transportation
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Neighborhood stores: An overlooked strategy for fighting global warming
Our new neighborhood fresh food market.What I find most striking about my mother-in-law’s memories of the neighborhood where I live, and where she spent her childhood in the 1940s, is how many businesses our little residential section of town once boasted. Back then, there was a grocery store, hardware store, barber shop, two drugstores, a […]
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Our addiction to cheap stuff has become very expensive, new book argues
American retail is riddled with cheap, fall-apart merchandise. We know this. Sales are a ploy to get a shopper to spend, as opposed to a boon for penny pinchers. Right. And how much mileage do we get from that old, overused adage, “You get what you pay for”? More than we’d like to admit. So […]
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Surprisingly popular Cash for Clunkers program raises hopes–and questions
This post was written by ProPublica’s Marcus Stern and Jake Bernstein. To supporters, the “cash for clunkers” program miraculously jolted the moribund car market back to life, engendering hopes that it might help revive the broader U.S. economy. Skeptics saw it differently: The automotive industry had hijacked an environmental bill and turned it into a […]
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Cash for … other things!
So Congress approved and President Obama signed an extension of the hugely popular (and not-really-so-green) cash-for-clunkers program. Woohoo! We can think of some better “Cash for …” programs the government should be funding … Cash for computers—Think of the power savings. Not to mention the peace of a Twitter-free life. Cash for cookies—Your sweet tooth […]
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Making Buses Cool Again
Transmilenio municipal buses are seen on a street of Bogotá, Colombia (from a post first published here). Transportation is responsible for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions. This means that bold changes in transportation policies — for both the developed and developing world-must be part of solving the climate crisis. The trick is […]
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Phoenix’s light rail project sparks journalism start-up
The following post was written by Michael Andersen of the Nieman Journalism Lab blog. When Adam Klawonn quit his job at a shrinking major metropolitan newspaper in 2006, he did what so many other journalists have: launched an online news operation that looked a lot like a newspaper’s web site, only with less stuff. On […]
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Our peak oil future? Electric vehicle startup unveils Chinese-made, $45K ‘economy’ car
Open one of those minimalist black boxes that contain a shiny new iPod and you’re greeted by five words — “Designed by Apple in California.” In much smaller print would be the phrase “Made in China.” Will Americans warm to a Chinese-built car when they can buy a domestic EV like the Chevy Volt for […]
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Advice for the Chinese manufacturer who just bought Hummer
Tough enough to drive over the Great Wall?GM.comI can’t say as I know exactly what’s going through the minds of the top executives at Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd. who have reportedly just purchased the Hummer brand from GM. I’ll say one thing, though. I’m pretty sure they’re not Peak Oilers. Still, give […]
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California plans no exit from hydrogen highway
California is planning to invest millions to support the rollout of new hydrogen fueling stations. Pictured here is a station near Los Angeles Int’l Airport that was built by a partnership that included BP, Praxair and LAX.Courtesy Hydrogen Assn. Energy Secretary Steven Chu may want to slam the brakes on future hydrogen funding, but California […]
