Climate Technology
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The Full Vermonty
State of Vermont Endangered by Wal-Mart, Group Says The National Trust for Historic Preservation released its list of endangered historic sites yesterday, citing such imperiled landmarks as Pennsylvania’s Bethlehem Works steel plant, Utah’s Nine Mile Canyon, and the state of Vermont. Yup, the whole state. According to the trust, mega-retailer Wal-Mart’s aggressive plans for expansion […]
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Factory farms get off easy on air pollution
What do the National Chicken Council, the National Turkey Federation, United Egg Producers, and Tyson Foods have in common? Crying fowl. Photo: USDA. Well, first there’s the obvious fowl connection. Then there’s the foul connection: Their facilities, known as “concentrated animal feeding operations” (CAFOs), have growing air-pollution problems thanks to the mountains of gas-emitting excrement […]
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Escape Notice
Demand for Hybrids Exceeds Expectations Demand for gas-electric hybrid vehicles has automakers scrambling to keep up. Ford’s new Escape hybrid SUV won’t go on sale until August, but already 30,000 people have expressed the desire to buy one via Ford’s website, whereas the company had planned to sell just 20,000 a year. Meanwhile, waiting lists […]
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Can capitalism be harnessed to solve environmental problems, or is capitalism itself the problem?
When right-wing pundits and corporate flacks compare environmentalists to watermelons (green on the outside, red on the inside), they mean it as a slur. But when eco-socialists look at the wider environmental movement, they see a big green tomato that had better ripen up, and soon. Hybridizing the analyses of Karl Marx with those of […]
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Study finds mandatory caps work better than voluntary programs to limit pollution
Smokestacking the deck? Photo: USGS. This just in, from the Department of Near-Tautologies: Mandatory emissions caps rein in power-plant pollution more effectively than voluntary programs. That’s the conclusion being drawn from a report on the environmental records of the 100 largest electricity companies in the U.S., released last week by an alliance of bottom-liners and […]
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Margie Eugene-Richard of Louisiana battled Shell on behalf of her neighborhood
Eugene-Richard. Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize. The Old Diamond neighborhood of Norco, in far southern Louisiana, sits between a Shell Chemicals plant and an oil refinery owned by a Shell joint venture. “We’re like the meat in the sandwich,” says Margie Eugene-Richard, 62, who grew up just 25 feet from the fenceline of the chemical plant. […]
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Al-Gore-Rhythm
Gore Blasts American Companies for Lagging on Green Tech American companies spend too much time fighting environmental regulations and too little time researching and developing the next generation of green technologies, said former vice president and 2000 popular-vote winner Al Gore in a speech to Stanford University business students yesterday. Gore cited a recent deal […]
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Liquidated
Water Privatization Sweeps World Despite Problems Water will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th, predicted Fortune Magazine in May 2000, and it is shaping up to be a prescient claim. Multinational corporations now run the water systems that provide for 7 percent of the world’s population, with analysts expecting that […]
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Seventh Heaven Can Wait
Eco-Friendly, Socially Conscious Company Faces Tough Choices Seventh Generation, the biggest U.S. brand of eco-friendly household products — toilet paper, diapers, soaps, etc. — is a case study in the possibilities and perils facing companies with a social conscience. Founder and CEO Jeffrey Hollender recently struggled over his decision to continue supplying the company’s products […]
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Shareholding Industry Responsible
Shareholders Call on Companies to Address Global Warming A group of pension-fund managers representing public employees announced yesterday that they had filed shareholder resolutions with 10 North American oil and gas companies, calling on them to report to investors how they plan to deal with the problem of global warming and, more to the point, […]
