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The biggest environmental dilemma

I need this decided once and for all: is the prefix eco- pronounced "eh-ko" (rhymes with gecko, the lizard) or "ee-ko" (rhymes with Biko, the South African activist)?

Summer Rayne Oakes says "eh-ko." I've always said "ee-ko."

This is the most pressing environmental dilemma of our time! Please vote!

Those architects know their green architecture.

I am short on time and long on things to do today, so I will just direct you to eco-goings-on by the American Institute of Architects. No Fountainhead-esque architects these: the AIA's Committee on the Environment (COTE) ...

Jane Jacobs dies at 89

Jane Jacobs died today at the age of 89.

Just yesterday, while preparing my "Small is still beautiful" post, I found myself groping for her two masterpieces, The Death and Life of Great American Cities and The Economy of Cities. I couldn't find them, because I had loaned them out -- I've been an ardent promoter of her works since I first discovered them more than ten years ago. My dog-eared copies of them have probably spent more time on the shelves of friends who I've foisted them on than my own.

May her death inspire a resurgence of interest in her work, particularly among greens. I hope over the next days to find time to write an appreciation of her.

Everyone who loves the chaos of a well-functioning city street -- and understands the vast environmental benefits of cities -- should bow east in the direction of her beloved Greenwich Village, and north toward her adopted home of Toronto.

Summer Rayne Oakes hosts new television show

Back in February, I mentioned that Summer Rayne Oakes was filming a "new, entertaining, environmentally-charged show." After contacting the eco-fashionista's PR firm, I was told I would be among the first to get more details. "Yeah, right," is what I thought to myself. Yet, months later, what do I find in my inbox but a press release:

How big money skews the energy debate

One of the most frustrating things about the renewed debate over nuclear power is that it has basically been forced into the public sphere by brute force of cash. The Nuclear Energy Institute can afford to hire high-profile shills; they can blitz the press until they get some prominent placement.

They get to set the terms of the debate. We're stuck arguing "nukes good" or "nukes bad." That makes public acceptance of nukes inevitable, since the "nukes bad" crowd can always be cast as obstructionists standing in the way of progress.

What's missing? A big-money push behind the positive green alternative: Energy efficiency standards, carbon taxes, incentives for clean energy, smarter land-use policy, smarter agricultural policy, etc.

Why is there no big-money push? Because no big, consolidated industry stands to make money off it. Certainly money could be made, but for the short- to mid-term it will be scattered, distributed, small-scale money.

These green strategies serve the public good, not the corporate good, and thus are at a heavy disadvantage in our corporate-dominated political and media system. They have no big-money backing, and thus have no effective advocates.

So the corporate "solutions" dominate the debate.

(The same is true, to some extent, for biofuels. How did ethanol come to serve as a stand-in for energy independence? Because Big Agribusiness and Big Oil both stand to profit, and congressfolk from agricultural states stand to benefit from the rush of subsidies.)

Tim’s big media moment

Our fellow green blogger Tim Haab, from Environmental Economics, was interviewed on NPR today about the dimwitted chain email going around proposing a boycott of Exxon gas. He sounded nervous, but made all the right points.

Don't miss his hilarious account of his Big Media Moment.

So there you have it.  20 years of schooling, 10 years of teaching, 3 pages of meticulous notes (which I never looked at) and my first national radio interview is going to consist of some incoherent rambling and me overenthusiastically yelling "DRIVE LESS." 

Thank God for tenure.  I'm going back to bed.

Don't worry, Tim -- the "drive less" moment redeemed you!

Think of It as Saran Wrap, to Keep the Ocean Fresh

An enormous patch of plastic trash swirls in the Pacific Ocean When it was a kid, the Pacific Ocean always wanted a Garbage Patch of its very own. Now it’s got one: a patch of trash, at least twice the size of Texas (!), floating midway between Hawaii and San Francisco. Held together by swirling […]

Cruel Hand Nuke

Controversy still rages on 20th anniversary of Chernobyl Tomorrow is the 20th anniversary of the nuclear power-plant accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, that spewed radioactive fallout across Europe. Estimates of the total number of deaths that will result range from around 9,000 (a U.N. report released last year) to 93,000 (a new Greenpeace report). The controversy […]

You Got Reserved!

Bush presents plan for combating high oil prices, halts reserve deposits In September 2000, then-candidate George W. Bush said that the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve “should not be used as an attempt to drive down oil prices right before an election. It should not be used for short-term political gain at the cost of long-term […]

How companies are tapping the benefits of saving water

Name this critical and declining natural resource: It is pumped through pipelines and delivered by trucks. It is essential to our daily lives and to every business process and function. Its uneven distribution around the globe leads to vast chasms in countries’ development and economies. Wars have been fought over it. Water saved is a […]