Latest Articles

The green tax credits are good ideas, but not good stimulus ideas

So, maybe you've heard: the economy looks like it might be headed for the tank. You may have also noticed that there's an election this year. That means it must be time for a stimulus package on Capitol Hill. No one up there wants to head into reelection with rising unemployment, a rash of foreclosures, and falling incomes on their hands, without at least looking like they're doing something about it. So there's a rush on the Hill to get a "stimulus package" out the door to help boost the economy ASAP.

Cynicism aside, I think this is a good thing. People are suffering, and if the government can do something about it, why shouldn't they? It sometimes seems like heresy these days, but I tend to think it's what we pay them to do.

The problem is that some of the stimulus proposals floating around, including ones by our green friends (see Josh Dorner's post for example), are not very good stimulus policies. It's not that any of these ideas are bad. Most of them are downright good. Excellent, even. The problem is that almost none of them can be remotely classified as stimulus.

Here's the problem, or at least one of them: Since World War II, the average recession has lasted just 11 months. Add the fact that it takes a fair bit of time (anywhere from 3 to 6 months) before we even recognize that we're in a recession. Add still more time to decide what to do about it, and more time on top of that for whatever we decide to do to actually have an effect, and you see the problem. Even for the quickest policy approach, we could be solidly 7 months into an 11 month recession before we can have any impact.

There is a very short window for policy to stimulate the economy. If we don't act fast enough, the policy won't take effect soon enough to help anyone. If we're late enough, the policy ends up hitting the economy when it's on the upswing, and instead of smoothing out the business cycle, we end up contributing to it.

Wind-power technicians are in high demand

As the wind industry experiences a huge boom, trained technicians are in high demand. Wind techs must have smarts in mechanics, hydraulics, computers, and meteorology — and, of course, not be afraid of heights. The relatively new industry’s oldest independent training programs aren’t even five years old, and the industry is hustling to support training […]

Don’t let Wal-Mart’s greenish diversions distract you

The following is a guest essay by Alex Goldschmidt, online editor at Wal-Mart Watch.

-----

Wal-Mart has been trying its hardest to distract its environmental critics. In a carefully orchestrated act of diversion, the company shows off its skylights and light bulb sales. In doing so, Wal-Mart has managed to draw attention away from the other, deeper environmental problems lying at the heart of the company's business model.

Wal-Mart's public relations efforts help hide the fact that despite all its talk, the company isn't any greener than it was in 2005 when it laid out a series of company-wide environmental initiatives. The fact remains that Wal-Mart's energy use is still rising. Until the company significantly reduces the amount of energy used to earn a dollar, its sustainability initiatives remain fundamentally flawed. Several aspects of the company's basic business model hinder this kind of comprehensive change:

How to green your love life

Skyrockets in flight … but is it an eco-friendly delight? Photo: iStockphoto Ahhh, the bedroom: an oasis of pleasure, a place where terms like “emissions reduction” and “off-gassing” should never intrude. Not that environmentalism and sex don’t mix. It’s just that lying back and thinking about things like CO2 and carcinogens isn’t exactly … hot. […]

Church of England urges carbon fast for Lent

Planning to give up alcohol or chocolate for 40 days when the season of Lent begins tomorrow? Two Church of England bishops are urging churchgoers to instead take part in a carbon fast.

Masdar

I know you can never bank on these things until they’re completed, but if this goes as planned it sure will be righteously cool: Groundbreaking is scheduled for Saturday for Masdar City, a nearly self-contained mini-municipality designed for up to 50,000 people rising from the desert next to Abu Dhabi’s international airport and intended as […]

Fewer folks are regularly getting out in nature, says study

Kids — and adults — these days are “videophiliacs” who prefer their nature through the TV screen rather than personally experienced, says a new study estimating that U.S. folks’ participation in outdoor recreation has dropped as much as 25 percent over the past 20 years. Researchers looked at four metrics: visitation to public lands, number […]

Way better than oil dependence

Conservatives love energy independence and nuclear power. In other news (sub rqd): Russia could earn more than $5 billion selling nuclear fuel to U.S. utilities over the next 10 years under an agreement it reached Friday with the Bush administration. The Commerce Department deal allows Russia to sell low-enriched uranium and other uranium products directly […]

Birds die in Portland neighborhood after alcohol binge

This story from The Oregonian gives new meaning to the term "dead drunk":

It's a case fit for wildlife CSI: 55 robins from the Mount Tabor neighborhood -- all dead within a few nearby backyards.

Toxic spill?

Mystery virus?

Maybe not. The leading theory is that the birds were fatally intoxicated, said Bob Sallinger of the Audubon Society of Portland's wildlife care center, where the birds ended up last week.

That's right: The birds drank themselves to death.

Not from a bottle, though. The birds' bellies were chock full of holly berries, skins and seeds. Sallinger isn't dismissing other explanations yet, but the current thinking is that the birds ate aged and fermented berries that killed them.

...

The robins travel in flocks this time of year, so they could have gobbled the berries together last week. They may have died from ethanol poisoning directly or dropped into such a stupor they died of exposure.

"Certainly a drunk bird in the rain is pretty vulnerable," Sallinger said.

Maybe they were just depressed.

Slim down with the ‘Waste Diet’

There are people who talk about reducing, reusing, and recycling -- and then there's Maren Engelmohr.

Engelmohr, a St. Louis architect with an impressive set of green credentials, her husband, and her two children are embarking on a year-long "waste diet," and are challenging you (and me) to do the same: