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Not as dirty as it sounds

I've had the pleasure of covering all sorts of environmental matters, and interviewing fellow enviro-writers, in the past few years, often for Grist. But so far no piece has reverberated quite like Naughty by Nature: Ever thought about the toxins in your sex toys? Not that I'm complaining; my reputation as the author of this article consistently precedes me into various NYC green gatherings, leading to all manner of astonishingly frank conversation with casual acquaintances or total strangers. And when asked at dinner parties to explain what I do as an environmental journalist, it sure beats the melting Arctic or the destruction of the Everglades for upbeat chat.

Happily for the sexual health of every American, interest in this topic just won't quit. To wit: I have a couple soundbites in this inaugural installment of TreeHugger Radio, a partnership between our pals at TH and EcoTalk Radio. As a huge fan of radio -- and environmental journalism in all media formats -- I wish them the best of luck.

Living in the suburbs may not be so cheap

The conventional wisdom is that it's cheaper to live in the outer suburbs (i.e., a long drive from jobs, stores, or schools) than closer to a town or city center. I suppose that's true enough -- if you're looking only at the cost of housing.

But if you live a long way from most of the places you want to go, you wind up driving a lot more. And that, of course, costs money too -- not just for gas, but also for depreciation on your car, maintenance and the like.

Which leads to the obvious question: what happens if you combine transportation costs and housing costs into a single budget? Is living at the urban fringe still cheaper?

There have already been a couple of attempts (see, e.g., here) to look this issue. Now there's a new study, noted here in The Washington Post. The key finding: when you combine travel and housing, living in a suburban outpost can cost more than living closer to a town or city center. According to the study's author:

Global warming goodness

As if you need more reason to watch the meteorological smorgasbord that is the Weather Channel, every Sunday they are now showing the Climate Code, an hour long program focusing on climate change causes, effects, and solutions. I haven't seen the show yet, but if the website is any indication, it should be great.

Wow

A landslide in Japan:

Lutsel Make a Deal

Canadian government, Natives agree to create massive national park The Canadian government and a tiny Native tribe have agreed to work together to create an 8.3 million acre national park in the Northwest Territories. Three decades ago, the Lutsel K’e Dene tribe turned down a similar proposal, fearing national-park designation would interfere with hunting rights […]

A Tip of the Cap

California will join Northeast greenhouse-gas reduction program California will participate in the carbon cap-and-trade program being established in seven Northeast states, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) announced today. Linking in with the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative — which we suppose won’t be so regional anymore — will help California’s industries comply with an impending mandatory […]

Cheri Sugal, defender of a Mexican rainforest, answers Grist’s questions

Cheri Sugal. What work do you do? I am the executive director of Friends of Calakmul. What does your organization do? Our organization protects land in the threatened rainforest of southern Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, in the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. We sign lease agreements with local landowner groups, called ejidos. In exchange for an annual payment, […]

The tastiest tidbits from the news

I hope you people are making good use of the blogroll at the lower left of this page. Therein lie more treasures than I could possibly discuss or link to. Here's a little sampling of what I found just since Friday:

Forbes’ ‘Energy Outlook 2007’ makes bracing reading

Investment rags exist to fetishize the bottom line. They promise insights and information that can make their readers rich. People on the hunt for lucre need a clear-eyed view of how the world works -- the better to exploit conditions for profit.

That's the progressive case for monitoring the financial/business press. It's true, as far as it goes, though financial journalists are as susceptible as any others to hype, as their generally euphoric reaction to the dot-com bubble shows.

Business publications are also worth reading because they offer a window into the minds of captains of industry -- the people who yank the global economy's levers.

Forbes recently published a special issue titled Energy Outlook 2007. It's worth a look.

Biodiesel for cell phone towers not all good

Here's a Reuters piece about using locally grown crops to power remote cell phone towers in areas of the developing world. Always walking that fine line between reality and pessimism, I have a few thoughts to share.

It turns out that most of the people in the world who do not already have cell phones also live where there is no power-generation infrastructure (electricity). It's a bit of a conundrum. If you are going to expand your cell phone market to the billions who don't have one yet, you have to find ways to power your cell phone towers, as well as give your potential customers enough electricity to power the phones you want to sell to them.