in California have been worrying about a melting of a different sort. And, according to a new study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the problem may be getting worse. Indeed, Noah Diffenbaugh, an associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences at Purdue University, believes the melting of California's snowpack may be accelerating at a higher ra...
Yesterday
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 08:29PM
By Joseph RommAs part of my ongoing series on core climate solutions (see links below), let's examine biofuels. If we are going to avoid catastrophic climate outcomes, we need some 11 "stabilization wedges" from 2015 to 2040. So if you want to be a core climate solution, you need to be able to generate a large fraction of a wedge in a climate-constrained world. And that is a staggering amount of low-carbon energy. Princeton's Socolow and Pacala describe one wedge of [...]
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 08:29PM
By David Roberts"America is the most selfish country. From the way they talk, Americans believe even if the world disappears, America wouldn't disappear." -- Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, on the U.S. not joining the Kyoto Protocol
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 08:28PM
By Sara BarzLiberals love Gore's gall. Conservatives hate that he drove a gas-guzzler to the big speech. Politicians grumble over his timing. Climate policy wonks and science geeks admire the inititive, but want something a little more ... feasible ... say, 50 to 90 percent renewable electricity by 2020 with a little natural gas for good measure? Across the blogosphere, however, certain questions about Gore's plan remain unanswered. What practical measures will we take to get to zero emission electricity in [...]
TreeHugger |
Jul 18, 2008 08:27PM
Love music? Summer festivals like Fuji Rock are huge events here with hundreds of thousands of participants and bands from all over the world. Organizers are adding lectures about the environment, and inviting NGOs to promote their causes. This weekend you can join the AP Bank Festival - an outdoor music festival in Tsumagoi in Shizuoka Prefecture, south west of Tokyo. All profits from the event are used as seed money for lending to environmental projects and for AP Bank's [...]
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 03:59PM
By Kate Sheppard Jim Slattery, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Kansas, dropped by Netroots Nation this morning to talk about how progressives can make inroads in the heartland. His panel, "Rural America and the Progressive Movement," took a look at some of the reasons rural voters shouldn't be written off as red. Energy and environment were two key issues the panel discussed, noting that higher gas prices and environmental degradation hit rural Americans the hardest. Listen Kate Sheppard interviews Jim [...]
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 03:59PM
By Sean CastenOur electric regulatory model is broken. It preferentially deploys expensive power sources before cheap ones. It compares the variable costs of dirty fuels to the all-in costs of clean fuels and deludes itself into thinking that the dirty, expensive power is economically advantaged. It places the interests of utility shareholders above the interests of other potential investors in our power grid, massively skewing capital allocation, even while it insulates utility investors from the disciplines imposed by a competitive market. [...]
EcoGeek.org |
Jul 18, 2008 03:58PM
I'm not swallowing this whole yet. But The Register is reporting that one of their readers just received 32 documents from HP in a box that could have held around four million sheets of paper. It's hard to imagine how this kind of stupidity might occur, and I doubt we've heard the whole story here. But, really? According to the email the Register received the box contained sixteen boxes that each contained two sheets of paper. There were SEVENTEEN total boxes [...]
WorldChanging |
Jul 18, 2008 03:58PM
A couple years ago, I wrote a piece Why We Need An X Prize for Eco-Friendly Air Travel, encouraging a competitive approach towards innovating a way to slash air travel emissions: Air travel presents one of the stickiest problems we face. On the one hand, in a rapidly globalizing world, we need to fly to do business, build networks and see loved ones. Indeed, to many people (including myself, to be honest), the ability to travel easily and keep a [...]
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 02:58PM
By Holly RichmondWho's that grizzled chap in the plaid? It's our own David Roberts, on a panel earlier today titled "Debunking the Issue Silo Myth: Why the Broader Progressive Movement is Green," at Netroots Nation. His part is about 14 minutes into it:
Gristmill |
Jul 18, 2008 02:58PM
By Sarah van Schagen The Olympic Sculpture Park. Photo: Jeff Wilcox. "Cities are what's going to get us out of this mess ... and what makes cities livable is art." That was the take-home message, summarized by Cascade Land Conservancy President Gene Duvernoy, following a discussion Thursday on art and the environment at the Seattle Art Museum's Olympic Sculpture Park. Built on nine acres of restored urban green space, the Olympic Sculpture Park was a fitting backdrop for a dialogue on [...]
Greenthinkers |
Jul 18, 2008 02:57PM
It was fun to get back in the swing of things around these here Greenthinker parts. And by swing, we mean eat, learn, get awestruck, recycle and go for a walk. As we look back we must also look forward. Next week we’re thinking of looking at finally launching our much-discussed feature on living a BPA-free life. And we’ll discuss some hot new bamboo fashions. And hey, we’ll also bring you all the latest in product reviews, news and whatever [...]
EcoGeek.org |
Jul 18, 2008 02:57PM
China needs a lot of energy to power its economy and the country's reliance on coal has led to major problems with unsafe work conditions and pollution. By 2006, China's energy requirements had become the second highest in the world, doubling its needs from the past decade. The greater the need for energy, the greater the urgency to find a renewable solution and China appears to be (at least in part) heading in the right direction. A new report has found [...]
EcoGeek.org |
Jul 18, 2008 02:57PM
Despite the fact that we spend a great deal of time talking about solar power here at EcoGeek, it's a very very young industry. It's extremely volatile. No one has any idea which technology is going to win out, or whether photovoltaic cells will ever be competitive with grid power. Right now the solar industry is able to attract funding for research and development because a lot of countries have an interest in it being developed on their soil. They want [...]
Triple Pundit |
Jul 18, 2008 02:57PM
Looking once again to Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn’s book Earth the Sequel – The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming that explores the work people are doing to find real solutions for our current unsustainable energy economy we look, actually, to nature itself. At least that’s what Jay Harmon does, and what led him to found PAX Scientific, based in San Rafael California. Harmon’s fascination with natural systems focuses on fluid dynamics and began many years ago as a boy growing up on the beaches of [...]
TreeHugger |
Jul 18, 2008 02:57PM
...New moms rejoice! Even the seemingly perfect Angelina needs to work to get her pre-pregnancy shape back. With her twins not even a week old, she's already put herself on an organic diet - one that's high in fresh vegetables and Omega-3. According to her friend, Angelina's menu includes "organic salmon with tomatoes, brown bread and herbs for breakfast, while mackerel or grilled fresh tuna with watercress, spinach tomatoes is typical for lunch or dinner." Via: ecorazzi ...
