Sustainability Sunday over on Worldchanging is always good reading, but today's is particularly meaty. Don't miss Gil Friend on Kyoto and sustainable business, Mike Millikin on the state of sustainable transportation, and Jamais Cascio on the need for distributed computing systems to run future energy grids: ... distributed energy is currently more costly than centralized power (PDF). Some of that cost comes from managing the complexity of variable power generation, changing usage patterns, and a multiplicity of sources. Distributed energy resources will have to be managed more like a computer network, complete with abundant routers and switches. The success of …

I agree with every word of this post on the Commons blog, and almost every word of the Michael DeAlessi-authored report to which it points (thought admittedly I only read the short version (PDF)). It also met with approval from Sustainablog and EnviroPundit. The basic point is that private efforts at conservation are often more flexible and effective than government programs. An ancillary point is that mainstream environmentalists often resort reflexively to government when looking to address environmental problems. Both true. Commons is, of course, written by libertarians -- or as they call themselves, "free market environmentalists" -- and I …

The folks over at the Indispensable RealClimate.org set out to write a "Dummies Guide to the Latest 'Hockey Stick' Controversy" "in language even our parents might understand." It's a great read, as always, but all I can say is, they must have really smart parents.

The kick-off of Kyoto, new reports on the dangers of global warming, and a flurry of Congressional activity have created a cultural moment ripe with potential. While environmental organizations are largely blowing it, the nuclear industry sees it for what it is: a huge opportunity. They have begun a PR push to position nuclear as the "eco-friendly" alternative to oil and gas, and they have no shortage of apologists -- some in the executive branch -- helping them along. Those greens who think nuclear is a poor choice for the future had better get their shit together and start a …

Over on Worldchanging, Vinay Gupta asks: What will environmental policy in the 22nd century look like? His answers are pretty heady stuff.

If you were intrigued by this blurb in Daily Grist on CalPERS, check out the in-depth story by William Greider in The Nation on the increasing power of public pension funds to affect social and environmental change. In the wake of Enron-style corporate scandals, in which public pension funds lost more than $300 billion, some of the leading funds have restyled themselves as more aggressive reformers. They are picking fights with Wall Street orthodoxy they long accepted, like the obsessive maximizing of short-term gains. More important, they are broadening their definition of fiduciary obligations to retirees by trying to enforce …

In a piece discussing the import of today's kick-off of the Kyoto Protocol, Chris Mooney makes a point I also tried to make in my review of Crichton's book, and again in this post. Those who remain in denial about the seriousness of global climate change must now defend a truly ludicrous position. They must argue that the rest of the world is suffering from a mass delusion, a fantasy so powerful that over a hundred nations have independently fallen for the same alarmist myth; and furthermore that the 35 developed nations facing binding commitments under Kyoto have voluntarily agreed …

Sacramento County plans to join the green building revolution, but it's not necessarily a high-minded ethical decision. It's about on dollars and cents. Specifically, how to stretch them farther. Music to my ears.

This little story in the Fresno Bee speaks volumes. It's about a program at wee West Hills College called "Farm of the Future" that teaches students how to use the latest high-tech farming equipment. These students are in hot demand and are hired straight out of the program, because farm tech is advancing faster than the abilities of typical farmers to keep up with it. "The jobs are there," said Ted Sheely, who grows a wide range of crops on 8,000 acres near Huron. "We don't have enough qualified people to run the equipment we have." Increasingly, farmers are embracing …

A majority of Tennesseans approve of President Bush's job performance, but most doubt his ability in several key areas -- cutting taxes, improving health care, protecting the environment, healing the nation's political divisions and protecting the Social Security and Medicare systems, according to a Middle Tennessee State University poll released yesterday. It is to weep.