This CBS News video series asks: Where do the presidential candidates stand on carbon emissions and the environment?
Video 1: John Blackstone reports both candidates propose measures that sound the same, but there are differences between them….
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
We have gone on about how we need a green new deal. FDR biographer Conrad Black writes from his Florida retreat about the scale of the FDR new deal; imagine if this much energy and effort was directed at insulating our buildings and rebuilding our transportation and energy systems.
“The government hired about 60 per cent of the unemployed in public works and conservation projects that planted a billion trees, saved the whooping crane, modernized …
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
One never knows whether Forbes is serious or has its tongue planted in its cheek, after all Chris Buckley works there. When you read David Hirschman’s Global Warming Winners you learn that we will be booking our winter vacations in Atlantic City, travelling by boat to the North Pole, and hitting the beaches of the North Sea. Somehow I don’t think that there are a lot of winners in this. Virtually visit them all at Global Warming’s Winners via Grist
It all reminds me of:
<a href=”http…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Photo via Mooganic, and Causewired
You’re here on TreeHugger, so you likely feel a connection between being online and being active in social change. That connection - using the internet as a means of doing good for the world - is quickly spreading thanks to the rise of social networking, free-to-use platforms for websites, and a broadening number of devices through which we can connect to the web.
Tom Watson has dubbed this as being “Causewired.” In his new book by that title, Watson explores how this connection …
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
photo: Drax Group
Drax Group, the owner of the eponymous 4,000 MW coal-eating behemoth power plant in North Yorkshire, England has announced that it will be partnering with Siemens to do something other than spew greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Wait, that was a bit harsh…
Drax Group and Siemens say that they will be building three 300 MW biomass power plants in the UK over the next couple of years. The plants will be powered by energy crops and agricultural waste from the UK, and are expected to supply about 15% of the UK’s renewable electricity by the time the all come online. That’s still a wa…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
It is tough times all around right now, and people are loath to spend money on anything. However the Huffington Post has a roundup of fall activities that are fun for a family to do, cheap or free, and you come home with something to eat. They include Neighbourhood Delicacies, where they pick up TreeHugger Bonnie’s post on rooting around the local lawns and parks for edible treats; Mushroom Hunting, but you better know what you are doing; Urban foraging for “public fruit”, and Apple picking at local orchards. Tasty and free at the<a href…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Photo via LG
What better use for a decommissioned factory that once made energy-sucking plasma display screens than making energy-generating solar photovoltaic panels. Talk about an awesome 180.
LG is investing $168 million in retooling the plant, and work will start next month. Read on for more info on exactly what to expect from the factory. …
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Photo via sirtrentalot at flickr
Hibernating bats in Havran, near Turkey’s Aegean coast, can rest easy this winter, thanks to a decision by local authorities to hold off on pumping water into a nearby dam reservoir, an action that would have flooded their cave.
One cave near newly completed Havran Dam is thought to hold 15,000 to 20,000 bats of eight or nine different species, the second largest colony in Turkey. According to a 2005 paper in the journal Zoology in the Middle East, “the species richness and the colony sizes qualify the site as an Important Mammal Area and woul…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Photo via The Show Must Go On
In an odd twist, Greenpeace is giving the thumbs up to Apple for their ever-greener products, and thinks that PCs would be wise to follow suit.
Now, Apple usually doesn’t do much to make Greenpeace smile. In fact, the two have often thrown punches at one another, which has been well covered on TreeHugger. So for Greenpeace to give praise, they must really mean it. And it gives a bit of extra clout to Apple’s green claims.
But wh…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Photo via MakeLessNoise
While gadgets that claim to be greener seem to be flying at us from left and right, how can we be sure exactly where companies stand in their overall switch to better practices?
The Consumer Electronics Association has put out a new report to help us out on that front. The Environmental Sustainability and Innovation in the Consumer Ele…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Peaceful environmental activists who were protecting an old-growth forest in Tasmania, Australia, have been violently attacked by timber workers as they were blocking the road for them.
The timber workers attacked the car that the protestors were using to block the road using a sledgehammer and kicking in its windows. They later dragged out a 22-year-old protestor and kicked him repeatedly.
The brutal attack was caught on tape by one of the protestors:
Via Ecowar
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
photo: erasmusa
In the same week that it was announced that the UK overtook Denmark to be the world’s foremost producer of electricity from offshore wind farms, the Crown Estate (which holds all of the Queen’s property, but is independent of the monarchy or government) has said that it will be making a significant investment in offshore wind power by promising to pay for up to half of all pre-construction development costs for offshore wind projects in areas under its control.
I admit that’s quite a mouthful, but this is what i…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Yvo de Boer, who heads the Bonn-based U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, is a bit more optimistic about the current financial crisis than George Monbiot is. Yvo de Boer says that the current financial crisis could “hasten” countries efforts to create a greener and more sustainable economy.
“The credit crisis can be used to make progress in a new direction, an opportunity for global green economic growth,” Yvo de Boer told a news conference.
