Climate Technology

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  • Why bother filing an EIS for a biodiversity-destroying project?

    Ag giant Cargill was forced to close a soy export terminal in the Brazilian Amazon this weekend, marking a major victory for greens, who have argued for years that the plant was built illegally and became a significant cause of rainforest depletion.

    The terminal spurred a major leap in soy production -- millions of acres of rainforest were turned over to soy bean fields -- which is used principally to supply European livestock farms. Ironically, it was closed not because of the destruction, but because they never submitted an EIS. Mmm, soy.

    Erik Hoffner Technology

  • Fuel Me Twice

    Bush, Big Auto agree that ethanol is the way of the future … again Detroit’s Big Three automakers cruised to the White House yesterday to plead their case for improving biofuels access and to remind the president that they’re not so keen on that whole “improving fuel economy” idea. Bush played along by plugging a […]

    Grist staff Technology

  • Proposed coal company merger will draw green opposition

    This is from a press release that just crossed the transom: The expected March 29, 2007 merger of Dynegy and LS Power will create a combined company with the most pending dirty coal-fired power plants in the United States. This plan contrasts sharply with the recent TXU decision to back away from such heavily polluting […]

    David Roberts Technology

  • What gets measured gets fixed, as they say

    The following is a guest post from Deborah Shimberg. Deborah lives in northern Vermont, where she started and continues to run Verve, Inc., which makes all-natural Glee chewing gum. —– We denizens of the earth know we are living beyond our means. But it’s hard to know by how much, and when we may reach […]

    David Roberts Technology

  • Why are environmental activists so clueless at marketing climate change solutions?

    Virgin Blue, the Australian extension of Richard Branson's airline empire, recently launched a program to allow passengers to purchase carbon offsets when they book a flight.

    That's nice. But what struck me was this quote from Greenpeace's energy campaigner, Ben Pearson:

    Virgin should not be criticized out of hand for this scheme, but it promotes the idea that dealing with climate change is easy and cheap rather than being about the difficult task of changing consumer behavior, government policy and investment.

    Adam Stein Technology

  • Dirty money

    And Rainforest Action Network has the soap.  Get scrubbing.

    Adam Browning Technology

  • Goldman Sachs and other financial powerhouses get into the Texas wind biz

    What is Goldman Sachs doing in rural Texas? Probably some of its bankers have wondered that themselves, when they find they’re three hours from the nearest latte. A Texas turbine. Photo: NREL / Cielo Wind Power One of Goldman’s subsidiaries, Houston-based Horizon Wind Energy, is constructing a $600 million, 400-megawatt wind farm in the boonies […]

    Kate Galbraith Technology

  • Pep Raleigh

    Google gives out bikes to 2,000 employees across the pond We have a vague recollection that there was life before Google, but it must have been a sad, empty sort of life. Anyone recall? While you’re casting your memory back there, lord, we’ll update you on the latest from the altruistic search engine: they’re giving […]

    Grist staff Technology

  • If organic food is so popular, why are so few farms transitioning their land?

    On a recent trip to Austin, I visited the flagship Whole Foods — a vast space where people gather en masse to render financial sacrifice to that new god, organic food. From the depths of the parking lot, as you make your way up to the store, you’re urged again and again by a sign […]

    Tom Philpott Technology

  • Among bad deals, TerraPass’s methane offset project?

    In the new issue of BusinessWeek: "Another Inconvenient Truth?" It warns:

    Gar Lipow Technology