Latest Articles
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Manufacturing a schism
Carbon offsets, which let you pay some money to help fund climate-friendly projects, got the love-hate treatment in Monday's New York Times.
At issue: are they for real, or just some sort of gimmick? By contributing money to an offset program, are you really expiating your climate sins, or are you just buying meaningless indulgences?
The article finds lots of quotes from people who are skeptical about offsets. But to me, this is mostly a manufactured controversy -- an attempt to find a green schism where none really exists.
As far as I can tell, there's a middle ground on the issue that most people already agree on: namely, that carbon offsets are simultaneously worthwhile and a gimmick. A worthwhile gimmick, if you will.
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Realizing that freeways are not free
Every once in a while there's a truth that everybody knows, but that no one will acknowledge. And when someone finally says it aloud, it sounds shocking. Like this:
... what we're doing now isn't working. Not for drivers, taxpayers or the environment. We can't tax and build our way out of this.
That's Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat in his column this week, talking about what most people in Seattle already know: the area's freeway system is flat broke and busted. Even the biggest package ever to go before voters -- this fall's $16 billion roads-and-transit measure -- won't pay for the toughest infrastructure problems, like rebuilding the 520 floating bridge, and is only a fraction of the estimated $40 billion needed over the next few decades. Moreover, even that full $40 billion isn't expected to reduce congestion much. So what can we do?
Enter the occasion for Westneat's column: King County executive Ron Sims, who has stepped up (big PDF), yet again, with a remarkably visionary plan: region-wide congestion pricing. Wow. Without getting into the details here, Sims is proposing what is perhaps the only thing that could simultaneously generate the money, reduce congestion, and ease environmental impacts -- all without raising taxes. (In fact, that's why Sightline Institute has been preaching congestion pricing for years.)
If it all sounds too good to be true, it is.
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Coal is the enemy of the human race. Coal is the enemy of the human race
The Office of Fossil Energy (no, not Dick Cheney's office -- apparently there is another one) released a new report this week: "Tracking New Coal Fired Power Plants."
An excerpt from the press release:
If built, the plants will be critical in helping to meet future electricity demand in the United States. The new and proposed plants would theoretically produce enough electricity to power 90 million homes.
Coal is vital to the nation's energy security. Providing more than 50 percent of U.S. electricity, coal is an abundant, domestic energy source with more than a 250-year supply at current use rates. America's coal reserves, estimated at 272 billion tons, contain more energy potential than all of the oil in the Middle East.Your tax dollars at work.
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Spitzer and Polish
New York governor’s mansion gets an eco-facelift You know, we’ve been thinking about eco-remodeling our 39-room mansion, and now New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and his wife Silda Wall Spitzer are providing inspiration. The couple plans to green the governor’s residence in Albany, which was built in 1875 and has housed such luminaries as Franklin […]
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Ways of Bee-ing
Are organic bees faring better than their industrial counterparts? As news emerges about the collapse of honeybee colonies around the world, one reader wonders: are organic bees doing any better than their industrially farmed peers? To find out, Tom Philpott combs through the complexities of organic honey production, explains why the two situations mite be […]
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Hi, I’m a Defensive Mac
Apple CEO Steve Jobs says company is green, getting greener Thrilling headline writers everywhere, computer-maker Apple has pledged to go greener. Green Apple! Ha ha hee hee ho ho! In an open letter on the company website, CEO Steve Jobs responded to criticism that the manufacturer has lagged in removing toxics from its products and […]
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Haste Makes Waste
Savor your flavors with the slow-food movement You could say Carlo Petrini is a prophet of sorts. More than 20 years ago, the Italian gastronome and conservationist observed the decline in food varieties and flavors. Worried that the world would succumb to McDonald’s-ization, he created the Slow Food concept, which protects and publicizes local delicacies […]
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His Soul Goes Marching On
BP CEO John Browne and U.S. Interior Department official resign In one of the oddest corporate tumbles in recent memory, BP CEO John Browne has resigned over allegations that he lied in court about the origins of his four-year relationship with a male escort. Huh wha? Browne, who spent 41 years rising through the oil […]
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It’s safe, for now
Organic coffee is safe, for now.
In a victory for organic farmers in the developing world and organic coffee drinkers here, the USDA's National Organic Program has backed down and said that there will be no immediate change in the way these farmers are certified.
