Although some may assign credit for "W's" Presidential Center
Platinum LEED application to the project architect,
Robert A.M. Stern, who is simply a following a trend, I'm giving President George W Bush and wife Laura benefit of the doubt. Their design choice goes way beyond legacy building. It sends a
'dog whistle' political message to Republican Party Leaders and candidates, indicating they must live the enviro-life style large before throwing stones in the green house. Good strategy.
Inhabitat coverage has more renderings; so go read
Plans for the Green George W. Bush Presidential Center Released if interested. Money quote follows....
It's probably no great secret to TreeHugger readers at this point that part of the reason
carbon emissions in developing nations are rapidly rising is partially because manufacturing of goods for export to the developed world. In fact in China at least
one-third of total emissions and about 50% of emissions growth in recent years is directly tied to goods consumer in Europe and the United States.
So when it comes to counting those emissions, shouldn't the national burden be split up differently? The idea's not novel, but a new paper in
Environmental Research Letters (via
Mongabay) brings the issue to the fore.
The report authors use the example of Brazil, making the point that Brazil is the
world's foremost exporter of both beef and soybeans -- both contributing to varying degrees to the nation's ongoing (
if slowing) deforestation -- but the countries which consume these goods don't pay anything for the environmental damage, loss of biodiversity, and soaring carbon emissions caused when agriculture replaces rainforests. ...
Photo: Wikipedia, CC
Maryland Offshore Wind Development
Martin O'Malley, the governor of Maryland, would like to see offshore wind power developed off the cost of his state, but the U.S. military has expressed fears that the turbines could "disrupt flight and weapon test ranges, as well as erroneously appear on radar as unidentifiable aircraft." Three military bases in the region are using that area in the Atlantic for training missions and flight tests....
photo: flickrfavorites.
A group of 35 nations have agreed to a plan that aims to reduce
global deforestation by 25% by 2015,
The Guardian reports. The price tag for it all could run as high as $36 billion over the next five years. Now who will pay for it all?...
Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope (left) testifies at the Arlington EPA hearing as API's Howard Feldman looks on.
This week we saw some amazing public action as part of the two Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hearings on its
proposed tailoring rule, which we call the "Big Polluters" rule.
Right now only a handful of pollution sources, including coal-fired power plants, are responsible for more than half of all of the global warming pollution in the United States. Cleaning these up is a large step towards stopping global warming, so EPA is proposing a new rule to start cleaning up these Big Polluters under the Clean Air Act. By targeting the worst offenders,
the Big Polluters rule is an important step that will cut global warming pollution while still helping our economy grow....
Newcastle-upon-Tyne has been named the greenest city in the U.K. in a sustainability audit conducted by Forum for the Future. Photo by Draco2008 via Flickr.com.
Shrouded in smoke and the center of ship building, Newcastle-upon-Tyne was once a major industrial center. But the city has been transformed into the greenest city in Britain in recent years, according to a sustainability audit,
The Guardian reports. Newcastle was a bit of a surprise, surpassing cities that typically come to mind when Britons think "green city," such as
Bristol and Brighton & Hove, which ranked second and third, respectively.
But perhaps Brits shouldn't have been quite so surprised. ...
Image via Menassat
The email system of one of the world's
leading climate researchers was just reported to be infiltrated by hackers. Protected information and email messages sent from climate scientists at the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit (CRU) began turning up on public websites today. Why the CRU was targeted is still unclear--though there's speculation that with the
global climate meeting in Copenhagen nearing, opponents of climate action may be going so far as to be doing illegal reconnaissance....
Photo via Change
If James Brown had been around to witness the
rise of the green jobs sector and learned of the news from this recent study, he'd shake his head and say, "It's a man's world. Ow! After all these years and so much progress, even in a sector dedicated towards achieving the noble aim of an emissions-free economy, it appears some prejudices still plague us." Well, he might not have said it
exactly like that. But it appears to be the unfortunate truth: women--especially minority women--are getting largely left out of the
green job market....
Turkey is being suggested as a "bridge between East and West" on climate change too. Photo of the Bosphorus Bridge spanning Europe and Asia by Jennifer Hattam.
As a city that literally straddles Europe and Asia,
Istanbul -- and, by extension, Turkey -- has been endlessly described as a "bridge" between East and West. But the manager of a international program on cities and global warming has actually managed to put a new spin on that old cliché -- by suggesting that Turkey could bridge the gap between developed and developing countries on climate change....
