John Laumer said:
"Editor's remark:
Sierra Club spokesperson has supplied the following in response to a comment...
--------------------
In answer..." [read]
Cybercat said:
"@Joe
I think they're going off the flat gas price, rather than before or after government and state taxes. I wouldn't mind seeing another ..." [read]
Cybercat said:
"There isn't a percentage for how much is generated from feeding animals other animal by-products so all the assumptions made below are part on that..." [read]
BenSchiendelman said:
"Live in cities, use the public transportation, buy fruits, vegetables and grain at the farmer's markets. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Gre..." [read]
Scott Johnson said:
"Nice house! I'm wondering just how much floor area it has. That's a lot of floors + a lot of stair climbing, but it's a very unique home...." [read]
When in Rome: Joining its fellow top polluters -- China, India and the U.S. -- Russia has signaled it would rebuff the imposition of tougher emission standards, casting doubt on the prospects for a future U.N.-mediated climate treaty, reports Reuters' Alister Doyle. Government officials said last week that the country wouldn't accept binding caps under a new deal to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, set to expire by the end of 2012.
We've been listening closely at the Sierra Club to the public discussion -- on blogs and elsewhere -- about our endorsement of the new Green Works line from the makers of Clorox products. It's been a fascinating debate with folks lining up in various camps often for different reasons. The issues we've seen being raised are the same concerns that came up when members of various Sierra Club committees considered this new alliance.
After a thorough review of the company and its new product line, we decided to move forward with our collective eyes wide open. In response to the lively debate that's ensued, we've posted an FAQ on our website that answers questions like "What is Clorox's overall environmental record?" and "Isn't Clorox a big dumper of chlorine into the environment?" I hope it helps those of you who have following the discussion on Treehugger and elsewhere to understand why we made the decision we did.
The eggs of peregrine falcons living in California's big cities contain some of the highest levels ever found in wildlife of a flame retardant used in consumer products, a new study has found.
Tomorrow is World Fair Trade Day and a time for all of us to celebrate Fair Trade Organisations and buy more Fair Trade goods through Fair Trade stores. This year's theme is "Fair Trade + Ecology" and member organizations in 70 countries will be doing their best to promote the principles and values of Fair Trade. There are so many communities across Africa, Asia and Latin America that are benefiting from the movement's commitment to paying a living wage by teaching people to create products that are useful, use local materials, and do not have a negative impact on the environment.
People Tree, the first fair trade clothing brand, is launching a special limited edition line of dresses for the occasion. There are Fair Trade events happening all over the world in celebration. The range of groups is awe inspiring; from jute carrier bags from Bangladesh to handicrafts made out of discarded tins in Madagascar to delicate carved spoons made out of dead wood from Argentina. All over the world, people working in communities are making a better life for themselves and their families from fair trade principles in action. Make sure you support a Fair Trade company today. :: World Fair Trade Day
Oh Lieberman-Warner climate bill, we hardly knew ye: Climate Progress' Joe Romm brings us the sad news that the legislation may be on its way out -- victim, as he put it, of "apathy" and some serious watering down (read: neutering). Oh yes: It also turns out that whole "getting 60 votes" thing got in the way:
Environment and Public Works Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) shrugged off suggestions she is having trouble winning over moderates and conservatives from either party in her quest to find 60 votes and squash an inevitable filibuster.
“To tell you the truth, we don’t know if we’ll wind up getting 60 votes this time,” Boxer said in an interview. “But we do believe we’re making tremendous progress and we’re going to start the debate.”
Last year we wrote about the Climate Registry. John said: "Good metrics are a necessity for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from stationary sources. "Good" means everyone uses an agreed-to baseline year, to which all changes are compared, uniform methods for estimating emissions, and validation by third parties. With good metrics, plans for reduction, regardless of whether they are voluntary or mandatory, will be of higher value. The Climate Registry meets all these prerequisites."
Well, this year Ford became the first automaker to join voluntarily the Climate Registry, showing that it at least has the intention (we'll have to see how much action will follow) to be more transparent and accountable when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions. Most members of the registry are states and provinces, and it is a good sign to see big companies also joining. We encourage others to follow Ford's example, and then to take action to reduce their emissions. ::Official Ford Announcement
When questioned by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works yesterday about the potential health risks posed by perchlorate, a chemical used in solid rocket fuel, Benjamin H. Grumbles, the EPA's assistant administrator for water, said: "We know that perchlorate can have an adverse effect and we're concerned about that."
