Latest Articles

Some hope from HOPES

A couple of folks on another post commented on how environmental activity is limited to progressive cities and campuses. Since I just got back from a green campus in a green city, I thought readers might want to hear about some good stuff going on in that small corner of the world.

The University of Oregon's annual HOPES Conference just wrapped up on the 16th. Now in it's 12th year, HOPES is a student-run environmental-design conference. If you are depressed by the level of environmental apathy around you, this was a place to recharge your faith and hope in humanity, especially the college-age segment of humanity.

Gas price rant

One of the many problems with policy discussions these days is that they tend to be narrow and literal-minded. Take the "problem" of high gas prices. Response? Tax oil companies! Cap prices! Investigate price gouging! Ease environmental restrictions on clean-burning gas!

Stupid. We should take a step back. Here are two relevant facts:

• It's good that gas prices are rising. We want people to buy more fuel-efficient cars and drive less. In the long-term, oil prices are headed up whether we like it or not.
• The hardest hit by high gas prices are the poor, who have the least disposable income and in many cases are stuck in living and work situations that simply don't allow them to drive less in the short-term.

Given that, here are a few policy responses, some local, some federal, just off the top of my head, that make a hell of a lot more sense than whinging about oil companies. In no particular order:

Conference bleg

Over the past month or two, I've gotten approximately 426,088,131 emails and press releases about various conferences and summits and whatnot on the subject of energy and/or peak oil and/or global warming. For instance, I think there's one in New York City soon?

I honestly can't keep track, but I really do want to publicize them, so here's my solution: If you know of a cool conference (or whatnot) happening soon, let me know where and when in comments, and I'll promote it up here. It's called lazy-ass collaborative journalism!

Ukrainian attorney Olya Melen stands up for the Danube Delta

Olya Melen doesn’t think small. In her first-ever court case, the young Ukrainian attorney challenged a massive canal project proposed for the Danube Delta, an internationally recognized wetland on the edge of the Black Sea. Melen, a lawyer for the public-interest group Environment-People-Law, argued that the canal would disrupt the area’s rural communities and diverse […]

In China, Yu Xiaogang is helping locals fight back against dams

China has spent decades trying to harness its powerful river systems with dams. Enormous hydroelectric projects, most notably the Three Gorges Dam now under construction on the Yangtze River, have devastated local economies and ecosystems. Yu Xiaogang. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. Chinese environmentalist Yu Xiaogang, founder of the group Green Watershed, says the people harmed […]

Maximizing the MPGPP of your SUV with your HTS

Troubled by high gas prices? Not to worry, our fearless leader is on it. His staff has come up with a short, easy-to-articulate-and-memorize list of how he is going fix the problem:

1. Make sure consumers and taxpayers are treated fairly.
2. Promote greater fuel efficiency.
3. Boost U.S. gasoline supply.
4. Invest aggressively in gasoline alternatives.

Yawn ... whatever you say George.

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: