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The Country Above Us

Canadian government unveils green budget Ottawa — that’s where the Canadian federal government lives, people — unveiled a budget yesterday with some $2.4 billion in new environmental spending. At the center of the eco-money is an $805 million Clean Fund that will dole out cash for private-sector projects that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, as well as […]

Now we’re golden

You think the reason more people don't switch to solar is because it's expensive and, well, takes effort? Nope, turns out it's just a fashion thing. At least, that's the theory behind multi-national Kyocera's solar panels, which masquerade as common roof tiles. (Special thanks to Phil, stuck in snowy Boston, for pointing this one out.)

Using a somewhat less subtle approach, an Australian company is moving forward with plans to build a 3,280-foot-high solar tower. Proponents say the tower will power 200,000 homes, and they've just purchased a 25,000-acre sheep farm to host it. Let the sun shine in.

Biodegradable plastics

An intriguing story on Japan's increasing development and production of biodegradable plastics.

In 2000, production of such plastics stood at slightly more than 2,000 tons.

"It will increase to 50,000 tons this year and to 200,000 tons in 2010," the official [of the Biodegradable Plastics Society] said. ...  "Biodegradable plastics will account for about 10 percent of the market in around 2020."

Cool.

Poop is not funny

OK, maybe a little. Hot off the, er, presses: a company in Australia is seeking donations of kangaroo dung to make recycled paper. Inspired by African and Asian operations that make sheets from elephant excrement, Joanna Gair hopes to make "Roo Poo Paper" a household name. The "pooey" product has proven useful as a conservation fundraiser in some places and is, of course, a hit with the kids. "It's taken my breath away just how popular this [idea] is," Gair says. Which is not a funny quote at all.

Folks in Milford, Nebraska, might want to consider the same plan, since they just spent four months battling a massive, burning pile of manure at a feedlot. The 100-foot-long heap, estimated to weigh 2,000 tons, began smoldering due to organic action at its center (here's to the power of composting!). After the state Department of Environmental Quality cited clean-air violations, concerned parties spent several weeks pulling the pile apart, and finally quelled the fire. What a relief that is.

Score one for the WaPo

Congrats to the Washington Post, winner of the 2005 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting for their series on lead in D.C. water pipes. Details, and the other winners, below the fold.

We heart China, honest

Last week, Daily Grist reported -- somewhat tongue in cheek -- that China had surpassed the U.S. as the world's largest overall consumer. It's all part of our ongoing obsession with China's boggling growth, which is, from the environmentalist's point of view, probably the single most significant socioeconomic trend in the world right now.

We've gotten several letters since then yelling at us for being "anti-China." You see, China has four times as many people as the U.S., so on a per capita basis, Americans consume much, much more and produce much, much more waste.

Yes, yes, Americans are the evilest, forever and always. Bring me my hairshirt! Can we have our green credentials back now?

But still. The fact that China recently passed us, and has four times as many people, means that it's going to get way bigger. Huge. Fast. If it develops along the same lines as the U.S., using the same technologies and fuel sources, we are all screwed. The earth cannot handle another U.S.-style consumer, four times the size of the original.

The answer is not to try to stop China from developing -- as if such a thing were remotely in the realm of possibility -- or to demonize it. The answer is to do everything we can to try to make China a showcase for every sustainable development trick in the book. The Chinese want prosperity, just as we do, so let's help them leapfrog, get there without sucking up the rest of the world's oil and accelerating climate change. Given its closed political system, there's a limit to what Western greens can do, but at the very least we should be paying attention and doing what we can. There's evidence that China's government gets this, anyway.

Obviously, this should be done in conjunction with -- not instead of -- working to make Western industry and lifestyles more sustainable as well.

Marshing Our Mellow

Legendary Iraqi marshes slowly on the mend Despite certain, er, unfortunate events elsewhere in the country, one part of Iraq, subject to some of deposed dictator Saddam Hussein’s worst crimes, is experiencing a glimmer of hope. For years after the 1991 Gulf War, much of Hussein’s industrial machinery was turned toward a massive dam-building project […]

Lights, camera, activism

Here's some greenish "news" filtering through all the Million-Dollar Oscar hype: buncha stars are going to show up in Priuses instead of limos. And since they'll be using chauffeurs, it probably even counts as carpooling!

For the third year running, hybrid-minded actors -- including Charlize Theron, Leonardo DiCaprio, and, of course, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins -- are taking part in "Red Carpet, Green Cars" to raise funds for Global Green U.S.A. As a token of thanks, Greenfeet will provide them with eco-goodies including hemp napkins, organic wine, and ... disposable bamboo plates. Which sound super sustainable.

Anyway. The whole event, says Greenfeet founder and president Valerie Reddemann, will "show that leaving softer, greener footprints on the earth is hip and downright cool." O, how I wish she were downright right.

Warming oceans

There was a flurry of stories recently on some new studies that tried to get a handle on the extent of global warming by measuring ocean temperatures. For all you science geeks out there, a new post on the invaluable RealClimate explains why that's a good idea.

Sturm Und Stang

Nun’s murder spurs Amazon protections Outrage over the Feb. 12 murder of nun and Amazon defender Dorothy Stang has finally catalyzed Brazil’s government to protect the forest Stang worked for decades to save. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, in addition to once again pulling logging permits he had restored just a week before […]