Climate Cities
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4 X 4 X 10 Mpg
Popularity of Pickup Trucks Spreads Beyond Farms Once upon a time, the humble pickup truck was the vehicle of choice for hard-working, down-home, country-music kind of guys. These days, the pickup, in ever swankier incarnations, is coveted by a far broader audience, from stockbrokers to soccer moms — a trend that has sobering implications for […]
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Moment in the Sun
Okay, so it didn’t get quite as much press as Ben Curtis’s surprise victory in the British Open or the Funny Cide-Empire Maker standoff in the Belmont Stakes, but for the 20 cars that took off from Chicago on July 13, the race was every bit as exciting. The event in question was the American […]
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Rubber Ducky, You’re the $100
Thanks to “Sesame Street,” everybody over the age of two knows that rubber duckies make bath time lots of fun — but who knew the little yellow guys could make oceanography a bit more fun, too? Eleven years ago, a shipping container carrying 29,000 rubber bath toys (frogs, turtles, and beavers, as well as the […]
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The Fat of the Land
Sprawl has been accused of many evils, but here’s a new one: It may make you fat. While suburban residents drive to get most places they go, many city dwellers walk or ride bikes, and that physical exercise seems to keep urbanites slimmer. “[I]f you choose to live in a sprawling environment, you are more […]
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Not By the Air of Our Chinny-chin-chin
Meanwhile, things aren’t looking so hot for air-pollution regulation on the federal level, either. Republicans in the Senate are drawing up a transportation bill that enviros say could water down the efficacy of the Clean Air Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. Provisions in a draft legislation would allow states to postpone or avoid […]
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Country House, City House
Once upon a time, the Russian dacha, or country house, was the domain of the wealthy few, those who could afford to escape the grime and grit of Moscow and St. Petersburg for wooded lawns and rural vistas. But since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Russia’s mushrooming business class has poured millions […]
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Driving Reign
Seventy-five percent of U.S. workers drive alone to their jobs, according to data from the 2000 U.S. Census, while only 4.7 percent get to work via public transportation and 0.4 percent commute by bicycle. Ridership on mass transit has increased 22 percent since 1996, says the American Public Transit Association, but highway driving has increased […]
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Idle Trucks Are the Devil’s Playthings
New gadgetry at truck stops could help slash pollution from idling big rigs. Most truck drivers across the U.S. leave their vehicles’ engines running all night while they’re parked at truck stops because it’s the only way to keep the heating or air conditioning on while they get some shuteye. Between 840 million and 2 […]
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Invasion of the Habitat Snatchers
Roads have long been considered the enemy of the environment, creating (literal) avenues for deforestation and development. Now, it seems, they are also to blame for another major environmental woe: invasive species. According to a pair of recent studies conducted at the University of California at Davis, new roads are one of the quickest ways […]
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Light on Their Fleet
The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to hear a case about whether the Los Angeles area can go beyond the federal Clean Air Act to impose strict anti-pollution rules on buses, taxis, garbage trucks, airport shuttles, and other vehicle fleets. Oil companies and engine manufacturers challenged a rule issued in 2000 by the South Coast Air […]