Yet, when further pressed by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who chairs the committee, on whether the agency would take action to limit the amount of perchlorate in water -- a no-brainer, you'd think, right? -- Grumbles answered that there was a "distinct possibility" (read: almost guaranteed) that it would not, reports the LAT's Marla Cone.
Last week, three of the world's biggest oil companies reported record-breaking quarterly profits in excess of $27 billion. It's pretty hard to fathom that kind of money - but what is easier for the rest of us to see in real terms is also breaking records: the cost of a gallon of gas.
And of course as the gas prices skyrocket yet again, rather than getting the energy leadership our country really needs, we hear the same old calls to drill for more domestic oil - especially in some of our last wild places, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Polar Bear Seas (the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the coast of Alaska).
Watch this amazing video of the collapse last week of Hamilton's historic Balfour Building, owned by the Laborers' International Union of North America. Never was there a more blatant example of demolition by neglect; LIUNA promised that the facade would be preserved but "oops," the whole thing just fell down. LIUNA owns almost the entire block, and is letting it all fall to ruin. (see the Lister Block here).
Meanwhile, Terence O'Sullivan, General President of LIUNA, is making a major speech in Washington on Friday, May 9 calling for " a new plan for rebuilding and renewing America’s basic infrastructure."
What hypocrisy. What a blatant example of "Do as I say, not as I do." ...
Families waiting for relief goods in makeshift houses in Labutta, a town in the Irrawaddy division of southwest Myanmar. AFP/AFP/Getty Images
Forty hours ago we asked TreeHugger readers to contribute to Architecture for Humanity's fund to put together a team to start planning for the reconstruction of Burma. They got it in 24 hours. We talked this morning with Cameron Sinclair in Korea:
TH: Did TreeHugger readers make a difference?
CS: I have no idea, but the average donation was $45! Nothing over $100, all individuals.
TH: Does that differ from your usual donation profile?
CS: Well it is definitely different, we usually we get 60% small donations then one or two big ones. This was hundreds on small donations that collectively will make a difference. 100% of the donations were online.
TH: What's next?
CS so we hit $10K and Mortar Net is offering a $2500 match over the next day. $15K will allow us to have an on the ground team for 9 months to a year to work on sustainable reconstruction in one of the devastated communities.
TH: You are scheduled to speak at the Metropolis conference at ICFF. Will you make it back?
CS: Yes, I am also speaking on the 21st at MocaCleveland. I'm donating all honorariums for my talks this month to the Burma campaign.
TreeHugger readers made the difference. Can we help raise another $ 2500 in 24 hours? Donate here.
...
MSN MoneyBlog man Charley Blaine has a very scary thought. Extrapolating from a projection by Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murt, he details a few key implications of US gasoline prices exceeding 7 bucks, inside two years.
Though more welcome scenarios are also plausible, it's worth pondering the secondary impacts suggested for the 7-buck gas outcome. This goes way beyond "Should I ride the train instead."
Will there be any U.S.-based auto manufacturers left? The answer depends entirely on how fast they can transform their product lines. Chrysler is in deep trouble already. That probably means more stress for the Midwest.
Will there be any domestic airlines left? The so-called legacy airlines (American, United, Northwest, Delta and Continental) would either try to combine into one big carrier or simply disappear. They're having serious troubles surviving as it is. This means big troubles for cities where these airlines operate hubs that generate thousands of jobs like Atlanta, Cleveland, Newark, Houston, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Memphis and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Image: Pine Marten by Peter Cairns | www.wild-wonders.com
If you love nature, drop everything and sign up today for updates from Wild Wonders of Europe. We predict that this project will do for nature photography careers what CSI did for criminology. The haunting stillness, rich landscapes and sense of communion with nature that the photographs convey will make you long for a quiet cover in a remote glen with the weight of your lens in your hand. The stated goal of Wild Wonders of Europe is "to reveal the amazing natural heritage of Europe and to inspire a desire to save it."
TreeHugger met with Florian Moellers, Wild Wonders' Director of Communications, to learn what Wild Wonders of Europe is all about. We share this plus an exclusive photo peak into the galleries for TreeHugger readers -- just over the fold....
Last week, three of the world's biggest oil companies reported record-breaking quarterly profits in excess of $27 billion. It's pretty hard to fathom that kind of money - but what is easier for the rest of us to see in real terms is also breaking records: the cost of a gallon of gas.
