Climate Technology

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  • Seedy tactics in Iowa and Norway in the news this week

    Monsanto’s Roundup Ready soybean seedPhoto: MonsantoThe first in a series of daylong federally sponsored workshops kicked off today in Ankeny, Iowa, to debate whether consolidation in agriculture — in particular in the seed industry — has stifled competition and harmed farmers. While it may be much more convenient for farmers to do their one-stop seed […]

    Bonnie Azab Powell Technology

  • Price cannot steer emission reductions properly

    In my last two posts I argued two points: emissions pricing is less popular with the public than funding of trains, renewable requirements and other types of public investment and rule based regulation . And the public is right. Clean energy, clean industry and clean agriculture are fundamentally infrastructure.  Infrastructure depends much more on rules […]

    Gar Lipow Technology

  • Banana briefs are growing on us

    Gents, if the thought of pesticides on your privates bums you out, then start thinking outside the boxer. AussieBum has gone down under to pioneer briefs that put a banana in your pants. That’s right, these skivvies are a smoothie mix of banana tree-bark fibers, organic cotton, Lycra (cough), and an “eco friendly flavor that […]

    Ashley Braun Technology

  • Breakthrough polymers promise versatile, immortal plastics — a good thing

    If you want to build a sustainable street, neighborhood, city, or world, I have one word for you: plastics. The facts about plastic have become part of the green liturgy. More than 30 million tons of the stuff is dumped into the municipal waste stream each year in the United States. Disposable water bottles have […]

    Todd Woody Technology

  • Retooling green jobs for the next generation

    When you think “green jobs,” do you conjure images of green hard hats, caulk guns, and tool belts? Well it might be time to start thinking about “green” lab beakers, “green” drafting tables and “green” brief cases as well, because the careers needed to secure competitive clean energy industries will also run the gamut from […]

    Jesse Jenkins Technology

  • Farm lobby’s lawyer appointed as Ag Committee’s counsel

    Here’s object lesson No. 452 in the ongoing corrosive handover of government power to corporate interests. And no, I don’t think I’m exaggerating. Over at Mother Jones, Kate Sheppard details the high-speed revolving door permanently located between the offices of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, and several top energy lobbying […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • Business + Stealth Greening = Fail

    If a business goes green in the forest and no one is around…did it happen? That’s what a climate action plan sounds like if you don’t market it, according to George Washington University business professor, Mark Starik. Failure in Washington to pass cap and trade legislation and failure in Copenhagen to come to an international […]

    Frank Sesno Technology

  • Florida Everglades restoration now a bailout for U.S. Sugar

    Cypress trees in the Everglades. Photo: National Park ServiceThe New York Times published a monster investigative piece Monday on the disaster that is the Everglades Restoration Project. In some ways, it distills much of what’s wrong with both corporate and government culture in this country. Fun fact: the key beneficiary of the restoration plan will […]

    Tom Laskawy Technology

  • Modern modular done right

    Photo: Treehugger A lot of lessons have been learned over the last decade as architects and manufacturers try to make modern green prefab affordable and accessible to a wider audience. A new entry into the market is Challenger, a modern architect-designed line of houses from Manitoba, Canada’s Conquest Manufacturing. They recently displayed a new model, […]

    treehugger.com Technology

  • Tech startup’s pollution detector aids enviro justice group

    If you had been driving through North Texas this week you might have seen a white Dodge Sprinter van circling some of the natural gas wells and compression stations that have sprung up around the Barnett Shale belt like boom-time subdivisions. Drillers tap natural gas by splitting shale through a process called hydraulic fracturing, or […]

    Todd Woody Technology