Latest Articles
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A few (green) minutes with Andy Rooney…
The old codger has been haunting my Sunday evenings for more than three decades. When I was a kid, “60 Minutes” opinionator Andy Rooney was kinda entertaining; his “common sense” rants about the stupidity of daily life appealed to my pre-pubescent world view. And as I got older, it was still fun to watch the […]
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Avoid the bottle blues
Tip #2: Save money (and the planet) by avoiding bottled water. Already heard it? Then get busy converting your friends and family to the anti-bottled-water campaign. Grist has been beating the drum on this one FOREVER… Ashley Braun preached the good word in January 2008, noting: “Production of plastic water bottles requires three times the […]
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Competition for greenest car heats up
The competition for greenest car is really heating up. My favorite is the Bolloré Bluecar, which will be available as a lease option in several European countries next year. That’s OK with me because I am not an early adapter. People who willingly act as guinea pigs by paying exorbitant prices to be the first […]
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Umbra advises on population
Q. Dear Umbra, You once replied to a request for some simple things all environmentally concerned individuals should do by pointing them toward some “Top Ten lists” for eco-minded people. Without a doubt, hands down, the number 1 action that should be followed for anyone concerned with the environment is to limit your procreation to […]
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Wangari Maathai film shows Kenyan tree planting as political subversion
Planting trees in Kenya is about more than just helping the environment.Alan Dater Planting trees in deforested areas brings a host of benefits, as any good environmentalist knows. Trees provide cleaner air, richer soil, wildlife habitat, and shade. They conserve water and protect lands against floods. They absorb carbon dioxide. Under the rule of an […]
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A flawed strategy: Why environmental groups should not be chasing carbon dollars
It’s easy to understand. We’ve had eight years of across-the-board hostility to sustainability investments by Bush & Co., and before that eight years of promises with no follow-through by the Clinton crowd. Now green groups are dazzled by the prospect of hundreds of billions of new dollars for mass transit, energy efficiency, and other projects, […]
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Locavores are ruining food and free range pork will kill us
Get thee to a CAFO!Photo: pubwvjIn a recent op-ed, in The New York Times gravely informed its readers that free-range pork is deadly stuff. Despite evidence that incidence of trichinosis is very rare in the US–about 40 cases a year, and mostly caused by eating wild game (usually bear)-James E. McWilliams says that pork laced […]
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Climate change hits Australia with a vengeance
Depressing. Photo: Georgie Sharp via Flickr Despite its economic woes, The Los Angeles Times still employs some of the best environmental reporters in the business, including a personal favorite, Julie Cart, who always brings compassion (and great quotes) to her work. Her story about how climate change is devastating Australia ran this week on the […]
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An apology and an explanation for Friedman
There’s an old saying my granddad was fond of. “Dave,” he’d say, rocking his chair, puffing his pipe, squinting into the distance, “don’t be such an a**hole.” Wise words. On reflection, my post about Tom Friedman’s column ended up unnecessarily heated and confrontational, even insulting. I stand by my take on the column, but Friedman […]
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Adventures in the FUD-osphere
Don’t FUD it upImage: psdFDR must have been talking about the Internet when he famously said that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Everywhere you turn there is another study raising some new hazard and questioning some baseline assumption about how our society lives, eats or fuels itself. And then in short order, […]