And of course as the gas prices skyrocket yet again, rather than getting the energy leadership our country really needs, we hear the same old calls to drill for more domestic oil - especially in some of our last wild places, like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Polar Bear Seas (the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas off the coast of Alaska)....
Making Solar Power Competitive with Coal?
Sunrgi recently made an impressive claim at the National Energy Marketers Association’s 11th Annual Global Energy Forum in Washington, DC: They say that their system will soon be able to "produce electricity at a wholesale cost of 5 cents per kWh (kilowatt hour). [A] price competitive with the wholesale cost of producing electricity using fossil fuels and a fraction of the current cost of solar energy."
They do it with Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics (XCPV) by concentrating the Sun's light close to 2,000 times (!) into extremely efficient solar photovoltaic cells. Part of Sunrgi's patent-pending technology has to do with the cooling of the solar cells, dual-axis sun tracking, and the way the whole system is optimized for mass-production....
Before and after Cyclone; click here to enlarge
While rescue workers try to get into Burma (not made any easier by a military junta that announced on Tuesday that foreign experts wanting to come in would need to "negotiate" with the Government) Architecture for Humanity says that "While the media will focus its attention on the loss of life, there will be millions displaced in the coming weeks and like most natural disasters, no plan for long term sustainable reconstruction."
Yesterday Cameron Sinclair told us that AFH is not rushing in. "The worst thing is for non-essential teams to get in the way of the relief effort. As we’ve done previously we are already communicating organizations with shelter divisions to offer technical support. Ideally in a few weeks we would send an assessment team into the region, possibly with one of these agencies, and they would establish ties with local organizations."
They need $ 10,000 to create that team and provide design services to communities; the campaign started at TreeHugger with the first three donations. Already, 130 donors have raised $ 6,500. Let's make this a short campaign; contribute now at ::Architecture for Humanity
...
The Democratic candidates for President keep bashing Canada and Mexico, but on their next bus ride might want to read two articles about who else supplies America with oil and gas. Mother Jones notes that:
"We're "seeing a further shifting in the oil industry in which national oil companies are the power brokers," says Andrew Neff, senior energy analyst at economic forecaster Global Insight. Anyone inclined to celebrate Big Oil's recent misfortunes had better hold off on the champagne. For however badly the Western firms may have behaved, the new global oil barons could one day leave environmental and social activists nostalgic for the bad old days of ExxonMobil." ::Mother Jones
Thomas Friedman writes about the rise of petro-authoritarianism:
"I've long argued that the price of oil and the pace of freedom operate in an inverse correlation - which I call: "The First Law of Petro-Politics." As the price of oil goes up, the pace of freedom goes down. As the price of oil goes down, the pace of freedom goes up. "There are 23 countries in the world that derive at least 60 percent of their exports from oil and gas, and not a single one is a real democracy," explains [political scientist Larry] Diamond. "Russia, Venezuela, Iran and Nigeria are the poster children" for this trend, where leaders grab the oil tap to ensconce themselves in power." ::New York Times...
In Alabama, that is actually headline-worthy news. Florence, Alabama: SUVs and minivans circled around the parking lot at Kilby School, and parents darted back and forth to collect their children and buckle them in for the ride home. With one exception. Scott Infanger walked over from his nearby office at the University of North Alabama, greeted his 7-year-old daughter and unlocked the family trail-a-bike, a tandem bike with a junior seat....In the entire state of Alabama, 1,656 residents bike to work. ::Times Daily
Bike Lanes, Intended for Safety, Become Traffic Battlegrounds New York City: James Frederick was in Manhattan cycling west in the Prince Street bike lane on a recent morning when a green Ford parked in the lane forced him to swerve into the narrow roadway where cars and vans were rushing past.“It’s kind of scary because the cars next to you just keep going," says Frederick, "The city just put this lane in a few months ago, but it’s not respected by drivers.” ::New York TimesMore on bike commuting in TreeHugger:Seattle's Bike to Work Day is Taking Place on May 16, 2008Lance Armstrong Says: Commute by Bike!It's More Dangerous NOT To Ride a Bike
...
This is the third guest post by Wood Turner, Project Director, Climate Counts. Last time Wood told us about how Going Green Is Strictly Business. Just Ask Wal-Mart. This time we see how the business of green is spreading.
Consumer climate action isn’t just about switching to compact fluorescent lightbulbs or buying recycled. While people across the country are taking action to reduce their own carbon footprint, some consumers are using their power to push companies to take action themselves - and it’s paying off.
