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Charity gift certificates

All you folks worried about rampant materialism this holiday season should check out charity gift certificates. It's just what it sounds like: You buy a GC and the recipient goes to the website to choose what charity they'd like to donate to.

Here's the environment section.

Another one falls for AP6

A surprisingly non-wacky column on Tech Central Station about the developments in Montreal, by Ronald Bailey (via H&R).

It's non-wacky, but I also think it makes a mistake -- a mistake made all too often over the last five years -- namely: Believing in the Bush administration's good intentions when they say something that flatters your ideological preconceptions. (See: liberal war hawk.)

Specifically, Bailey notes that several participants in the Montreal meetings are pushing the notion that economic development and environmental protection can go hand in hand. For instance:

Umbra on LED holiday lights

Dear Umbra, Suppose I replace all my many old, tangled, not-so-efficient holiday lights with the newer LED lights. These are supposed to be better for the environment. What is the best way to dispose of my old lights? R-MOttawa, Canada Dearest R-M, The LED lights are indeed better for the environment, and, since I’m frankly […]

Catch Him if You Can

Leonardo DiCaprio to produce documentary about global warming Eco-minded actor Leonardo DiCaprio — who tools around L.A. in a Prius and has been outspoken about issues like worldwide access to potable water — is now bringing a tree-hugging message to film. According to spokesdude Ken “Walkin’ on” Sunshine (we made that middle part up), DiCaprio […]

Holey Moly

Antarctic ozone hole may persist 20 years longer than expected Remember that hole in the ozone over Antarctica? The one we fixed? Big environmental success story? Turns out it may take roughly two decades longer than expected for it to fully heal — until around 2065, instead of 2040 to 2050 — because sizable amounts […]

Painting the Town Red-Green

Red-green political party makes headway in Montreal city elections Not everything going on in Montreal is as depressing as the climate summit. In recent citywide elections, Projet Montreal — a municipal political party devoted to dense urban development, public transit, and social justice — picked up two city-council seats and took a big step toward […]

The Summit of Our Discontent

U.S. continues to stomp mightily on Montreal climate summit Poor Canada got it from both sides this week at the Montreal climate summit. On Tuesday, it suggested that the 189 nations party to the original 1992 U.N. climate convention meet formally over the next two years to discuss post-Kyoto strategies for greenhouse-gas reduction. The Bush […]

Fry Me a River

China’s benzene spill flows toward Siberian tiger territory in Russia China’s latest claim to international infamy — a Songhua River-borne, 100-ton, 90-odd-mile-long benzene spill — is expected to reach the Russian city of Khabarovsk, on the Amur River, next week. Conservationists in the region worry that the toxic slick will further imperil the extremely endangered […]

Cheers and jeers for the GM seed giant.

Two takes on Monsanto crossed my path yesterday. One came from the stock market, the other from Fedco, the small vegetable-seed purveyor that supplies many small, sustainable-minded farms across the land, including my own Maverick Farms.

The market applauded Monsanto Tuesday, driving its share price to an all-time high; Fedco, in its 2006 seed catalogue that arrived at Maverick the same day, gave it the finger.

Canadian city elects progressive red-green city government

The recent local elections in Montréal might spark some ideas for attendees of the COP11 summit: a pro-urban, "red-green" political party has surfaced in City Hall.

The new Projet Montréal party secured a city council seat in the dense, diverse Plateau neighborhood, winning 12% of all votes cast citywide in a three-way election against two established parties. Its platform brings the spirit of the red-green (social-democrat and environmentalist) urban coalition -- the governing majority in major European cities like London, Paris, and Berlin -- to North America.

Unlike most stateside Green political parties, which take a skeptical stance towards urban growth, Projet Montréal embraces population and housing growth as a way to curb car use and suburban sprawl. Its leader, Richard Bergeron, is a transit-agency technocrat whose political heroes (link in French) include mayors Ken Livingstone in London and Bertrand Delanoë in Paris. In London, a wildly successful downtown toll has cut traffic by nearly 20% even while a crop of new, environmentally friendly high-rise office towers rises. In Paris, city officials heckle SUV drivers, close roads to cars for weekly "Paris Breathes" days, and will soon convert a riverfront highway into a beach. The "red" in the coalition comes from a strong appeal to working-class voters with new public-works projects and affordable housing.