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Rebuilding: Compare and contrast
The city's official blueprint for redevelopment after Hurricane Katrina, to be released on Wednesday, will recommend that residents be allowed to return and rebuild anywhere they like, no matter how damaged or vulnerable the neighborhood, according to several members of the mayor's rebuilding commission.
To encourage people to return to New Orleans ... without funding the only plan that can save the city from the next Big One, is to commit an act of mass homicide.
(via The Poor Man)
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Send it to the fishes.
I'm sure there are plenty of you out there who have not yet rid yourselves of your "holiday tree" because you're lazy ... I mean, because you're beset by qualms about the eco-consequences of tree disposal. Never fear! The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will take your old tree and send it to the fishes.
Cast-off trees are submerged in man-made lakes to create "natural" habitats for fish, including bass, crappie, bluegill, and catfish. Hee hee, crappie.
The fish are happy, the fisherpeople are happy, the tree-discarders are happy ... Awwwwwww. Group hug.
A quick search brought up tree-recycling programs that are still accepting donations in Pennsylvania (PDF), Georgia, Arkansas, and California, and a DNR-funded marsh-restoration program in Louisiana. Search for a tree-recycling program in your area, because c'mon, it's about time to be getting those Valentine's Day decorations up.
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The Mod Quad
Green buildings, sustainability studies going mainstream on campus More than 110 colleges and universities around the U.S. have or are building eco-friendly structures, saving on energy costs and attracting students who want to go to a school that “gets” being green. At Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, for example, students designed a green roof that […]
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Northern Blights
Flame retardants are yet another toxic threat to polar bears New research confirms that polar bears — for years known to be victims of northward-spreading toxic substances — are accumulating in their bodies worrying levels of flame retardants called polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The effects of this PBDE contamination are unknown, but similar chemicals are believed […]
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Where There’s Smokescreen There’s Ire
U.S. and Asia-Pacific countries gear up for not-Kyoto climate meeting The first meeting of the Asia-Pacific climate partnership will kick off this Wednesday in Australia. The six participating nations — Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, and the U.S. — will emphasize the transfer of clean technologies to developing countries, instead of Kyoto-style emissions caps. […]
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Get Richard or Die Tryin’
Enviros plot to beat Pombo in November We’re just one week into this election year and already a cadre of D.C.-based environmental leaders is elbow-deep in plots to green Congress come November. Top priority: defeating Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), chair of the House Resources Committee and champion of a lengthy list of environmental rollbacks, from […]
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Sign it and … well, not sure what will happen.
Like Jeff, I'm in full agreeance with CleanPeace.org's just-published "Declaration of World Energy Independence, Energy Security and Sustainability." Here are the four principles:
Principle One: Make Transitioning to Renewable Energy a Strategic Objective of all Energy Policies.
Principle Two: Require Equal Funding, Fair Play and Competition in Energy Markets.
Principle Three: Accelerate Construction of Sustainable Energy Infrastructures.
Principle Four: Provide for Peace and Prosperity in Times of Oil Shortages.CleanPeace wants you to sign it.
Also like Jeff, I'm not exactly sure what they intend to do with the declaration once people have signed it.
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Consumer Reports on organic
One of my beefs with Consumer Reports has always been its refusal to present sustainability as a standard measure of quality. They did launch Greener Choices, but so far that's been pretty underwhelming, and anyway, it will never reach as large an audience as the mothership.
So imagine my delight when reading this week's CR, which has a short piece about the impact of global warming on insurance premiums (not online), and then later on a long, detailed, and fair look at when it is and isn't worthwhile to buy organic. Worth a read. I hope it's a sign of things to come.
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People buy hybrids to express their identities
UC-Davis researchers are looking into why people buy hybrids. Instead of having them fill out checklist forms, they're sitting down and interviewing buyers for up to two hours.
They have discovered, shockingly, that people are not rational maximizing machines who put together spreadsheets on the relative merits of auto choices along various axes -- fuel economy, size, quality, etc. -- over a lifetime.
No, turns out purchasing a car in America is largely an emotional decision, one bound up with issues of identity and values.
This is a bit of a head-slapper, but for some bizarre reason the mainstream press doesn't seem to get it.
To those of us who do get it, perhaps the more interesting question is: What values are people expressing when they purchase a hybrid?
This (via Treehugger) is from an interview with the researchers on HybridCars.com:
There are common meanings that run through our interviews. And there are often some individual meanings as well. Preserving the natural environment is the obvious meaning of the hybrid, but it's a lot deeper than that. What we hear from people is that when they buy a hybrid vehicle, it expresses their vision of a better world, and their desire for a society and a world where people work together for common goals.
That's powerful stuff, the kind of stuff politicians wish they could bottle.
Visions of a better world sell. Apocalyptic doomsaying doesn't. Environmentalists, take note.
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One-click activism
This is kinda nifty: Go to The Rainforest Site, click on the big green button, and voila, thanks to their sponsors you've "funded the preservation of 11.4 square feet of endangered rainforest."
Might as well drop by a click once a day, no?
(via Digg)