Today, Climate Counts is releasing its second annual Climate Counts Company Scorecard. We launched our first Scorecard last year with the hope that creating a simple, easy-to-understand ranking of companies would motivate both companies and consumers to step-up their efforts on climate change.
Now, with the release of their second scorecard, we can say that it appears to have worked. The new Scorecard shows a real shift towards greater climate commitment across most industry sectors — with 84% of scored companies improving their Climate Counts scores. Looking at the companies that showed the most improvement—Google, Levi Strauss and Anheuser-Busch—shows the diverse kinds of great American companies committed to paying attention to global climate change.
The average overall Climate Counts score jumped 22% to 39 (from 30). That number, 39 out of 100, also shows that there is still a lot of work to do. Please spend some time on our site exploring how companies stack up with each other on climate performance (Click here to check out our new scores.).
...
We might file this one under 'missed opportunity'...
It may be sad but it's true - sex sells. We've seen this ourselves in the popularity of our guide on How to Green Your Sex Life, or Solar Powered Bikinis, so 'Oily Cassandra' might very well be on to something in her attempts to educate the masses on the threat of peak oil (imagine if Al Gore had donned lingerie!). Whether or not folks agree with the medium, the message that we need to pay attention to dwindling oil supplies, and fast, is hugely important. Nevertheless, we're dissapointed at how fast Cassandra swings from awareness raising to defeatism, at least where certain alternatives are concerned. Sure, peak oil is likely to bring us some very tough times ahead - as Jeremy Leggett recently argued, we need to be mobilising as if for war - but to simply say we blew our chance to invest in renewables is not helpful. We are hardly short of options, both technological and societal, when it comes to cutting down on oil use fast, and it would have been nice to see Cassandra inspiring action rather than despair in her video. Here's just a short list of what we might have included (maybe we'll make a video of our own to highlight them...): ...
Photo courtesy eternallycool.net
Newly re-elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the European Commission believe they can do something about the appalling 15-year long trash problem in southern Italy's Campania region around the city of Naples. Berlusconi said he'd spend three days each week in Naples until the trash problems are solved, and the Commission has sued Italy to try to impose hefty fines to the ongoing waste management crisis.
In the past, citizens of Campania have taken to burning piles of trash that get too big or when warm weather made them too stinky. Graffiti artists such as Ruffo are also using their skills to make a point about the trash. Ruffo's depiction of the Mona Lisa holding her sorted trash bags is supposed to get people thinking about recycling - at around 5 percent nationwide, Italy has one of Europe's lowest recycling rates. The trash problem doesn't seem to have an easy fix, however, as local politics seem to be hindering the process of building energy-recovery incinerators and setting up a better recycling and trash infrastructure. The region has lost tourism, and recently the Commission was also forced to take action when Campania's famous buffalo-milk mozzarella was found to be tainted with dioxin thought to have come from uncontrolled trash burning. Via ::ChristianScienceMonitor
See also: Naples Buried Under A Heap Of Trash...
Farmers in Rajasthan, India are forsaking their gas-guzzling tractors and returning to using their trusty camels for haulage. Due to rising gas prices farmers are rediscovering the "ships of the desert". The price of a good camel has gone up sharply as a result: two years ago they were almost the same price as goats, now they are three times the price. A good male camel will live for 60 to 80 years and costs $973.00 while the cheapest tractor is $4,000. This is good news according to the League for Pastoral Peoples and Endogenous Livestock Development because the camel population has been falling over the past ten years and this could lead to a revival of this age-old usage.
Camels have a long and regal history in India. Traditionally they were used by maharajas and had great status as did their breeders. Now decreasing amounts of grazing land and lack of investment in the existing lands have resulted in inadequate nutrition and lowered the resilience of the herds. Camel slaughter is forbidden in India but in fact sources believe that it is rampant, with the meat exported to Bangladesh. Not only is the use of camels being promoted but also its by-products such as camel milk, camel leather handbags and camel bone jewellery. :: Financial Times...
