Latest Articles
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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.
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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:
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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. […]
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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 […]
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Toxic Femmes
SoCal sewage is feminizing bottom fish Like many of their land-bound counterparts, male fish off the coast of Southern California are developing female sex characteristics. In the fishes’ case it goes beyond metrosexuality — we’re talking ovary tissue in the testes (ew). Researchers strongly suspect sewage laced with human-made hormone-disrupting chemicals. Two separate studies, one […]
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Mercury Revising
New mercury plan from local regulators would be stronger than Bush’s Prompted by concerns that the Bush administration’s plan to battle mercury pollution wouldn’t do much to, uh, battle mercury pollution, two groups of state and local air-quality regulators (bet the parties rock at that convention) have crafted a stronger plan — and they say […]
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The Good News Bears
Pandas seem to be recovering in the wild We’re not like those panda fetishists who flip out about the cute, cuddly black-and-white bears, with their snoogly faces and their roly-poly schnugum wugums … wait, where were we? Anyway, we’ve got some good news for panda fans: A recent census found almost 1,600 giant pandas in […]
