Climate Technology

Ron Steenblik, sustainability advocate and subsidies scholar, answers Grist’s questions

Ron Steenblik. What work do you do? I am the director of research for the Global Subsidies Initiative, an ambitious new project under the auspices of the International Institute for Sustainable Development. What does your organization do? The GSI was created to measure, analyze, and illuminate subsidies that are undermining sustainability, through targeted research and […]

Wal-Mart may sell organic, but it also thrives on ruined downtowns and long freight hauls.

I've always been a bit appalled by the polite applause with which some enviros greet Wal-Mart's "green" initiatives. Seems to me that the only way the company could really "go green" would be to stop selling cheap plastic crap shipped in from halfway around the world in vast suburban megastores. In other words, completely change it's business model -- not, say, adopt "green" building techniques for its appalling superstores, or haul mass-produced "organic" food from California, Mexico, and China to stores nationwide, thus burning lots of fossil fuel and potentially squeezing profits for farmers and sparking consolidation and industrialization in a movement that arose to challenge same.

Deep breath.

Sometime Grist contributor Bill McKibben nails it in the latest Mother Jones.

Money quote:

The U.S. organic cotton industry has a tough row to hoe

The view from the Panoche Cotton Gin outside Firebaugh, Calif., reveals a great deal about the state of the cotton industry in the U.S. A generation ago, fields of cotton surrounded the gin as far as the eye could see. Today, the gin — a warehouse-sized plant that can clean and bundle dozens of tons […]

What’s the real cost of climate change, and where do all those numbers come from?

As serious governments shift the climate-change debate from whether the phenomenon exists to the best means to combat it, one of the first things officials want to know is how much economic damage it will cause — and how much measures to fight it might cost. It is the trillion-dollar question, and figures are flying […]

No More McDonald’s For Them

French prime minister proposes an import tax on Kyoto-averse countries We’d like to preface this story on French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin with an amuse bouche: his name always makes us think of that Singing Nun tune from the ’60s, which led us to a lyrics site today, which featured the offer, “Send the […]

Nike is recognized for sustainability, commutability

Swoosh, for those not hopelessly entrenched in American consumer culture, refers to Nike, and is not to be confused with the enviably-young-and-far-more-talented-than-I-will-ever-be Smoosh.

My point being:

What’s in Your Wal-let?

Wal-Mart issues a progress report on its experimental eco-store The company greens hate to love is releasing a report today on progress at its year-old, experimental eco-store in Aurora, Colo. Wal-Mart is trumpeting its successes, from waterless urinals to LED lights in its freezers, and acknowledging its, uh, challenges, such as wind turbines that have […]

Car-maker planning to expand the family

The Prius may soon be more than just one oh-so-stereotyped hybrid motor vehicle. Toyota's talking about starting a family of the cars, and in this case I'd have to support wanton reproduction.

The automaker announced this week that they are considering creating a line of the gasoline-electric cars. It could include a wagon and a smaller, Smart-Car-esque inner-city model.

Business Week article gave some the wrong impression, company says

Stonyfield Farm, purveyor of organic yogurt and milk, is concerned that some folks got the wrong idea about its business strategy from a recent Business Week article about the big-ification of organic, which I pointed to a couple of weeks ago.

Morgan Bang for the Buck

Morgan Stanley will invest $3 billion in carbon trading and offset projects Investment giant Morgan Stanley announced today that it will invest $3 billion in carbon trading and offset projects over the next five years. Expecting a rush to purchase offsets as the Kyoto Protocol’s 2012 deadline approaches, the bank is playing the middleperson — […]