In a side conversation a few days ago, Emerald City's Siel -- a fellow Angeleno -- took me to task for summarily dismissing the potential merits of the recently proposed congestion pricing scheme. She helpfully pointed me to a column penned by her friend, Damien Newton, who makes a convincing argument in favor of HOT (high-occupancy toll) lanes. His spirited defense rests on two central points: First, the pricing structure of the HOT lanes has not yet been hammered out -- so people like me should stop belaboring the equity issue for now -- and, secondly, this scheme should help expand and improve the MTA's services. He writes:
"Once the schedule's nailed down, it very well could be that cars with more than one passenger will be paying a very reduced rate and cars with three or more people driving free. It could also be that cars with two or more passengers will be able to access the HOT lane in non-peak hour periods for free, but have to pay a small fee during peak hours. The truth is, carpoolers probably won’t be seeing much, if any, of a change in the cost of their commute."...
On Friday night I went to see Al Gore at Radio City Music Hall. The former Vice President walked onto the stage to thunderous applause and a fan shouted, “You rock Al!” (Although, I’m an obsessive Gore fan- that wasn’t me). Al has been keeping himself busy with Current TV, serving as a partner of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, on the board of Apple Inc., consulting for Google, working on a new slideshow, and even teaching at Middle Tennessee State University. Over the three days prior to the lecture, he had been in New York City meeting with venture capitalists in the clean tech field. ...
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association has prepared a study of the impact on each state if the gas tax is cut for the summer. They predict that it will blow a $9 Billion hole in the transportation budget. Executive Director George Dondero says "It would deplete an already oversubscribed highway trust fund, making a bad situation worse, We're trying to get the government to generate more money for transportation, not less." Of today's primary states,Indiana would lose $183,722596 and 6,390 jobs; North Carolina $203,319,748 and 7,071 jobs. (See pdf of list here)
A candidate who does not support cutting the gas tax recently said " We are going to be having a lot of conversations this summer about gas prices. And it is a perfect time to start talk about why we don't have better rail service. We are the only advanced country in the world that doesn't have high speed rail. We just don't have it. And it works on the Northeast corridor. They would rather go from New York to Washington by train than they would by plane. It is a lot more reliable and it is a good way for us to start reducing how much gas we are using. It is a good story to tell."
...
yesterday in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Getty Images.
When we spoke with Cameron Sinclair earlier today, Editor Meg wondered if there were environmental factors that might have had an impact. Cameron responded that "Mangroves were cut down, magnifying this disaster."
This is confirmed by Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan, who, according to the BBC, said that the loss of mangroves had exacerbated the tragedy.
"Encroachment into mangrove forests, which used to serve as a buffer between the rising tide, between big waves and storms and residential areas; all those lands have been destroyed," the AFP news agency reported him as saying. "Human beings are now direct victims of such natural forces." ...
Cyclone Nargis has just ripped through Myanmar, formerly Burma. While only 5% of the country was hit, it is where 25% of the population lives. Even where people survived with minor damage to their houses, they now face water shortages, food prices have quadrupled and the rice crop has been wiped out. Trees are down everywhere. In the middle of this we got a call from Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of Architecture for Humanity.TH: Where are you right now?
CS: I’m in Seoul, Korea speaking tomorrow, ironically, about affordable sustainable development and reconstruction. On Thursday I fly to Tamil Nadu in India to formally wrap up our post-tsunami reconstruction work.
...
China is boiling mad. Last week, residents of Chengdu rallied against French retail giant Carrefour as part of a nationwide retaliation for perceived insults against China by France over the recent protests in Tibet. But a more subdued protest in the city, the capital of Sichuan province, last weekend took on a threat more dangerous than France: a nearby petrochemical factory and oil refinery. According to the Times,
The protesters walked peacefully through the center of the city for several hours on Sunday to criticize the building of an ethylene plant and oil refinery in Pengzhou, a few minutes' drive outside the city. Some protesters wore white face masks to highlight the dangers of pollution. About 400 to 500 protesters took part in the march, which was watched by dozens of police officers, witnesses said.
Under a government leery of dissent, it can be hard to hold a demonstration, or at least to know how many happen every day. But in an age of cell phone cameras and video sharing sites, it's getting harder to hide these local protests. And technology is making it harder to stop them too. Like the large protests against a similar plant in Xiamen last year and the demonstrations over a maglev line in Shanghai in January, this protest was organized via text messages, bulletin boards and blogs. And by calling the event a "stroll," organizers managed to circumvent government restrictions on protests. There may not have been any fires or deaths, as in Tibet. But Chengdu was a sign of a much more realistic and powerful brand of dissent in China.
...
