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The Turin of the Screw

Italy Winter Olympics to be carbon-neutral, but enviros aren’t mollified All right, who’s ready for a “winning the green medal” joke? Us too! Organizers say the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin, Italy, will have no net impact on global climate disruption, thanks to energy efficiency, clean-energy tech, and tree planting to offset carbon dioxide […]

A Slow-Down Dirty Shame

World’s forests disappearing slightly less quickly Good news! The world’s forests are being destroyed at a slightly-slower-if-still-alarming rate. That’s the chipper assessment of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s new report on global deforestation. It compared trends in 229 countries over the past five years with data from the 1990s, finding that on average, just […]

Flare and Balanced

Nigerian judge orders end to Shell’s gas flaring In a surprising victory for activists, a judge in Nigeria has ruled that the practice of gas flaring, wherein oil companies burn off the natural gas produced in oil drilling, violates the human rights of surrounding residents and must be halted immediately. Nigerian activists say the flaring […]

Fo Shizzle, My Grizzle

Yellowstone grizzlies no longer threatened, Bush administration argues Hey, Boo-Boo, Yellowstone’s grizzlies may be removed from the endangered species list if the Interior Department has its way. In a proposal unveiled today, the Bush administration notes that bear numbers in the park have tripled to more than 600 over the past 30-odd years of listing, […]

The ebb and flow of corporate eco-consciousness

We remember a certain look businesspeople used to struggle to hide when confronted with their first real-life environmentalist. It was as if they had been presented with an alien life-form — a creature from some green lagoon. Some felt threatened, no doubt, but others were genuinely perplexed, curious, sympathetic even: “What made you one of […]

Two books explore the perks and perils of corporate social responsibility

Coturri Winery in Sonoma County, Calif., could be a poster child for socially responsible business: The family-owned company farms organically, produces critically praised wines on a small scale, supports a local moratorium on genetically modified plants, and donates to nonprofit causes. But according to the Natural Capital Institute’s responsible-investing database, Coturri wouldn’t pass muster with […]

Carnival of the Green

I was remiss in not linking to the first one of these, so: Don't miss the second Carnival of the Green.

Letting the market decide

This op-ed by Charles Krauthammer fairly captures the current conventional wisdom on energy policy: demand is rising, supply is tight, and so the answer is to decrease demand (conserve) and increase supply (drill in the Arctic Refuge and off shore).

The really amusing part is that the conceit -- nay, the headline -- is "let the market decide energy policy."

But then there's this:

We have a unique but fleeting opportunity to permanently depress demand by locking in higher gasoline prices. Put a floor at $3. Every penny that the price goes under $3 should be recaptured in a federal gas tax so that Americans pay $3 at the pump no matter how low the world price goes.

Um. Wouldn't a stiff gas tax kind of influence the market's decisions about energy policy?

And there's this:

Rick Durden, green pilot and head of LightHawk, answers questionsRick Durden, green pilot and head o

Rick Durden. With what environmental organization are you affiliated? I have recently become the executive director of LightHawk, sometimes referred to as “the wings of conservation.” What does your organization do? We work with other environmental and conservation organizations to provide free flights over environmentally threatened areas in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Central America. […]

Umbra on climate confusion

Dear Umbra, Any chance that the most extreme of the peak-oil folks are correct, and that in spite of our thoughtlessness, we just won’t have enough oil to totally destroy the ozone layer? Dan WassonPittsburgh, Penn. Dearest Dan, Oil has very little to do with the ozone layer, but it does have to do with […]