Latest Articles

Dialing local ag up from its very source

Here's a way to save for the future, one that may prove just as important as cash: a community farm, Red Gate Farm, in my town has started a grassroots seed bank to develop and disseminate local vegetable varieties, and it depends on its members to help grow the seeds out and contribute new ones. It's a great (and replicable) community project, with fingers deep in the area's history and culture. And with a climate on the fritz, indigenous seeds will likely play an increasingly important role in sustaining local agriculture.

Green car dealerships sell alternative vehicles

Want to buy a green car (and we’re not talkin’ paint color)? Get thee to one of at least 16 car dealerships in the U.S. that sell only alternative vehicles. Says one green dealer in Montana: “This is exciting, this is innovating … and you can make money doing this. What can be more American?”

Citigroup finds Senate fuel efficiency targets attainable

Financial giant Citigroup recently analyzed the question of whether the CAFE fuel-efficiency targets in the Senate energy bill are possible for the automakers to meet. Its finding: Yes, they are "tough but attainable" (sub rqd), and might even prove a net financial benefit. Said Rep. Ed Markey: "When you have the world’s number one bank, […]

Brundtland update finds problems unsolved

How about a big, gristly, indigestible hunk of bad news? Yeah? OK! Everything that was going to hell 20 years ago is still going to hell (sub rqd): Twenty years after the seminal … Brundtland Commission report "Our Common Future" warned of persistent global environmental degradation, the most pressing concerns facing the world’s climate and […]

Green groups battle over climate bills in the Senate

When writer and climate activist Bill McKibben took to the pages of The Washington Post late last month to demand that legislators and activists back the most ambitious climate-change bill in the U.S. Senate, it was more than a call to action — it was a public salvo in a contentious behind-the-scenes battle. < While […]

Colleges graded on sustainability

The Sustainable Endowment Institute has released its second College Sustainability Report Card, grading the environmentaliciousness of the 200 U.S. colleges with the largest endowments. Two-thirds of the schools received better grades this time around; the average overall grade was a C+, with six schools receiving an overall A- for their efforts. The colleges were graded […]

French prez Sarkozy backs carbon tax

Via CK at the CTC, I see that French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a carbon tax in France, as well a a levy on imports from countries that don’t participate in the Kyoto Protocol. Hm, who might those be? U.S. right-wingers like to use Sarkozy as a rhetorical bludgeon, showing that Europe is […]

What’s up with that gated ‘community’ in Montana?

Alice Waters, long-time champion of food as a tool for building community, has done something quite un-Alice Water-like: sold her name to promote a high-dollar gated development "community" in Montana. Over on Ethicurean, there’s a great post by the novelist Charlotte McQuinn Freeman, who lives in Livingston, Montana — near the site of the quote-unquote […]

Tell BioD what car to buy

My beater has passed 170,000 miles. I couldn't get the key to turn the other day, and the steering column wouldn't lock.

NY Gov. Spitzer favors 100% auction under RGGI

New York state has announced that they intend to auction 100% of their carbon allowances under RGGI. This is a good thing.

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