Latest Articles

British enviros worry Gordon Brown won’t be green

With British PM Tony Blair on his way out sometime in the next year -- though he won't be pinned down on a date -- Chancellor of the Exchequer (aka Finance Minister) Gordon Brown is poised to assume leadership of the Labour Party and hence the British government. What will this mean for the environment? The British press is starting to assess.

Sarah Mukherjee of BBC writes that greens haven't been impressed with Blair's follow-through on efforts to fight climate change, but they're "even more worried about Gordon Brown":

Republican candidate will be forced to testify in environmental lawsuit

As a native of the great not-too-bad state of Tennessee, I'm somewhat ambivalent about the Senate race there, which is enormously important to both parties and, at least at the moment, a dead heat.

The Dem, Harold Ford, is something of an empty suit, considerably more interested in his own greater glory than in policy or governance. His R opponent, Bob Corker, is by all accounts a moderate technocrat who's been extremely effective as mayor of Chattanooga, a city that has transformed itself over the last few decades from an industrial backwater to a thriving, liveable urban center with one of the nation's best affordable-housing programs and nicest waterfront parks. (See Q&A with Chattanooga urban planner Karen Hundt here.)

Behavioral science shows that demanding short-term change activates the brain’s fear centers

Taking a cue from my boss, I just finished this article on behavioral economics -- a growing field that explores how, and why, flesh-and-blood humans don't behave like the "rational" profit-maximizers that underpin most economic models. It seems to me there are some lessons here for the theory and practice of social change.

In a nutshell: calling for immediate action to address a long-term problem may prompt resistance from the emotional and fearful sides of our brains; but calling for delayed action may put emotional reactions on hold, and allow for a more sober (and potentially more favorable) response to the issue.

Huston Eubank, director of the World Green Building Council, answers questions

Huston Eubank. What work do you do? I’m executive director of the World Green Building Council. What does your organization do? The World Green Building Council is a union of green building councils from around the world who are working to encourage development of green-building rating systems and accelerate the transformation of the global property […]

Keepin’ It Real Estate

Portland’s real-estate database makes it easy to search for green homes Realtors in and around Portland, Ore., will soon be able to search more easily for homes that have met national green-building standards. Starting in 2007, houses certified by LEED, Energy Star, and other such programs will be searchable in Portland’s authoritative Regional Multiple Listing […]

Goshute in the Foot

Interior Department blocks interim nuke-waste site in Utah The Interior Department has blocked an interim nuclear-waste storage plant on a Native reservation in appropriately named Skull Valley, Utah. The department denied a lease and transportation plan for the site, which was to hold 44,000 tons of nuclear waste in above-ground casks about an hour’s drive […]

I Found My Thrill on News-Bury Hill

EPA proposes easing air-pollution rules for oil refineries and other plants The Bush administration EPA has had some trouble with the whole protecting-the-environment thing, but it has mastered one important skill: burying news. Latest exhibit: On Friday, just before a weekend that everyone knew would be saturated with 9/11 remembrances, the EPA proposed easing air-pollution […]

The activists among us should remember that there’s plenty to do together

I hope everyone's been following the discussion on animal rights and environmentalism. I continue to be impressed with the decency and thoughtfulness of the community that's gathered here.

Frogfish said most of what needed to be said. The unit of analysis for conservationism is population; for animal rights it is the individual. If you ask me, animal rights is morally bankrupt in the absence of environmentalism -- not the other way around.

But we should all remember: parsing the logical and ethical differences is a matter for thinkers. For doers, for activists, the job is to get things done. That means rallying people around the things they agree on, not emphasizing those that divide them.

Nothing to Fear But Air Itself

Government fails to tend to the many left sick by the 9/11 attacks The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left behind a grim legacy. No, we’re not talking about the violent imperial fantasies and paranoia that have gripped much of the nation, but the lingering ill health of those who worked in lower Manhattan to […]

Umbra on motivating teenagers

Dear Umbra, I’m an officer for my high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society, and we stress academic importance and help our community by doing service projects. I’m trying to get a service project going in support of the environment. Greenhouse-gas emissions and alternative fuels are some things I tried to bring up at […]