Climate Culture

The media continues to prove his new book right

As I mentioned the other day, there’s a certain irony to the fact that Al Gore is out touring behind a book about the decline of reasoned public dialogue, since his emergence on the public scene inevitably elicits paroxysms of the shallowest, bitchiest, most vacuous commentary of which our punditariat is capable — and that’s […]

My bike and kids

The Bike-To-Work-Week gods had plans for me ... even though I don't actually work.

On Mother's Day, May 13, a wheel fell off my stroller.

Walking is my main mode of transportation, and I love it. Even with its distance limitations, pushing a stroller felt like a safe alternative to driving and less annoying than taking the bus.

My daughters, 18 months and 3, are too old for us to justify buying another stroller and too young to walk the two-mile roundtrip to downtown, the playground, or the library.

Since I gave up driving almost a year ago, I've ignored the advice of cycling advocates, both on the web and in real life, because I thought walking served my family just fine.

Now, without a stroller, it was time to buy a bike. And a trailer that hooks onto the back. And helmets. And test drive it to the downtown vegetarian coffee shop for a breakfast sandwich.

And finally this week, I strapped in the girls for a ride to the playground -- and they loved it. Why, I think, did I wait so long?

LinkedIn, a social network for professionals, is introduced today

From Mashable.com:

Nonprofit organizations will be able to use LinkedIn as a platform for involving the LinkedIn community with their causes, leveraging the 11 million users that are present within the online community. Provided with this new feature are free badges to be placed on profiles, and registered nonprofits free job listings in order to find new members to join their teams. British rockstar James Blunt is already using LinkedIn to raise over $23,000 for Doctors Without Borders. Other featured LinkedIn for Good organizations include American Red Cross, the World Wildlife Fund and Unitis and Kiva, microfiance organizations.

The full story is here.

A not-so-subtle call for climate change attention

At the base of snow-capped Mount Ararat, where the bible says Noah's ark came to rest after 40 days of flooding, environmentalist volunteers are constructing a miniature version of the famed zoological craft.

Its completion is being timed to coincide with next month's G8 summit in Germany, where climate change will be a hot issue. Last week, for instance, scientists from all across Africa plus Brazil, India, China, Mexico, and South Africa presented joint statements to German prime minister Angela Merkel calling for "united global action on energy efficiency and climate change mitigation."

The Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) also called for a joint fund to be set up between the G8 and the African Union to finance shared science and technology projects in priority areas.

All of which is a good thing, since this ark -- 10 meters long and 4 meters high -- might not quite cut it.

Our culture of overcompensation

Mark Morford:

Bottom line: You can hope for the big shifts. You can hope for some sort of grand awakening, some sort of removal of the tumor and a relief from the pain of excess waste and abuse and happy ignorance.

But, of course, what you get instead is, well, a nice drive to the megamall in a shiny 2008 Escalade for a couple of aspirin and some compact fluorescent lightbulbs and a copy of "An Inconvenient Truth" on DVD. Ain't that America.

More excerpts beneath the fold.

Big Applers breathe easy

Starting in 2008, every new yellow taxi purchased by the city of New York will be a hybrid vehicle, according to an announcement yesterday by Mayor Bloomberg. By 2012, the entire fleet -- some 13,000 cabs -- will have been replaced with a mixture of Toyota Priuses, Highlander Hybrids, Lexus RX 400h's, and Ford Escapes.

Thirteen thousand may sound like a drop in the ocean, given that 232 million cars are currently registered in the U.S. alone. Still, cabs are a great target for greening, both because of their high public profile and because of their disproportionately large carbon expenditure. New York City never sleeps, and neither do its taxis, ever spewing their emissions, even while they mostly idle in traffic.

Bloomberg certainly is the consummate businessman, as you can see in this Today Show clip -- adept at rubbing shoulders with corporate execs from Yahoo!(which donated 10 hybrid vehicles to one of the major cab fleet operators) to the American Lung Association. One gets rolling advertisements, the other gets less asthma ... and we all get slightly cleaner Big Apple air.

I had one

It’s no Weather Channel … but look, I’m famous!

Britney Was Ahead of Her Time

Some car seats leach toxic chemicals, says new report Car seats have joined baby bottles and bath toys on the ever-growing list of Evil Things You’re Subjecting Your Child To. The Michigan-based Ecology Center tested 62 models of tot-toters, finding that about a third can leach chemicals such as chlorine, bromine, and lead. The center, […]

The paper vs. plastic question must die

Ok, I'm whining. But the obsession with paper vs. plastic shopping bags just plain bugs me.

As The Oregonian's Michael Milstein correctly points out: both paper and plastic have their pros and cons. Plastic has some surprising environmental advantages (more here), but also some unexpected drawbacks, including gumming up recycling equipment -- which makes it hard to figure out which option is actually worse in practice. But quite clearly, reusing bags you already have is better than asking for a new one.

The thing is, we already know all this. What's more, we've known it for decades.

And (heresy alert!) the truth is that paper-vs-plastic is an astonishingly low-priority issue.

Ed Del Grande, master plumber and how-to expert, answers questions

Ed Del Grande. What work do you do? I am a home-improvement TV host, master plumber, columnist, author, and how-to expert for Kohler Co. In my work for Kohler, I travel across the country to green building shows, consumer events, and industry trade shows to demonstrate new high-efficiency toilets that use less water without sacrificing […]