Olympics
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Talking Vancouver and successful urbanism on the radio
Photo courtesy BinoCanada via FlickrThere’s only so much to say about the Olympics and climate change. If you’re going to have the games, you’re going to have a lot of air-travel emissions (which account for more than half the climate impact of the Vancouver games). The city of Vancouver, on the other hand, presents a […]
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Gold, silver, bronze, & green
What do the Vancouver Olympics have to do with Sir Richard Branson’s “Carbon War Room” and solar power? We hear from venture capitalist Jack Hidary on this Planet Forward webisode. Hidary and Branson aren’t just enjoying the sporting events at the Vancouver Olympics. They’ve started a “Carbon War Room” which is looking for market-driven solutions […]
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Old Olympic village for rent: cheap!
Photo: Energy AustraliaWant to live rent free for a year, and pay no costs for energy and water needs? Not enough incentive for you? How about the possibility of having a plug-in electric car in your garage, as well? This is the deal that Energy Australia is offering, in concert with Sydney Water. They’ll be […]
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Olympic broadcast wins gold for vapidity
While eagerly watching Bode Miller and the men's downhill Olympic race yesterday, I was treated to an unbelievably vapid interlude by Mary Carillo on the Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba, which she showed to Bob Costas. The whole time I was waiting for someone to take this great opportunity to talk about climate change in front of a massive audience. After all, with the bears, there's really obvious stuff going on.
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Want to green the Olympics? Stop moving them around
Photo courtesy BinoCanada via FlickrFor all the efforts to minimize the impact of the Olympics, one big solution never gets taken seriously. So much of the environmental and financial cost of the games comes from cities trying to build facilities that suit both a massive, two-week influx of athletes and spectators and also the long-term […]
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The 10 greenest and brownest things about Vancouver
Courtesy Ecstaticist via FlickrAll eyes are on are Vancouver this month — not just on the Olympics, but on the city itself. Is the world’s biggest athletic circus making the city a better place to live in the long term? A worse one? Or is it just putting the global spotlight on strengths and weaknesses […]
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Obama is going to Copenhagen to push Chicago’s Olympic bid this week
President Barack Obama, who initially planned to let First Lady Michelle Obama represent the United States in Copenhagen this week, when the International Olympic Committee chooses a site for the 2016 summer games, plans to travel there too…. “There is no greater expression of the support our bid enjoys, from the highest levels of […]
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Obama’s absurd Olympic boosterism
Arches, now deserted, built for the 2004 Athens Olympics. As healthcare reform shipwrecks and climate legislation lurches toward a similar fate, President Obama is … preparing to jet to Copenhagen to shill for Chicago as 2016 Olympic site? Really? What an absurd and ignoble use of time and prestige. When I think of the Olympics, […]
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Jackson goes for gold
EPA chief Lisa Jackson will be in the Windy City on Friday to deliver the keynote address to the Chicago Summit on Sport and Sustainability. A review of the summit’s agenda and list of speakers suggests the event will be narrowly tailored to efforts that city is undertaking in its bid for the 2016 Olympics. […]
