progress

We don’t know how to completely kick oil, but we do know how to get started

Energy investment consultant Chris Nelder takes issue with my suggestions for upping transportation efficiency as a way to reduce the demand for offshore oil, saying they would “do absolutely nothing” to eliminate the need for risky deepwater drilling projects. In fact, he explains why a lot of oft-proposed green solutions aren’t going to do much […]

10 transportation steps for kicking the offshore-oil habit

One of the most depressing aspects of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is the idea that we’ve got no choice but to rely on offshore drilling and the stomach-turning dangers it carries. We know all the problems with importing oil from petro-dictatorships. Electric cars aren’t ready to replace fuel-combustion engines. The only option, political […]

Living Buildings, Living Cities, and $125,000 up for grabs

$125,000 to play SimCity? Sort of. A new contest from the Cascadia Region Green Building Council is offering serious cash for the best visual renderings of an existing city transformed into a place that’s sustainable. Like, really sustainable. The Living City Design Competition is calling for: Photo-realistic three-dimensional modeling and renderings (a napkin sketch won’t […]

Library offers plug-in home energy monitors

Courtesy p3international.comSeattle Public Library now lets patrons check out Kill a Watt home energy monitors (retail $31 or so). Check it out, plug it into an outlet, and start learning about your home’s energy use: Library patrons can borrow a device with their library card, just as they would with books, DVD’s, etc. Plug it […]

Away from the oil spill, signs of local progress

The Gulf oil spill story is too big to ignore right now. It’s a massive, toxic indictment of our dependency on fuels that fill our atmosphere with heat-trapping pollutants even when everything goes right. But there are other stories too big to ignore, including the story of people finding creative ways to escape the death […]

Bike love in unlikely places—Detroit, Dallas, Abu Dhabi

Courtesy Moriza via FlickrI’m hard pressed to think of three places less likely to invest in bicycle infrastructure than Detroit, Dallas, and Abu Dhabi. But they are. Motor City will add 30 miles of bike lanes, focused in its southwest quadrant, with hopes to add hundreds of miles more in coming years. Dallas citizens, planners, […]

Permission to take a worry break, enjoy the health-care victory

Without getting all pundit-y, can I suggest that it wouldn’t hurt progressives to celebrate more? Others have done a better job than I can explaining what a big deal health-care reform is. I’ll just add: if you need a break from fretting about climate change, or ocean acidification, or agribusiness and school lunches, or the […]

For green homes, should energy trump everything else?

Pam Worner runs a business near Seattle helping home builders adopt “green” building practices. She’s fond of the phrases “tangled up in green” and “I don’t care what your countertop is made out of.” There’s a lot packed into those sayings—the first pinpoints a classic problem with green building, while the second suggests a solution.  […]

15 green-leaning mayors

Climate change is a global problem — but as of yet, there’s no global solution. That’s why mayors across the U.S. are taking action, from building green to organizing bike rides, from redeveloping downtowns to cutting emissions. Here are just a few of the municipal leaders who have worked to take our collective future into […]