If you live in a democracy, then your vote helps to decide how politicians should act to curb carbon dioxide emissions and achieve energy independence. But how can the average voter make sense of it all? The IPCC says we must act now or we miss the window of opportunity to spare future generations from untold suffering. The climate change denialists cry that economic collapse will cause untold suffering in the short to middle term if we commit to strong action for change. What should you believe? To the rescue: Yale Professor Robert Repetto, professor in the practice of economics and sustainable development, has developed an interactive website that calculates the costs of climate change. Yale, presumably staying on the cutting edge of modern marketing, now offers this 5-minute YouTube video to draw people into Repetto's website....
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
Families waiting for relief goods in makeshift houses in Labutta, a town in the Irrawaddy division of southwest Myanmar. AFP/AFP/Getty Images
MSN MoneyBlog man Charley Blaine has a very scary thought. Extrapolating from a projection by Goldman Sachs analyst Arjun Murt, he details a few key implications of US gasoline prices exceeding 7 bucks, inside two years.
Though more welcome scenarios are also plausible, it's worth pondering the secondary impacts suggested for the 7-buck gas outcome. This goes way beyond "Should I ride the train instead." 
Image: Pine Marten by Peter Cairns | 
Making Solar Power Competitive with Coal?
Sunrgi recently made an impressive claim at the National Energy Marketers Association’s 11th Annual Global Energy Forum in Washington, DC: They say that their system will soon be able to "produce electricity at a wholesale cost of 5 cents per kWh (kilowatt hour). [A] price competitive with the wholesale cost of producing electricity using fossil fuels and a fraction of the current cost of solar energy."
They do it with Xtreme Concentrated Photovoltaics (XCPV) by concentrating the Sun's light close to 2,000 times (!) into extremely efficient solar photovoltaic cells. Part of Sunrgi's patent-pending technology has to do with the cooling of the solar cells, dual-axis sun tracking, and the way the whole system is optimized for mass-production....
Before and after Cyclone; 
The Democratic candidates for President keep bashing Canada and Mexico, but on their next bus ride might want to read two articles about who else supplies America with oil and gas. Mother Jones notes that:
"We're "seeing a further shifting in the oil industry in which national oil companies are the power brokers," says Andrew Neff, senior energy analyst at economic forecaster Global Insight. Anyone inclined to celebrate Big Oil's recent misfortunes had better hold off on the champagne. For however badly the Western firms may have behaved, the new global oil barons could one day leave environmental and social activists nostalgic for the bad old days of ExxonMobil." 
In Alabama, that is actually headline-worthy news. Florence, Alabama: SUVs and minivans circled around the parking lot at Kilby School, and parents darted back and forth to collect their children and buckle them in for the ride home. With one exception. Scott Infanger walked over from his nearby office at the University of North Alabama, greeted his 7-year-old daughter and unlocked the family trail-a-bike, a tandem bike with a junior seat....In the entire state of Alabama, 1,656 residents bike to work.
This is the third guest post by Wood Turner, Project Director, Climate Counts. Last time Wood told us about how 
Photo courtesy eternallycool.net
Newly re-elected Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the European Commission believe they can do something about the appalling 15-year long trash problem in southern Italy's Campania region around the city of Naples. Berlusconi said he'd spend three days each week in Naples until the trash problems are solved, and the 
Farmers in Rajasthan, India are forsaking their gas-guzzling tractors and returning to using their trusty camels for haulage. Due to rising gas prices farmers are rediscovering the "ships of the desert". The price of a good camel has gone up sharply as a result: two years ago they were almost the same price as goats, now they are three times the price. A good male camel will live for 60 to 80 years and costs $973.00 while the cheapest tractor is $4,000. This is good news according to the 
In a side conversation a few days ago, 
On Friday night I went to see 
The American Road & Transportation Builders Association has prepared a study of the impact on each state if the gas tax is cut for the summer. They predict that it will blow a $9 Billion hole in the transportation budget. Executive Director George Dondero says "It would deplete an already oversubscribed highway trust fund, making a bad situation worse, We're trying to get the government to generate more money for transportation, not less." Of today's primary states,Indiana would lose $183,722596 and 6,390 jobs; North Carolina $203,319,748 and 7,071 jobs. (
yesterday in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Getty Images.
When we spoke with 
Cyclone Nargis has just ripped through Myanmar, formerly Burma. While only 5% of the country was hit, it is where 25% of the population lives. Even where people survived with minor damage to their houses, they now face water shortages, food prices have quadrupled and the rice crop has been wiped out. Trees are down everywhere. In the middle of this we got a call from Cameron Sinclair, co-founder of 
China is boiling mad. Last week, residents of Chengdu 
