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Rural solar advocate Jason Edens answers readers’ questions

As he's built up his Minnesota nonprofit that installs solar systems for low-income households, Jason Edens, this week's InterActivist, has gone from solar activist to solar expert. And it's a good thing: readers this week barraged him with questions about all things solar. He shines a light on topics ranging from DIY solar-system installation to solar ovens -- and he's got the scoop on web resources and other tools that can help you calculate your solar-power potential as well as costs, savings, emissions reductions, and more.

A final word on our Poverty & the Environment series

On this, the final day of our seven-week Poverty & the Environment series, Grist editor at large Kathryn Schulz steps back to take a big-picture look at the challenges we've been covering and the path toward meaningful social change. She also picks her highlights from the series, and invites you to do the same.

Media Shower: Fair trade, and not so fair trade

Last weekend I attended the Hazel Wolf Environmental Film festival in Leavenworth, WA, where 50 films were screened. As a board member and workshop presenter, I didn't get to see all the films I would have liked, but I was fortunate enough to see two of the headliners.

Slippery When Wet

Bush admin declares that wet lands are wetlands, says acreage is way up Yesterday, betraying no hint of irony, the Bush administration announced that even though the U.S. lost a net total of 523,500 acres of natural swamps and tidal marshes between 1998 and 2004, the country actually gained 715,300 acres of wetlands — if […]

For single-family homes, small equals green

Building "green" is a great idea, but you have to watch out for marketing hype everywhere you go. This article mentioned earlier by Dave gives an example of a 5,500 square-foot dream home (over four times the size of the one that houses my family of four). Dave hits the nail on the head when he suggests, "What's missing, of course, is a commensurate rise in eco-friendly community building ..."

In that article you will find a picture of a large house sitting all alone in the middle of what appears to be a semi-desert ecosystem. The article tries to deflect criticism of the very house they chose to highlight with the excuse that it was built large so that "... people would get mad and ask questions." I'm calling bullshit. In part, because they failed to qualify the remark by stating that the most eco-friendly house is a small one (which also minimizes profit potential for the builder).

More solar, less Hoffa

I asked David Roberts, Gristmill editor, how he would feel if I used this site to pimp for issues I'm working on at Vote Solar. Would this be viewed as:

A) Helping Grist readers effectively engage in breaking developments in the environmental world; or

B) crass opportunism?

He said both. I can live with that.

So here goes. If you live in New Jersey, you have an opportunity to help jumpstart solar on the Meadowlands. It seems the Meadowlands Commissioners, tired of being known primarily for Jimmy Hoffa-related issues, are thinking about overshadowing that legacy by installing one of the country's largest solar-energy systems. Vote is April 10. Read more about it and send them a note of encouragement here.

If you live in Arizona, you might want to know that the state senate is considering a bill that would provide a tax credit for solar systems. Hmm. Solar and Arizona. Sounds like a no-brainer to me. If you agree, read more and share the sentiment here.

Dead ringers

Check out this BBC photo collage from the "Dead Ringers?" exhibit that opened yesterday at the British Science Museum. The exhibit explores the waste created by the oft-replaced mobile (Britspeak for cellphone!) and the impact of the coming WEEE legislation on industry and consumers. Displays on the latest mobile technology include biodegradable phone covers, the "first lasagne-based circuit board in the world" (!), and phones that will be able to take themselves apart for recycling (!!).

Perhaps it has less to do with material possessions and more to do with access

This week's New Yorker carries an excellent essay by John Cassidy discussing the history and evolving standards of poverty in the United States, and some of the different ways in which poverty can (and should) be measured.

Most interesting and relevant to some of our discussions is the idea of "relative poverty." If we hold most of what we call poverty in the U.S. up against the 1 billion dispossessed that Mike Davis writes about in his new book Planet of Slums, we find that most Americans are incredibly wealthy. Even if we compare poor Americans today with poor Americans in the 1960s when poverty was first "discovered" in this country, we find today's poor loaded up with stuff (most of America's poor own television sets and dishwashers and have running water and electricity, among other services).

But this kind of measurement may miss the point about poverty, Cassidy suggests:

Although many poor families own appliances once associated with rich households, such as color televisions and dishwashers, they live in a society in which many families also possess DVD players, cell phones, desktop computers, broadband internet connections, powerful game consoles, S.U.V.s, health-club memberships, and vacation homes. Without access to these goods, children from poor families may lack skills -- such as how to search the Web for help-wanted ads -- that could enhance their prospects in the job market. In other words, relative deprivation may limit a person's capacity for social achievement.

Left Behind

Pentagon aims to avoid cleanup costs by attacking EPA science Confused over who they’re supposed to be killing — their enemies? themselves? — the Defense Department in recent years has often defied U.S. EPA recommendations for environmental cleanups and toxicity standards. Case in point: A 2001 EPA draft report estimated that the chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) […]

Meet the New Boss, Slightly Less Irascible Than the Old Boss

New Exxon chair mouths same old wheeze in a breezier style Watch for new ExxonMobil Chair Rex Tillerson to lighten up the company’s communication style, but don’t expect any substantial changes in how the world’s largest publicly traded petro-corp responds to global warming. “We recognize that climate change is a serious issue,” Tillerson told The […]