Climate Culture
All Stories
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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.
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Our culture of overcompensation
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.
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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.
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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, […]
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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.
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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 […]
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And other tips from celebs
Happy Monday, y’all. If your weekend was as awesome as mine (read: not awesome), you’ll need some entertaining celeb goss to get you going this week. So here goes: Leonardo DiCaprio announced this weekend during press for his documentary 11th Hour (which I’ve heard, ps, is not awesome, though I hope I misheard) that he […]
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His new book, about stupid media, is treated stupidly by the media
Al Gore has a new book coming out called The Assault on Reason. It’s about the sickness of our democratic dialogue, the systemic features of our culture and media that lead us to ignore evidence, focus on trivialities, and accept deception after deception. Gore’s going to be out promoting the book, and there’s a certain […]