“The credit crunch I believe is an opportunity to rebuild the financial system that would underpin sustainable growth,” and that “governments now have an opportunity to create and enforce policy which stimulates private competition to fund clean industry”, Yvo de Boer said.
Yvo de Boer said that to be able to “create new markets, investment opportunities and job creation” the climate meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009 must be successful.
Read the whole interview over at wbcsd.org
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Italian Grayhound, At Earthwatch Tree Planting Project, “Roxbury”, Boston, USA
By: Jeanine Pfeiffer
We all have choices. As we fill our lives with things or creatures or experiences, we have an astonishing array of options. Bling or plain? Doberman or Chihuahua? Whale watching or poolside tanning? Paper or plastic or bring your own gosh-darn bag?
We consumers are demi-gods of the Universal Supermarket of Life, setting off a cascade of repercussions with our choices, all the way up and back down the production-consumption-disposal chain. Do we recognize our extraordinary collective power?
P…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Sarah Palin, Republican candidate for the Vice Presidency and running mate with John McCain, ignores basic climate science by claiming that climate change is not man-made and that weather patterns are to be blamed instead. And during an interview in Las Vegas two days ago Sarah Palin couldn’t name a single man-made cause that contributes to climate change.
Q: I’ve also heard you hint that you do think there might be some man-made causes that are contributing to this. Can you describe what those are?
PALIN: Right, well what I have said about this is really the debate at some point, had better shift to, no matter the cause, whether it all be attributed to man’s activities or just the natural cycle of climate changes in our earth’s history. We have seen this before.
Watch the interview below:
Either Sarah Palin is totally clueless, about anything, or she refuses to acknowledge man-made climate change because she is bought by the oil and coal industry. Either way it’s bad. Really bad.
Just like Joe Biden said, the Democratic Vice President candidate: “if you don’t understand what the cause is, it’s virtually impossible to come up with a solution.”
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Is it just me or is Halloween on steroids this year? As I strolled the sleepy, autumn streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn it seemed as though my neighborhood’s infamous brownstones were way more jazzed up than ever with flashing, electronic pumpkins, cob-web adorned cast-iron gates, plastic window decals and inflated ghosts. Among these, I picked out my favorite, more sustainably decorated homes sporting real, carved pumpkins, homemade stuffed scarecrows and kid-crafted signs. My favorite: A simple white sheet of paper with this crypt…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Bikes in Sapporo under snow, photo: Daniel Cuthbert.
When your island gets 20-30 feet of snow in a year, I suppose coming up with interesting ways to put that snow to use. That’s just what Japan’s transport ministry plans on doing at the new New Chitose Airport terminal in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Japan Today is reporting that the ministry plans on introducing a system by 2010 which will use collected snow to provide 30% of the facility’s cooling energy. Here’s how i…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Tendril and Itron are pairing up to solve the issue of communication between smart meter-equipped homes and utility companies. Their new solution would allow for a two-way communication between smart meters and utilities without the need for a home to have a broadband connection. …
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Photo via WhiteAfrican
As we know, Google is hard core about getting on target with a switch to renewable energies.
The US and China are big old guilty culprits in energy consumption and car…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
photo: Ausra
The Kimberlina solar thermal power plant, located near Bakersfield, California and the first solar thermal plant built in the state in some 20 years, opened yesterday. Although only 5 megawatts in size, its developer Ausra is understandably pleased to be operating its first solar thermal power plant in the United States. Regarding the plant opening, Ausra’s CEO Robert Fishman had this to say,
…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
It wasn’t so long ago many people in North America thought vegetarians were weird, lived in hippie communes and lived off of tofu and brown rice. Our cultural ideas have shifted enough in the last decade that this concept has mostly fallen away. We realize that vegetarians live in all segments of society and it’s a pretty regular thing. Now wonderful vegetarian options are readily available at restaurants, grocery stores and indeed, in people’s homes.
…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
I’m going to let Josh Tulkin speak mostly for himself on this one, but here’s the thumbnail sketch of the situation: Tulkin received a latter from the Maryland State Police informing him that from March 2005 to May 2006 Tulkin was under surveillance by the police on suspicion of terrorist activities because of his work at the time as Deputy Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. The polic…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
3,000 sea turtles have washed up dead on the shores of Baja, California in the last five years according to a report published by UC Santa Cruz last week. More below the fold….
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Now that gas is cheaper will we consume less?
This AP news video reports that Americans are now paying significantly less at the pump. Will the gas price break lead to more consumption or have drivers learned lessons from $4 a gallon gasoline?
As gas approaches affordable again, will drivers forget the painful lessons of overreliance on a dwindling resource?
While the report misses an opportunity to plug the link between the burning of fossil fuels leading to the accumulation of atmospheric greenhouse gasses, its reinforcement of the oil scarcity message is a fine way to help move the world along to renewables. Of note…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
La Finquita Community Garden via Nuestras Raíces
Our uncertain times, both economic and environmental, have businesses, individuals and all levels of government scrambling for a positive way forward. On one end of the solution spectrum is the short-sighted U.S. financial bailout. On the other end are thousands of far-sighted individuals, community groups, neighborhoods, and towns, planting, growing, preserving, cooking, and eating food grown in their own (literal and figurative) backyard…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
Project Better Place–Great Idea or Hot Air?
