Latest Articles
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Vilsack: biotech will solve our ag problems
USDA chief Tom Vilsack has been in Italy at the G8 meeting, talking ag policy with reporters. As the global hunger crisis lingers and climate-change and population fears fester, Vilsack is using the opportunity to push agri-biotech as the solution to the globe’s food needs. Here is the Financial Times: Mr Vilsack said the challenge […]
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Did Guilt Drive Thoreau into the Woods?
Henry David Thoreau went to the woods because, he wrote in Walden, he wanted to “live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Yet in the book Thoreau didn’t mention the fact that a year earlier, he had accidentally set the woods near his home town of Concord on fire, causing a 300-acre […]
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What baseball can teach policymakers
With the Major League Baseball season having just begun, I’m reminded of the truism that the best teams win their divisions in the regular season, but the hot teams win in the post-season playoffs. Why the difference? The regular season is 162 games long, but the post-season consists of just a few brief 5-game and […]
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Another 125 million?
As climate change impacts ramp up over the coming years, we have a serious choice to make. We can try to run in between the raindrops, or we can figure out how to build the equivalent of sturdy, innovative umbrellas. Millions more people, mostly living in the world’s poorest regions, are expected to be directly […]
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Screw Earth Day? Not so fast
Earth Day, to be observed for the 40th time on April 22, ranks just below motherhood and ahead of baseball and apple pie on the American cultural hit parade. Gaylord Nelson.Photo: Fritz AlbertWorldwide, organizers say a billion people will observe Earth Day this year, making it the largest secular civic event in the world. So […]
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Volunteer for the planet
Tip #8: Pimp yourself out for the planet. Take time out to volunteer with an environmental organization, and give the greatest gift of all: your fine self. We’re not just talking about a one-night stand here; we’re looking for commitment. A relationship, even. After all, it takes gajillions of dedicated volunteers and their sustained efforts […]
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U.K. subsidizes EVs, Amory Lovins talks trucks, and more green auto news
Photo by Sara Barz. Last Thursday, the UK government announced it would offer British citizens subsidies of 2,000-5,000 pounds ($2,900-7,500) for electric vehicles. To facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles, the government will set aside 20 million pounds ($30 million) to invest in electric-vehicle charging stations in city centers and high-traffic regions. This is welcome […]
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Steven Chu doesn’t talk in sound bites
My oh my, how times have changed. For eight years, Washington was run by a crew that seemed to take delight in not sounding brainy, in being plain-spoken and “common-sensical.” Time after time, you’d see reporters banging their heads against the wall when President Bush or his minions would answer complex questions with non-answer answers […]
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EPA announces collegiate Green Power winners; competition fails to change power buying habits
The Ivy League is the greenest of them all, according to the EPA, which today announced the college and university winners of the Green Power challenge — a competition to motivate American schools to purchase more renewable energy. Participating schools compete within their athletic conferences to purchase the most certified green power, but conferences only […]
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Nearly $200 million spent on energy ads since Obama’s inauguration
Cross-posted from Wonk Room. Politico reports that interest groups and corporations have spent nearly $200 million on TV ads since President Obama’s inauguration to manipulate American energy policy reform. According to an analysis by the Campaign Media Analysis Group, $199.5 million was directed from January 20th to March 31st to television issue ads on energy, […]
