Latest Articles

Software calculates eco-impact of printers and copiers

Xerox is offering a new software calculator to help companies reduce the energy suckage of printers, copiers, and other newfangled technology. The calculator will consider factors including type of print cartridge, print color, speed, number of pages printed per month, and Energy Star rating, then create bar graphs demonstrating energy consumption, greenhouse gases, and solid […]

Notable quotable(s)

“I am convinced that if we work at it, we will be able to convince India and China that it is in their interest to be part of a global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” — John McCain, March 2008 “One of the things I would do if I were President would be to […]

Canada says no to ethanol waste as cow feed, and more

In Meat Wagon, we round up the latest outrages from the meat industry. Back in January, a high USDA official made a pair of statements that say a lot about how we regulate industrial food production here in the United States. On the one hand, he admitted to a journalist that feeding cows high levels […]

Boston looks to generate electricity from indoor composting

The city of Boston is looking to build an urban, indoor composting facility. Most cities, if they compost at all, transport food and yard waste in gas-guzzling trucks to dumps outside the city limits, where energy and methane from decomposing biomass get lost to the atmosphere. The first-of-its-kind proposed Boston facility would generate electricity from […]

National Hanging Out Day on April 19

Here's a great way to mark Earth Day next month. Each year, the grassroots group Project Laundry List promotes the very picturesque observance of National Hanging Out Day, both to raise awareness about the enormous energy benefits of air-drying laundry and also to draw attention to the fact that, amazingly, this practice is severely restricted in many places around the U.S., especially green ol' California, where 35,000 homeowners' associations have banned the practice.

But electric dryers are inefficient and expensive to run, so the "right to dry" is becoming a new rallying cry around the land. PLL is pushing legislation in a number of states, including its home state of New Hampshire, where the measure recently failed.

So on April 19, consider a colorful clothesline display, plus info from PLL's site to enlighten and amuse. A lot hangs in the balance, you might say.

Joe Cool

He looks so young!

Water problem? What water problem?

There’s no water problem. Dean Kamen solved it: More details here.

Americans want to spend on green, but can’t figure out how, says study

Americans are primed to spend up to $104 billion on “green” technologies this year — but don’t know where to find them, says a new study. Which seems crazy, considering the plethora of green-shopping websites and companies joining in on the “green revolution,” but what do we know? According to the survey conducted by Rockbridge […]

Carbon policy is close to getting the macro right, but plenty of smaller decisions remain

My recent exchange with Gar has made it clear that there is a wide gulf between those details of carbon policy that are theoretically optimal and those which actually impact carbon reductions. Or, to be blunt, those that come up in our weekly staff meetings as actually affecting our decision to consider potential carbon reduction projects and those which simply elicit groans around the conference room of the "great intent, why did they screw up the execution?" variety.*

From our perspective, the good news is that our policy does finally appear to be moving not only toward putting a price on CO2 emissions, but getting the really important details (like auction vs. allocation) right. The bad news is that most of the other details are still wrong.

Umbra on trash bags

Dear Umbra, I am attempting to wean myself off plastic bags. I am also aware of the environmental impact of brown paper bags. So we are OK with cloth grocery bags, but can you suggest an alternative that can be used as a trash can liner (that’s economical)? Lisa Columbus, Ga. Dearest Lisa, Plastic trash […]