Latest Articles
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Wind power surges forward around the globe
Scotland expects renewables to meet all of its electricity needs by 2025.Photo: Kari GibsonFor many years, a small handful of countries dominated growth in wind power, but this is changing as the industry goes global, with more than 70 countries now developing wind resources. Between 2000 and 2010, world wind electric generating capacity increased at […]
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Maine towns reject one-size-fits-all regulation, declare ‘food sovereignty’
Photo: Chewonki Semester SchoolIn 2009, Maine farmer Heather Retberg learned that new regulations prohibited her from bringing her chickens to a neighbor’s approved slaughtering facility. She’d have to invest some $30,000 she didn’t have to build her own facility. So Retberg shifted her focus to raw dairy instead, selling directly to local neighbors. When she […]
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Liberal NIMBYism: the most despicable form of hypocrisy?
Prospect Park’s new bike lane is worse than airborne weaponized AIDSPhoto: shannonvsimmsIn staunchly liberal enclaves all over the country, citizens who profess to progressive environmentalism in the abstract are thwarting local efforts to increase the sustainability of their immediate environment. Whether it’s suing over bike lanes in Park Slope, Brooklyn, or blocking a bus rapid […]
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Behavior change: we’re already doing it [VIDEO]
Last week, my enormous head and I did a video interview with the energy-focused cable news show EnergyNow! (which incidentally just got a national distribution deal through Bloomberg TV). The topic was behavior change. They’ve split the video in two. Here’s the first bit: And the second bit: As always, I find my performance on […]
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Edward Glaeser: Tea Party-style libertarianism could be good for our cities
Cities: Land of the free, home of the brave.Photo: Thomas HawkWhen I talked with economist Edward Glaeser last month about his new book Triumph of the City, he touched briefly on the idea that Tea Party activists, rather than being natural adversaries of city-dwellers, are actually natural allies — if only unwittingly. Here’s what he […]
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Irish scientists help Guinness go green
Photo: Simon HuckoJust in time for St. Patrick’s Day, scientists at the University of Limerick have developed a biodegradable alternative to that plastic widget that keeps Guinness foamy. It turns out that coating the inside of the can with biodegradable, natural cellulose would do an even better job of putting nitrogen into the beer (which […]
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Live Twitter chat: Can bicycling save the economy?
Making statements like “bicycling will save the economy” sounds like pure hyperbole, and our bike columnist Elly Blue nearly nixed the idea as too out-there. Then she started looking at the numbers. And what she found is that bicycling turns out to be a tremendously reasonable salve to many of our current economic woes. The […]
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Fred Upton’s EPA-blocking bill will put more of your money in oil industry pockets
Rep. Upton wants to raise your gas bill.Photo: Mike SchmidCross-posted from the Natural Resources Defense Council. Some politicians will say anything to gain from the pain Americans are feeling at the pump. Anyone watching the news knows that pump prices are rising because world-wide demand is recovering after the recession, oil traders are speculating over […]
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Nicholas Stern: Congressional budget analysis of climate threat is ‘ludicrous’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. This is the third in a three-part interview with economist Lord Nicholas Stern on climate policy. Watch the first part, in which he argued that failure to address global warming could eventually lead to World War III; and the second part, in which he discusses how action will lead to […]
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The toilet I’m going to buy Rand Paul
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) had a bit of an outburst at a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee the other day, revealing that he hasn’t had a working toilet for 20 years and, damn it, he blames the gubmint. Bill Scher has already offered the the senator some judicious advice on how […]
