Climate Cities
All Stories
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I Wish They All Could Be California Governors
California Gov. Gray Davis (D) signed trailblazing legislation yesterday that will require automobile manufacturers to reduce the amount of greenhouse-gas emissions coming from the tailpipes of passenger vehicles in the state. Under the terms of the new law, the California Air Resources Board has until 2005 to set “maximum” but “economically feasible” emissions standards for […]
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Whoa, Mexico
A standoff between farmers and the Mexican government over the construction of a new international airport is threatening to become a national crisis. The $2.5 billion, six-runway project has irked environmentalists since it was first proposed, because the airport is slated to be built on a former lake bed that is an important nesting ground […]
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National Parking Service
Washington, D.C., is cursed with some of the heaviest traffic and worst air pollution in the country. But the obvious solution — reducing the number of drivers on the road — faces a major obstacle: the federal government, which supplies free parking, thereby eliminating a major incentive to take public transportation. The federal government is […]
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Right Tern
Barge traffic could grind to a halt on a 250-mile stretch of the Missouri River, after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled last week that two endangered species of shorebirds cannot be moved to accommodate the release of water from two dams in South Dakota. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to release […]
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Mayor May Not
Weighing in on the debate over storing nuclear waste at Nevada’s Yucca Mountain, mayors from across the country stated over the weekend that they do not want high-level radioactive waste shipped through cities until the safety of communities along the transport routes can be assured. The resolution was drafted by the energy committee of the […]
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Old Suburbanism
Otay Ranch is the largest single subdivision in California — no small claim to fame, since California is the land of subdivisions. By virtue of its size, Otay has taken center stage in a debate about community planning. Its developers point to its multiple parks and shared community center to bolster their claim that Otay […]
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Environmental Quality Is Job One
A new TV and radio advertising campaign by the Sierra Club calls on the automobile industry to cut its oil use as an act of patriotism — and singles out Ford Motor Company CEO William Clay Ford, Jr., to lead the way. The great-grandson of Henry Ford, William Ford used to be seen as an […]
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Barefoot but Not in Park
With gasoline selling for less than the price of a bottle of Evian and SUVs all the rage, fuel economy seems to have fallen off most Americans’ radar screens. But this is the U.S. of A., land of a million subcultures, and one of them is obsessed with the quest for ultra-fuel efficiency. While most […]
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An excerpt from The New Economy of Nature by Gretchen C. Daily and Katherine Ellison
In a cattle pasture south of downtown Napa, Calif., a clarinet, flute, and bass guitar strike up a jazzy version of "Up a Lazy River." About sixty people, if you count the rubberneckers wandering over from a nearby retirement house, gather in the midsummer sun. Two young women in flowing dresses open paper boxes to release orange clouds of monarch butterflies. A few dogs wander through the crowd.
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Snoop Dog
Almost everyone’s been embarrassed at one time or another by an over-eager dog sniffing in the wrong places. Now car owners have to worry about the “smog dog,” designed to “sniff” tailpipes to detect air pollution. Formally called the AccuScan Remote Vehicle Emissions Testing System, the smog dog analyzes exhaust from cars as they pass […]