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Plug-in Play

Enterprising hybrid owners tinker to get better mileage Hybrid vehicles have been touted as the Next Big Thing in efficient transportation. So what’s the Next Next Big Thing? Maybe hybrids with a twist. A handful of engineering students at the University of California at Davis and other mechanically inclined greens have been tinkering with existing […]

Smokestack Lightening

ConocoPhillips will pay half a billion to clean up refineries The largest refinery settlement in U.S. history was announced yesterday, as ConocoPhillips, the nation’s largest oil refiner, agreed to spend more than $525 million to clean up nine refineries, a deal that will remove 47,000 tons of harmful pollutants from the air each year. This […]

Hmm.

Two and a half centuries ago, early economists in France postulated that all wealth springs from the earth: farming, timber harvest, mining, and fishing were the sole sources of value, value that then circulated throughout the rest of the economy. It was not a coincidence that the ruling landed gentry who controlled the dominant resource, agricultural land, supported this theory. In England, at about the same time, a different theory dominated: All wealth results from exports that bring in the outside income that circulates through the economy. It was not a coincidence that the rising commercial trading class strongly supported that theory.

Economics as we know it, starting with Adam Smith, developed as a critical attack on such self-serving narrow conceptions of the "origins of the wealth of nations." But two and a half centuries later we still have self-interested parties flogging these theories rather than treating them as long discredited and abandoned historical curiosities. The Urban Futures, Inc. consulting group's "Regions and Resources: The Foundations of British Columbia's Economic Base" is the latest example. It argues that the BC economy continues to be almost exclusively dependent on natural resource industries operating in the rural areas of British Columbia. The greater-Vancouver metropolitan economy is simply an avaricious parasite living off the wealth being generated by the hardworking folks in the hinterland.

Ecotourism tips

I am, like most enviros, somewhat conflicted on the subject of ecotourism, and I wish I knew more about it. In the end, I'm inclined to think that the damage such tourism does to the ecosystems where it takes place is outweighed by the simple fact that it offers a source of revenue other than resource extraction. There is, of course, good ecotourism and bad ecotourism -- if you, as an aspiring ecotourist, want to know which is which, MSNBC's 12 tips for ecotravelers is a good place to start.

Good job them.

Via Worldchanging, where they are quite enamored of Vancouver, I see the city's 21 Places for the 21st Century contest.

Participants are encouraged to choose a favourite public place or site, and then propose a change or improvement to it. Changes can be abstract or concrete; permanent, temporary, or seasonal. Your chosen public space may be large or small, as may your change. Ideas for activities or programmes to be offered in a public place are also welcome. You're only limited by your imagination.

Dreamy.

What if every city in North America held a similar contest?

Wacky energy

On Treehugger, a round-up of the most bizarre new sources of energy.

After Kyoto

Two good pieces on the fight to cut CO2 emissions post-Kyoto (and post-reelection of Bush, who will never sign it), one from The Guardian and one from Environmental Science & Technology.

Update [2005-1-28 16:7:48 by Dave Roberts]: It's a little old, but this piece over on GreenBiz is also on the same theme.

Pretty Pleas

At Davos, Blair pushes U.S. for climate-change action Addressing the annual World Economic Forum powwow in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair had what observers called unusually sharp words for the Bush administration, saying the U.S. should join the global battle against climate change if it seeks global cooperation in its battle against […]

Mississippi

Is it me, or is the transition between the first two paragraphs of this NYT story rather jarring?

PORT GIBSON, Miss., Jan. 20 - Facing the possibility that a utility company would try to build a new nuclear reactor here, the City of Port Gibson and surrounding Claiborne County moved swiftly last month to protect the interests of their residents.

"We're willing to do whatever it takes to do to make this happen," said Amelda J. Arnold, the city's mayor. Last month, city aldermen voted unanimously to urge the Entergy Corporation, which already operates one reactor here, to build a second. The County Board of Supervisors did the same.

Yet another reason to move to Mississippi!

Who Will Screensave Us Now?

Big climate-modeling experiment predicts disaster A worldwide, collaborative climate-modeling study has produced its first results, and the news is not good. More than 95,000 volunteers from 150 countries participated in the study by downloading a program, run as a screensaver, which created slightly different climate simulations on each computer and sent them back to researchers. […]