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The Pernicious Effects of Hollywood Liberalism

Californians believe global warming is real and want state to act Most Californians believe their state should take action now to regulate human activities that are heating up the planet. According to a survey conducted by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, 86 percent think global warming will affect them or their descendants, and […]

Body Count

Americans’ bodies harbor numerous toxins, big study finds The largest-ever study of human chemical exposure shows that Americans are carrying dozens of potentially harmful toxic compounds in their bodies. Researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control tested some 2,400 people in 2000 and 2001 and found more than 100 worrying compounds, many with known […]

Green building builds on successes

The Leadership in Energy and Environmetal Design standard is becoming quite its own recognized brand name. Bill Walsh, founder of the Healthy Building Network, fielded some questions on it in his InterActivist interview this past winter.

The standard no longer just applies to buildings, though. Neighborhood development is being targeted for a LEED certification as well. Sharing many principles with New Urbanism and Smart Growth, the certification aims to reward developers for thinking green on the neighborhood level (or larger).

The World Bank gets called out

One look at the World Bank's homepage would certainly give the impression that the institution has a new focus -- climate change. "Working together to beat the heat," the banner declares.

The bank has its work cut out for it if those words are going to be anything more than just that, words, says Daphne Wysham of NPR's Marketplace (see also her essay on the subject in Grist).

She has a few suggestions of her own -- ending funding for coal and oil projects, increasing funding for renewables, and, ahem, actually measuring the impacts of its projects on global warming, just to start.

When it comes to green products, who’s zoomin’ who?

“I don’t trust ‘natural.’ People are always dying of natural causes.”— Woman looking at food labels, in a Richard Guindon cartoon Roll playing games? Photo: Laura Cacho. Shoppers of the world, I have just one question: Are you an eco-chump? Lots of us try to shop green. We buy unbleached paper towels and recycled products, […]

Wal-Mart store goes eco-friendly?

Wal-Mart's new big-box store being constructed in McKinney, Texas, has a twist: It will employ several conservation methods and green technologies, making it the company's first "environmentally friendly" store. Apparently, not only will it have a wind turbine to generate 5% of its power, and a rainwater catchment system for 95% of its irrigation needs, but it will use waterless urinals in its restrooms and recycle its oil from the deli and automotive departments to help heat the building.

The inspiration for all this being "to save money and keep costs down."  I guess if you overlook the proliferation of suburban sprawl, the ruination of local businesses, and the poor treatment of its employees, this could almost be seen as a good thing. But, oh wait, they're building it near an already existing "traditional" Wal-Mart so they can "gauge its progress."

Is the popular Potter author a ‘Luddite fool’?

While enviros were praising the Canadian publisher of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for printing the book entirely on recycled paper, I didn't hear any talk about the greener eBook option. Maybe because there isn't one -- at least not legally. As Wired reports:

Although Potter has become a multimedia cash cow, with 52 million books sold and products ranging from figurines to a $2.35 billion movie series, Rowling has so far decided against publishing the stories in e-book format, a medium growing by up to 40 percent annually, according to the New York-based Open eBook Forum, a trade body.

Which of course has contributed to this:

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince had been scanned and put online by an underground collection of fans capitalizing on Rowling's decision not to release an official e-book version. Rowling's publisher had hoped to maintain a strict embargo until midnight Friday. But by then, hundreds were already reading the book thanks to Potter fans who organized over Internet Relay Chat, or IRC, to scan and distribute the book.

Potter fans coordinated a worldwide effort to turn the book's 672 pages into a home-brew digital copy -- now available on file-sharing networks and by using BitTorrent.

So, is Rowling a "Luddite fool"? And should greens support the eBook market?

Vancouver city politicians take risky moves to fight climate change.

If you want an example of what sets greater Vancouver, B.C., apart from cities south of the U.S.-Canadian border, look no farther than this Vancouver Sun headline:

Council votes to turn two of six lanes on Burrard Bridge into dedicated bike lanes.

Just for context -- the Burrard Bridge is one of just a few main access points into downtown Vancouver, and carries a significant amount of car traffic into downtown from some of the western neighborhoods. Vancouver tried a similar experiment in the mid-1990s, but it ended after just a week or so because of a public outcry over congestion. The same thing may well happen again.

So politically, this is a risky move. Which makes it all the more impressive: Vancouver city leaders are actually willing to take concrete and potentially unpopular steps to reduce the city's global warming emissions and promote biking and walking -- steps that seem completely outside the realm of political possibility in, say, Seattle or Portland. Even Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, who has won national recognition for organizing hundreds of the nation's mayors to speak up on global warming, has dedicated considerable political capital to rebuilding the Alaskan Way Viaduct -- a massively expensive project that will, in all likelihood, increase Seattle's global warming emissions.

But there's no such mismatch between rhetoric and reality in Vancouver city politics. According to city councillor Fred Bass:

"I became a city councillor because of global warming," Bass said after the vote. "And it seems to me that what we have here is a very feasible way of testing out whether we can mobilize people to walk and cycle and for people to leave their cars behind."

Definitely an experiment worth keeping an eye on.

Queer Eye for the Turbine

Hip, new wind-turbine designs shed those fusty rotating blades As anti-wind-power crusaders make ever-louder indictments of unsightly turbines, wind advocates are fighting back with a new tool — aesthetics. A handful of wind-power companies are teaming up with designers to develop new contraptions that can harness wind energy without the traditional spinning blades, as well […]

The Hills Are Alive …

As Europeans flock to urban centers, wildlife reclaim the countryside Wild boars on the outskirts of Berlin. Bears scaring schoolkids in Austria. New summer blockbuster about a wildlife invasion? Nope, it’s Europe in the 21st century. Animals long considered scarce are reappearing in the countryside as folks across the continent abandon rural villages for cities, […]