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New electric bike spiffy but spendy

The Pi electric bicycle from Electrobike is engineered with cradle-to-cradle design, assembled in California almost entirely from local components, can go 25 miles in motor-only mode before being plugged in, has a recyclable battery, and produces zero emissions, natch. Intrigued? It can soon be yours for a mere $7,500!

Brad Pitt pledges millions for sustainable rebuilding of New Orleans

Brad turns out to be as serious (on climate) as he is good looking. He came to the first CGI as an observer, not a speaker. But today he announced a major commitment:

Brad Pitt expanded his commitment to New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward today by announcing plans for a new community of homes in the area hardest-hit by the worst natural disaster in American history. He is partnering with Steve Bing in creating the 150 affordable and sustainable homes, which are the first effort of Pitt's "Make it Right" project.

Pitt announced his plan at today's meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, where he challenged attendees to join him and Bing in rebuilding the Lower Ninth Ward. Pitt pledged to match $5 million in contributions to the project. Bing has pledged to match $5 million in contributions as well, for a total of $10,000,000 in matching funds.

Pitt seems genuinely committed to these issues. He said, it was "nice to be in a room with people who are not still debating climate change." He has enlisted William McDonough to make sure the housing is as green as possible:

A sound plan, or a load of manure?

Take a look at this conference on dumping iron into the oceans to boost carbon pickup.

The absurdity that is Bush administration climate meetings

The L.A. Times has a piece on the laughable farce that is the Bush administration climate meetings, which will take place later this week. Some funny quotes: “It is the first in what we hope will be a series of meetings,” said Dan Price, a deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs. “Those are […]

Attack of the sulky teen

Got this letter today about greening teens. Anyone have ideas?

Dear Editor,

What about teens? How do you foster a connection to nature when you're working with teenagers? How do you inspire curiosity, respect and connection to the natural world when their hormones are raging and they just want to be alone?

Little kids may be harder to care for on a day by day basis, but head-strong teens need to be inspired and empowered. How do we guide our adults-in-training to love mama earth, spend time outdoors and make future-generation oriented choices without scaring them into submission?

U.S. will host climate meeting of world’s largest emitters

Representatives from the world’s 17 largest greenhouse-gas emitters will gather tomorrow in the good ol’ U.S. of A. for a climate-change discussion. (And yes, the U.N. just had one of those — President Bush played hooky.) The group, which includes China, India, and Brazil, will be convened by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Bush […]

European cap-and-trade program gets a positive review

At the end of their recent climate report, Lehman Brothers has one of the best brief discussions of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) that I have seen. Since the EU ETS is often viewed in this country as a failure, I thought I would reprint their somewhat different perspective in its entirety:

Mustache speak; you listen

Love him or hate him, you gotta admit The (now freely available to all!) Mustache of Understanding is good today. He draws a line from Wal-Mart to China, nailing the message that renewables + efficiency saves money and drives innovation. Not a whiff of hippie do-gooder about it. I’ve long said that Wal-Mart’s green turn […]

Umbra on kids’ birthday parties

Dear Umbra, I have a wonderful daughter who is just about to turn 5. She is currently the only grandchild and niece to our families, and therefore has everything she needs (still less than many kids we know, but plenty). Therein lies my dilemma: I don’t want the plastic detritus and clutter that come along […]

Dell Inc. pledges to go carbon neutral

PC manufacturer Dell Inc. has announced plans to go entirely carbon neutral by next year. (Take that, Nokia!) The company will focus on energy efficiency and renewable power, and offset additional emissions. In addition, Dell’s “Plant a Tree for Me” program, wherein customers can direct funds to global tree planting, will expand to “Plant a […]