Latest Articles

Pop band Maroon 5 launches ‘carbon neutral’ tour

Grammy-winning pop quintet Maroon 5 have teamed up with Global Cool to green their upcoming arena tour in support of their sophomore album It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. From the press release: Global Cool will work closely with Maroon 5’s production team, management, and the boys themselves to reduce the carbon emissions produced by […]

Whole Foods CEO secretly hearts Wal-Mart

In January 2005, a poster on a Yahoo message board made a bold prediction on how Whole Foods stock would fare. “13 years from now Whole Foods will be a $800+ stock,” he insisted, adding that “the company is going to keep on strongly growing for another 10+ years.” Looking at the company’s stock chart […]

Malawian man powers village with a $16 windmill

A great story via Inhabitat: With all the sobering news lately about global warming and war, it’s important to remember all the positive things that are also going on in the world at any given time. Case in point: the story of intrepid Malawi youth William Kamkwamba who, despite having no education or training, recently […]

Harry Potter goes green, but what about the rest of the industry?

Ahhh, books. They’re like websites on paper, from what I gather. We wrote a while back about Harry Potter going green for the last installment of the series, with two-thirds of the 16,700 tons of paper coming from timber certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. Scholastic, the publisher, is also using 30 percent recycled fiber […]

Overfishing, pollution contribute to exponential rise

Oceana divers documenting the state of ecological communities in Cabrera Marine Park along the Mediterranean Coast encountered swarms of jellyfish, with numbers in the thousands, 30 miles south of the area.

On a seamount some 130 meters from the surface, Oceana's unmanned submarine robot revealed especially high concentrations of these jellies that have wreaked havoc along the Mediterranean in years past. Oceana is working to have the area added to the national park.

High concentrations of jellyfish are not a local problem. The same factors that allow jellyfish to "overflourish" in many parts of the world are at play here: Essentially humans are creating a jellyfish wonderland by overfishing and polluting our oceans.

Young rappers say ‘peace out’ to skeptics

“Glaciers melting, waters rising, sky is storming, global warming!” That’s how a rap written by a group of Vermont teens begins. And they hope it ends with local lawmakers taking action on climate change. The students, who call themselves X-10, first drew attention this spring with their rap, “802,” which described life in Vermont. Their […]

Ichiro! Ichiro!

I watched the end of the MLB All-Star Game last night. I missed Ichiro Suzuki’s inside-the-park home run, alas, but did see the post-game when he was declared MVP and presented with a Chevy SUV hybrid. It’s a step. Maybe next year, the All-Star MVP will be presented with free solar panels for his house. […]

McDonald’s trucks to use french fry grease as fuel

On July 2, McDonald's announced plans to convert its entire British fleet of 155 delivery trucks, which consume about 6 million liters (a little less than 1.6 million gallons) of diesel per year, to run on cooking oil from Britain's 1,200 McDonald's restaurants. The company pledged to make the switch within the next twelve months. In an apparently unintentionally ironic statement, VP John Howe said the fuel wouldn't smell like french fries -- though, he remarked, the Pavlovian effect that would have been "one of the best marketing campaigns we've ever had." Two steps forward, too many back.

Umbra on biodegradable products

Dearest Umbra, With biodegradable corn-plastic products like clothes hangers, credit cards, and trash bags, we are led to believe there are good alternatives to plastic that can be thrown out guilt-free. But doesn’t all trash get put in landfills that are then hermetically sealed to prevent the bad contaminants from leaching out, but hold in […]

Many offset critics appear to be shadowboxing

I’ve been watching the public debate over carbon offsets out of the corner of my eye for some time, and have formed a general impression, which I would like at long last to get off my chest. Offset critics often strike a moralistic tone, comparing offsets to medieval "indulgences." Let’s be clear: That rhetorical gimmick […]