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First thoughts after the Global Green USA pre-Oscar party

Got back to Santa Barbara late last night early this morning from the Global Green USA pre-Oscar party in L.A. and am officially running on organic coffee fumes. Here are a few first impressions of a very eventful night:

• Using celebrities to lure hundreds of people with large disposable incomes into a club showcasing solar panels, natural carpets, and other sustainable building materials -- Global Green USA president Matt Petersen is a frickin' genius!


• Unfortunately, I don't fit into the "large disposable income" category. Do you think it's too early to ask for a Tesla sports car for Christmas?


• Chevy Chase thinks green carpets are cooler than red ones.


• Never got all tingly for Orlando Bloom until last night when he showed up with a new spiky haircut. Keep it up, Orlando -- keep it up.

Stay tuned; a more fulsome post to come.

The Land of Electric Enchantment

Tesla Motors to build electric-car plant in New Mexico In April, electric-car start-up Tesla Motors will break ground on a manufacturing plant in Albuquerque, which beat out Flagstaff, Ariz., and Pittsburg, Calif., for the honor. The plant will churn out 10,000 WhiteStar sedans a year starting in 2009 — “zero-emission” cars that will go 250 […]

Take the Grist reader survey

All of us here at Grist are still dying to know what you think of us. Don't keep us in suspense: Take our reader survey. We want it straight up, no sugar added, told like it is. We wanna make Grist better than ever.

If you're not into taking surveys for the warm fuzzies they give you, we'll sweeten the deal by entering you in a drawing to win a solar-powered backpack that can charge up all your electronic doodads.

So really now. Please?

Kenya Screw Me Now?

African farmers fear impact of U.K. supermarkets buying local Last month, British supermarket giant Tesco announced a few changes it’s making with the climate in mind, including limiting flown-in food. Which is all well and good, unless you’re a farmer in Africa wondering what the hell is going on. Some fear that moves in the […]

Plights of the Roundtable

International business group joins chorus begging for emissions regulations Yet another group of businesses has come out in support of international greenhouse-gas regulation. The Global Roundtable on Climate Change, which includes nearly 100 large companies, issued a statement Tuesday espousing an increasingly common belief: “If we delay too long in beginning the changeover to increasingly […]

Don’t Just Kiss Our Babies

New Hampshire climate activists take advantage of election spotlight The wee state of New Hampshire hopes to take advantage of its front-running primary election to make climate change a priority at the federal level. In March or thereabouts, at least 180 communities, constituting more than 75 percent of the state, will vote on a resolution […]

Now and later

Peter Madden asks, "What should greens do about air travel?" The problem is twofold. Planes are responsible for about 3 percent of carbon emissions. But thanks to NO2 emissions from planes, and the fact that water vapor emitted at or near stratospheric levels (where planes fly) acts as forcing and not just as feedback (as at ground level), the actual effect on climate is about triple that from CO2 -- about 9 percent and rising.

Yes, yes, part of solution to all these problems is to tax environmental effects, and to stop massive subsidies of environmentally destructive things (like airports). But what technical means exist to respond to such signals? Is the world going to have become a bigger place again, with less travel?

A sad realization

Yesterday, my trusty steed bit the dust. It had been (to use the technical terms) smelling funny and running funny for a few weeks, and we finally gave up on our home hospice care and took it to The Man. The Man said we had seven oil leaks. The Man said stop driving your car […]

Creation care idea is spreading

Jehovah's Witnesses. Two of them just knocked on my door. I mention it because they had a brochure detailing their version of "creation care." I told them I was happy to see more Christian sects beginning to interpret Bible passages in an environmentally positive manner. "Oh no," they assured me. "We aren't environmentalists."

Yay for Austin

Sustainlane has released a list of the top five U.S. "cleantech incubation clusters," which despite the name is quite interesting. Here’s what qualifies a city: Start-up or advanced stage venture capital (VC) and investor network access, including mentoring. Academic or federal research lab collaboration. Active state or local government participation (field testing, prototyping, and pilot […]