Climate Technology

BP pulls out of its one actual carbon sequestration project

Everyone seems to agree that carbon sequestration is going to save us from global warming. That’s why the Scottish government announced it would have a competition, awarding the creation of an actual carbon sequestration facility with a big fat financial reward. BP spent $50 million just preparing to build such a facility. But then the […]

The carpet company and its visionary CEO in the NYT

They’re a little old now, but I wanted to call attention to two great NYT articles on the environmental initiatives at carpet company Interface and its visionary CEO Ray Anderson: He challenged his colleagues to set a deadline for Interface to become a “restorative enterprise,” a sustainable operation that takes nothing out of the earth […]

A Nation columnist goes contrarian; GM goes the other way

Did lefty pundit Alexander Cockburn and corporate behemoth General Motors secretly agree to swap climate positions?

It looks that way. GM, swallowing hard, recently joined the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, the elite enviro-business coalition pushing cap-and-trade -- a so-called "market-based system" for controlling carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile, the famously acidic Cockburn lacerated global warming orthodoxy in his column in the Nation magazine, deriding it as a "fearmongers' catechism [of] crackpot theories" ginned up by "grant-guzzling climate careerists" and opportunistic politicians looking to ride the greenhouse "threatosphere" all the way to the White House. (Whew!)

But there's less here than meets the eye. For as the inconvenient details of cap-and-trade schemes start to surface, USCAP is looking less and less like a CO2 control lobby and more like a corporate club seeking to cash in on the rising clamor against free carbon spewing. And Cockburn, it turns out, has been raining on the climate crisis parade for years.

This Sounds Like a Job For … Nobody

Workaholics, especially American ones, are ruining the planet Now here’s a theory we can get behind: workaholism is ruining the earth. “We are proudly breaking our backs to decrease the carrying capacity of the planet,” says Conrad Schmidt, proponent of the 32-hour work week, who declares that overwork leads to overconsumption, pollution, and less fulfilling […]

Is It Worm in Here?

Deep-water mining could be bad news for seafloor organisms, say experts Pop quiz: Would deep-water mining harm fragile ecosystems? An article in Science gives the shocking answer: Vancouver-based Nautilus Minerals’ pioneering plan to dig out gold, copper, silver, and zinc from hydrothermal vents in the South Pacific would likely create unpleasantness for the hardy organisms […]

Coal Is the Enemy of the Human Race

New BP, Rio Tinto venture plans three “clean coal” plants Last week, oil giant BP announced a new “clean coal” partnership, and it’s already spewing big plans. With Rio Tinto, the world’s third-largest mining company, BP created Hydrogen Energy, a cleaner-energy venture. Just one hitch: they’re gonna make hydrogen by burning fossil fuels, which produces […]

FOX airs ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ after Murdoch’s green speech

Last night, about a week after Rupert Murdoch announced News Corp. is going green, FOX aired The Day After Tomorrow. I'm not sure this is the best start, but it is something, right?

Funding deniers, still, in 2007?

A little while back Exxon was trying to backpedal on its global warming shenanigans, claiming it had been misunderstood and that it wasn’t funding those nasty denialist groups any more. In what is sure to come as a huge shock to … nobody, that turned out to be bullsh*t. According to a new report from […]

‘Organic’ beer with conventional hops, and other USDA wishes

It’s happening again — the USDA is scheming to water down organic standards for key products. This time, the targets are that sacred duo, beer and sausage. Beer is composed essentially of two agricultural products: barley and hops. If the USDA gets its way, makers of “organic” beer will be able to use conventionally grown […]

Biz leaders and scientists brainstorm solutions to the freshwater crisis

Mary Pearl is the president of Wildlife Trust, cofounder of its Consortium for Conservation Medicine, and an adjunct research scientist at Columbia University. She recently returned from a boat trip through the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador with scientists, conservationists, and business leaders, intended to forge partnerships and develop solutions to the global freshwater crisis. This is the third and final dispatch from her journey. See also her first and second dispatches.

My best intentions were to have a daily dispatch to Gristmill from our weeklong floating seminar on the future of fresh water, but satellite communication from the boat proved iffy as we moved among some of the outer islands. Then, once back in New York, a million postponed obligations got in the way. However, we did have some great conversations on board, which have led to some exciting plans. So rather than the final three dispatches, I offer this wrap-up: