Latest Articles
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Oh Mighty Crisis, Crisis, Crisis
Candidates and country in denial about looming energy crisis The San Francisco Chronicle is running a three-part series on the looming energy crisis and the peculiar refusal of the presidential candidates — and the country — to deal with it realistically. Global oil demand is rising, prices are rising, and production is relatively static. Despite […]
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Environment could prove decisive in Senate races
In the midst of one of the most pivotal presidential campaigns in decades, it’s easy to forget that we are on the brink of what could be a momentous election in the Senate as well: 34 senatorial seats are up for grabs this year, 19 of them currently held by Democrats, 15 by Republicans. Several […]
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An interview with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm
Jennifer Granholm. If John Kerry becomes president, he’ll owe an awful lot to Jennifer M. Granholm, Michigan’s environmentally minded first-term Democratic governor. For all but a few shaky days in early September when some polls indicated that Michigan may have been leaning President Bush’s way, the state and its 17 critical electoral votes have stayed […]
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More power to the sweet stuff
A story in The New York Times last week reports the increasing popularity in Brazil of flex fuel vehicles that can use gasoline or ethanol interchangeably. Drivers with these snazzy cars can choose a fuel for the day's driving based on availability, price, or sheer whim. These flex fuel vehicles might have a market well beyond Brazil now that oil has hit $54 a barrel. While using ethanol as a transportation fuel won't solve all air quality problems, it can be part of the solution in many countries.
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It’s All About the Benjamins
Neglect of clean energy hurts economy as well as environment The lack of aggressive clean-energy policies at the federal level is taking its toll on the U.S. economy. As recently as a decade ago, U.S. companies claimed 50 percent of the market for solar photovoltaic panels, but now that number is down to 10 percent, […]
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Tennessee Faults
Conservationists use market to save Cumberland Plateau hardwood forests The 19.4 million acres that comprise the Cumberland Plateau and surrounding mountains in the southeastern U.S. contain more threatened and endangered species than any ecosystem in the country outside California’s Central Valley. But the hardwood forests that cover the area are rapidly being clearcut and replaced […]
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David Orr, environmental educator and writer, answers questions
David Orr. What work do you do? I am disguised as a professor at Oberlin College, but consider myself an Educator, capital E, not an educational technician or bureaucrat, and certainly not one “in the box” of a single discipline. At its best, education means to “educe,” or draw forth, so I consider it essential […]
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Enviro issues play big in the race for Florida’s electoral votes
The brutal hurricanes have passed, but now Florida is in the eye of the swirling swing-state storm — and environmental issues are being swept into the fray by high-ranking politicians and hot-ticket celebrities alike. The Everglades are now faced with a campaign hurricane. Photo: USGS. © Martin Miller. With its 27 electoral votes — more […]