We’ve heard a lot about Project Better Place, Shai Agassi’s plan to make electric cars sell like cell phones. The simple premise behind the model is that batteries–the most expensive part of an electric car–should be leased to users for a monthly fee. For longer trips, electric “fueling” stations will enable drivers to pull in, swap their depleted battery for a fully charged one, and continue on their way. Of course, pull…
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
As in many other industries, appliance sales have suffered as the U.S. economy has slowed and consumers spend less. Major-appliance shipments declined 7.4 percent for the year through August, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. But there’s one bright spot in the market: stand-alone freezers. Shipments of freezers were up 3.5 percent for the first eight months of the year and rose 13 percent in August over a year earlier; upright models saw an annualized sales jump of nearly 17 percent in August; chest models, 10 percent.
Rising food prices could be a factor in the growth of freezer sales. From 2005 to 2008, the overall cost of food for home consumption was projected to climb 4 to 5 percent, according to this Wall Street Journal report. The ever-increasing tab at the checkout line has spurred more Americans to buy in bulk at warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club, likely creating a need for more freezer space.
If you’re considering getting a stand-alone freezer, use our buyer’s guide to get the right unit for your needs. Avoid placing the freezer in the garage, where fluctuating temperatures can force the compressor to work extra hard. If you find that after a while you’re not using your separate freezer, consolidate frozen foods in your primary refrigerator-freezer and turn off the stand-alone freezer.
As for what goes into the freezer, don’t fill your new appliance with high-fat, high-calorie foods. As we reported in the July 2008 "Can Appliances Make You Heavy?" kitchen appliances could encourage poor eating habits. (Some freezers have dedicated storage compartments for pizza and ice cream, for example.) Visit ConsumerReports.org/health for diet and nutrition advice.—Daniel DiClerico
Essential information: To determine which appliances you should fix and which you should nix, read our updated repair-or-replace advice. Then find out about the best places to buy new appliances.
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
As in many other industries, appliance sales have suffered as the U.S. economy has slowed and consumers spend less. Major-appliance shipments declined 7.4 percent for the year through August, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. But there’s one bright spot in the market: stand-alone freezers. Shipments of freezers were up 3.5 percent for the first eight months of the year and rose 13 percent in August over a year earlier; upright models saw an annualized sales jump of nearly 17 percent in August; chest models, 10 percent.
Rising food prices could be a factor in the growth of freezer sales. From 2005 to 2008, the overall cost of food for home consumption was projected to climb 4 to 5 percent, according to this Wall Street Journal report. The ever-increasing tab at the checkout line has spurred more Americans to buy in bulk at warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club, likely creating a need for more freezer space.
If you’re considering getting a stand-alone freezer, use our buyer’s guide to get the right unit for your needs. Avoid placing the freezer in the garage, where fluctuating temperatures can force the compressor to work extra hard. If you find that after a while you’re not using your separate freezer, consolidate frozen foods in your primary refrigerator-freezer and turn off the stand-alone freezer.
As for what goes into the freezer, don’t fill your new appliance with high-fat, high-calorie foods. As we reported in the July 2008 "Can Appliances Make You Heavy?" kitchen appliances could encourage poor eating habits. (Some freezers have dedicated storage compartments for pizza and ice cream, for example.) Visit ConsumerReports.org/health for diet and nutrition advice.—Daniel DiClerico
Essential information: To determine which appliances you should fix and which you should nix, read our updated repair-or-replace advice. Then find out about the best places to buy new appliances.
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October 25 2008 | Environment and External Blogs and Green | Comments
As in many other industries, appliance sales have suffered as the U.S. economy has slowed and consumers spend less. Major-appliance shipments declined 7.4 percent for the year through August, according to the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers. But there’s one bright spot in the market: stand-alone freezers. Shipments of freezers were up 3.5 percent for the first eight months of the year and rose 13 percent in August over a year earlier; upright models saw an annualized sales jump of nearly 17 percent in August; chest models, 10 percent.
Rising food prices could be a factor in the growth of freezer sales. From 2005 to 2008, the overall cost of food for home consumption was projected to climb 4 to 5 percent, according to this Wall Street Journal report. The ever-increasing tab at the checkout line has spurred more Americans to buy in bulk at warehouse clubs such as Costco and Sam’s Club, likely creating a need for more freezer space.
If you’re considering getting a stand-alone freezer, use our buyer’s guide to get the right unit for your needs. Avoid placing the freezer in the garage, where fluctuating temperatures can force the compressor to work extra hard. If you find that after a while you’re not using your separate freezer, consolidate frozen foods in your primary refrigerator-freezer and turn off the stand-alone freezer.
As for wh