Image from stephaniehern.wordpress.com
The good news is that women in industrialised countries are greener than men. A new study from the
United Nations confirms that we have a lower carbon footprint and are better for the world's future health.
Where to start, let me count the ways... Women drive and fly much less than men. We are more likely to buy ecologically friendly and organic goods, recycle and be energy efficient. ...
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Image credit:
flickr, recubejim's photostream
World Toilet Day , which happens to be right now, is needed for good reason. Per the WTD website: "
2.5 billion people worldwide are without access to proper sanitation, which risks their health, strips their dignity, and kills 1.8 million people, mostly children, a year;" and, "
Because even the world's wealthiest people still have toilet problems - from unhygienic public toilets to sewage disposal that destroys our waterways." They are so right. Read on for a disgusting example of why you should be thankful if you have access to a decent one, and if your government keeps the poop works properly operating....
Photo via Green Inc.
Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma has always been a thorn in the side of environmentalists, especially when it comes to climate change. He doesn't believe in the science and has pledged to go to the international climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December to bare witness to the "fraud." Inhofe believes that 2009 was a good year for climate change deniers and he believes they are winning the fight for the public's hearts and minds. ...
From a 1962 edition of Life Magazine available on Google Books...
We were a bit late in picking up on this one, but it's really worth passing on anyway. So credit where credit is due:
Grist had it first, then
Climate Progress, and so on.
The text starts:
The giant glacier has remained unmelted for centuries. Yet the petroleum energy Humble [which merged with Standard Oil, later Exxon...] supplies -- if converted into heat -- could melt it at the rate of 80 tons each second. ... ...
...
Image via Writing Company
It's hard to get a read on Fox's parent company, News Corp., to say the least. Owned by the infamous Rupert Murdoch, it oversees the largest contingent of climate change-denying publications in existence. But one day, Murdoch himself
took an interest in fighting climate change, and announced a plan to make his company
carbon neutral by 2010. Then, he went to bat to defend Glenn Beck, a man who believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by evil liberal galactic brain-lords so they can rule the world, or something like that. Now, Murdoch has actually put his plan to curb emissions and increase efficiency into action, and has begun monitoring his 100+ facilities worldwide. But then . . ....
The Kampar Peninsula is the last large intact area of pear swamp forest in Riau, Indonesia with some of the deepest peat (read: most stored carbon). Photo: Greenpeace.
Indonesia may have deported a total of thirteen activists and two journalists over deforestation in the past week (boo!) but it also just suspended the license of
Asia Pacific Resources International Limited to review the company's permits (yay!). APRIL has been targeted by
Greenpeace over conversion of rainforest to plantations:...
Source: EPA
About Time
It's been almost 40 years since the EPA's SO2 standards were strengthened. Sounds like a tightening was overdue... Until now. The EPA is look at a proposal to establish a new national one-hour SO2 standard, between 50 and 100 parts per billion (ppb). "The existing primary standards were 140 ppb measured over 24-hours, and 30 ppb measured over an entire year. The Agency also is taking comment on alternative levels for the 1-hour standard up to 150 ppb."...
The Race for Clean-Tech is On
A new study by the Breakthrough Institute and the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation shows that the U.S. could be left behind by Asia (specifically by China, South Korea and Japan) when it comes to investing in clean-tech and clean energy. "These [three] Asian governments will invest $519 billion in clean technology between 2009 and 2013, compared to $172 billion by the U.S. government," the report titled says. ...
Photo via USA
Looks like I spoke too soon about the words 'new report' always being
a sign of bad news these days--because
this new study reveals some pretty encouraging information. It's an analysis of clean energy reform by researchers at Yale, Berkley, and the University of Illinois which reveals that if its provisions are kept strong,
a climate bill will expand the economy by over $111 billion by 2020, and create nearly 2 million jobs in the process. ...
The sort of destruction trying to be prevented... photo: Greenpeace.
Seems the government of Indonesia didn't much like
Greenpeace activists trying to disrupt the
continued destruction of rainforest for plantation agriculture. Nor did they appreciate foreign journalists documenting the situation. On Monday two non-Indonesian activists, as well as an Indian and an Italian journalist were deported from the country:...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
on 11.23.09
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah Palin Wearin' Your Product?
Avoiding COP15 Burnout with "Expectation Management"
As Asia Outpaces America in Cleantech, US and China Agree to Cooperation
Coca-Cola Rolls Out Plant-Based Recyclable Bottles
California Group Blames Immigrants for Climate Change
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