Latest Articles
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Umbra on returnable bottles
Hi Umbra, I’ve been wondering lately what happened to the returnable bottles that were so common up until some point in the ’70s. Why did the legislation go away? Does reusing bottles use less energy? It seems like it would, but I haven’t found info on advocating for bottle reuse in any of the green […]
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Sun rises in east
I suppose everyone’s heard by now that the U.S. plans to stiff Germany and the UK on climate change at the upcoming G8 summit. German and British leaders will no doubt express grave concern to the media, and then when it becomes obvious the U.S. won’t budge, try to recast their utter ineffectuality as some […]
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Pick-me-up books needed
I was at a wedding last week, on the beach. Waves! Friends! Tecates! I was finally starting to unwind.
And then I did something very bad.
I picked up Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Holy moly.
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The press ignores science
The bad news is that we are in quite a pickle.
The good news about the bad news is that the national science academies of the G8 countries, along with those of Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, China, and India, have issued a unanimous and remarkably strong statement (PDF) about our global energy quandary.
The bad news about the good news about the bad news is that the press is almost totally silent about it, at least in English-speaking countries.
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So Long, San Pellegrino
Restaurants, schools tap into local water supplies You’ve heard of eating locally, but the latest fad may be drinking locally. Some restaurants and schools are starting to serve filtered tap water instead of bottled water, citing the eco-impacts of packaging and shipping a product that’s already available right thar in the kitchen. But it seems […]
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Willing and Label
As carbon labeling gets rolling in the U.K., questions abound Can a bag of potato chips point the way to saving the planet? Some stores in the U.K. are gearing up to “carbon label” their products, aiming to show how much the production, packaging, and transport of consumer goods contribute to climate change. But it’s […]
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Testing, Testing … Is This Thing On?
Federal chemical testing program inadequate, scientists say In 1996, Congress mandated that the U.S. EPA launch a chemical testing program within three years. My, how time flies. The Endocrine Disruptor Screening Program is now set to begin in 2008 — and shockingly, critics say it panders to Big Chemical. They point to the EPA’s plans […]
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I’ll Be Back, Eh
Schwarzenegger visits Canada to talk tough on emissions It’s hard to believe any country could be worse on climate than the U.S., but Canada seems to be making a run for it. Yesterday, Friends of the Earth Canada and Sierra Legal filed a lawsuit in federal court, alleging that their government is shirking its Kyoto […]
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Can a bag of potato chips point the way to saving the planet?
Peter Madden, chief executive of Forum for the Future, writes a monthly column for Gristmill on sustainability in the U.K. and Europe.
Can a bag of potato chips point the way to saving the planet?
In the U.K., we have started down the path of putting "carbon labels" on products. Tesco, our biggest supermarket chain, has said they will label every product they sell. The Carbon Trust, a government agency, has already produced a prototype label and is trying it out on shampoo, a fruit juice, and a bag of potato chips.
Clearly we do need to measure and manage carbon. A lot has been done to calculate and reduce the direct climate impacts of companies. Now attention is shifting to the wider climate-change footprint; businesses are looking up and down the supply chain.
Labeling is a great idea in principle. We have seen labels like fair-trade, organic, energy-rating, and marine stewardship engage consumers, change production, and move markets. And on climate change, consumers tell us they want simple, straightforward choices that are guaranteed to make a difference.
