Latest Articles

Green Bean counting

Chicago, like several other cities, has a Green Permit Program (PDF) that grants faster building permits for green buildings. Erik Olsen, the program's administrator, gets to scrutinize every single green building in the entire city. Luckily for us, Erik recently started GreenBean, a blog profiling the blueprints that cross his desk.

So far, he's posted eight building profiles, including two single-family houses (both in my neighborhood -- must be my aura), high-rise offices, and the rehab of a YMCA into subsidized housing. For each, he notes the level of green-ness, unusual green techniques used, and perhaps a little back story about quirky geothermal wells or an underappreciated project manager who pushed the green angle.

Faux green

I'm not sure I would want to live in a house made out of power-plant fly ash, but hey, any idea in a storm. I attended a catered open house the other night (wine, beer, you name it) sponsored by a manufacturer of construction materials. The original 100 year-old, two-story home had been demolished and sent to a landfill, which meant that the land by itself was worth half a million dollars. The new 4,000 square home is unfinished, having just been framed up, and sits on less than an eighth of an acre. The young owners eventually arrived to partake in the festivities.

Dessler blogging

I was out of commission all last week, suffering from the latest virus passed to me by the snot-encrusted disease vectors I fondly call "my children."

In catching up, I noticed that climate scientist Andrew Dessler's new blog has come out of the gate strong, with all sorts of good tidbits.

1. The decisive answer to George W. Bush's question: whether or not we're causing global warming.
2. A brief but insightful reminder that whether one uses Dick Cheney's terrorism policy (even a 1% chance of attack requires strong response) or Bush's global warming policy (we need 99% certainty before acting), the decision of how much certainty is required for action is a matter of values, not science.
3. A pointed observation that many of the most prominent climate-change skeptics are professors emeritus, which means they, to put it gently, may not be vigorously keeping up with the latest research.
4. A finally, exposure of an email sent by a new group of evangelicals hoping to reign in the recent evangelical enthusiasm for climate sanity. They're hoping to recruit people, evangelical and otherwise, to sign on to a new "open letter" (PDF) that points to a "call to truth," (PDF) which in practice means "a call to renewed bullshit and obfuscation." Dessler sagely comments:

   From a strategic view, however, this type of campaign makes perfect sense. First, the recent emergence of an evangelical coalition in favor of action on climate change was one of the most significant events of the recent past. This represented a titanic shift in the political fault lines of this policy debate. Those opposed to action on climate change had to be terrified that they were on the brink of losing the entire policy debate. So this response makes perfect sense. Second, by arguing about science, they can drag the debate into a complete gridlock, as argued by Jon Miller. The report, with it's appearance of credibility and objectivity, leads the other side (those in favor of action) to leap to an enthusiastic defense of the reality of climate change - and the trap is sprung: the public tunes out (too boring), the media downgrade the story (too complex) and the politicians have the greatest excuse for doing nothing (let's wait until the science is clear).

So. At least somebody's out there blogging well.

Lawsuit over New Orleans landfill dropped

Last week, Wayne Curtis reported on the battle over a landfill in New Orleans. The landfill was set to close today, but a lawsuit being heard last Friday could have kept it open. Seems that the lawsuit was dropped, though, and the closure will go forward as originally planned.

Tip o' the cap to our very own Sarah Kraybill for asking the logical question, "Hey, what happened with that lawsuit?"

Umbra on carpooling to a reunion

Dear Umbra, You have told us, in no uncertain terms, that traveling by train is better ecologically than traveling by car. Several members of my family plan to carpool to an upcoming family reunion 600 miles away. I have considered trying to talk them into taking the train instead, but face the following problem: It […]

Conservation International chats with Stone Gossard

Earlier today, Conservation International hosted a live chat with Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard. I would be blogging it just in time for y'all to send in your own questions, if it weren't for that pesky EST after the 1 p.m. (Gah!) So instead, I offer the transcript from the not-so-live-anymore chat.

Jason Wentworth, eco-friendly laundromat owner, answers questions

Jason Wentworth. What work do you do? I am the owner, along with my wife Sandrine, of the Washboard Eco Laundry in Portland, Maine. How does it relate to the environment? We have attempted to create a new model for the coin-laundry industry by designing our business around the goal of minimizing the environmental impact […]

Pardon Me Boys, Is That the Chattanooga Cough-Cough?

Add diesel locomotives to the list of things killing you Recently, researchers discovered they’d been a little off in their estimates of how much smog-forming pollution diesel locomotives generate. How off? Turns out by 2030 the trains will be producing about twice what was previously estimated — 800,000 tons of nitrogen oxide and 25,000 tons […]

Won’t You Be My Labor?

Immigration crackdown exacerbates organic-farm labor shortage Organic farmers are desperately struggling to find workers, caught between rising demand and an ever-more-severe labor shortage. More than half of the 1.8 million farmworkers in the U.S. are here illegally, and increased border patrols have reduced the number of immigrants trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border. Service-sector jobs […]

Switch Getters

Industries pull the switch on mercury switches The steel and auto industries have agreed to pay $2 million each to remove mercury-containing light switches from millions of scrapyard-bound vehicles. The deal will reduce U.S. annual mercury pollution by at least 5 percent over the next 15 years, according to U.S. EPA chief Stephen Johnson. Bully […]