Climate Cities

If You Drive Alone, You Drive With Saddam

For some U.S. citizens, solar panels, wind turbines, and fuel-efficient cars have become the ultimate patriotic statement. With a war looming in the Middle East, green groups are framing the cause of energy conservation in terms of national security. They are issuing reports, creating websites, and hitting the airwaves with the message that true security […]

Fueltide Greetings

The Bush administration is weighing a proposal that would require auto manufacturers to improve the fuel efficiency of SUVs and light trucks by a teensy bit. Working off data submitted by the Big Three automakers in Detroit, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has sent a draft plan to the White House that would raise […]

Prairie Dogged

Faced with drought and plunging profits, Colorado farmers are under growing financial pressure to hawk their land to developers. Between 1993 and 2001, about 1.5 million acres of farmland in the state were put on the market and developed; 300,000 of the acres were sold in 2001 as a drought began to take hold. State […]

Random Acts of Unkindness

The Earth Liberation Front is back in the news, after vandals went about their business and then etched the group’s initials on the windows of two McDonald’s and one Burger King in the Richmond, Va., area, as well as on the windows of 25 SUVs at a local dealership. Those incidents occurred this fall; earlier […]

EV Rider

Subway to Heaven

Congregations in 15 states are joining forces this Sunday to belt out the clean-energy gospel in the launch of a national “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign. Reverend Jim Ball, who directs the Evangelical Environmental Network, said: “Jesus wants his followers to drive the least-polluting, most efficient vehicle that truly meets their needs — though first […]

Sulfuring Succotash

Refiners should have no problem producing nearly sulfur-free diesel by 2006, according to a report released yesterday by an advisory panel to the U.S. EPA. The panel was convened last year by EPA Administrator Christie Whitman to assess possible technological barriers to complying with a clean diesel rule issued in the final weeks of the […]

Don’t Dig a Hole, Too, China

In yet another blow to the environment, the Chinese government is launching a massive expansion of its road network to accommodate its fast-emerging car culture. By 2010, the country says major roads will span a total of 22,000 miles in and between major cities, including Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai; by 2020, it hopes to […]

Yukon Take Your SUV and Shove It

Despite increasing awareness of alternative-fuel technologies and growing concern over U.S. dependence on foreign oil, the fuel economy of American cars is only getting worse. Statistics released today by the U.S. EPA show that the average fuel economy of the new fleet of cars for 2003 is 6 percent lower than it was 15 years […]

Fly the Unfriendly Skies

One-fourth of all North American bird species are at risk, according to a new study released by the National Audubon Society. The report blames increased urbanization and the resulting loss of open spaces for the decline; as cities grow, farmlands are converted to urban areas and grasslands are converted to farmlands, leaving birds with insufficient […]