Manuel said:
"This is great news! I hope all cities pass this into law.The practice of using plastic bags just to quickly dispose of them has been going on far t..." [read]
Jay Knecht said:
"What are the performance stats for the Son of Max? ..." [read]
gazelle said:
"@ Dallas:
The book, and the supplementary videos in the "How It All Ends" youtube series, address this in detail, but I'll try to paraphrase:..." [read]
Barry said:
"Kofi Annan has about as much of a clue about electric cars and developing countries as Ann Ann the Panda.
He underestimates the ingenuity o..." [read]
JJ said:
"Very cool. I didn't thought that biodesel might be our future fuel...." [read]
Derek said:
""I guarantee you this will spark huge debates around the world," she said. "We have to delve into this in a way that hasn't been done in a long tim..." [read]
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.
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.
"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.
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.
Generations of English-speaking parents have recited fables to teach their children about life. I suppose there are equivalent fables in other languages. Ones I remember the most are "The Little Boy Who Cried Wolf" (apropos for today's journalists and bloggers who may be prone to a single-minded focus on climate catastrophe), and "Chicken Little" (widely-used in the 80's to characterize the over-reaction to environmental hazards).
Climate change is no fable for scientists. Probably half of elected officials get it. Looks as if some evangelical Christians also understand the meaning. The critical audience left to convince, the largest segment of population - overlooked at our own danger - are those who are willing to entertain the possibility that something truly bad is happening with climate, and that human behavior may be - just may be - a contributing factor. Let's focus on them for a minute.
For evidence that grassroots activism works, look no further than writer and climate activist Bill McKibben, who has spent the past year tirelessly knocking on doors with his climate crew over at 350.org. But as McKibben writes this week, door-knocking only goes so far: To make real progress on climate change, Obama will have to step up, and that means telling his negotiators that their current goal--450 parts per million of CO2 in the atmosphere--isn't going to cut it.
Case in point: Obama's recent meeting with Chinese president Hu Jintao. Obama said that he and Hu had agreed "that each of us would take significant mitigation actions and stand behind these commitments." Of course, with any international negotiation the devil is in how you define vague terms like "significant mitigation actions."
Here's hoping Obama's serious about "significant," considering a new study that predicts the present course of CO2 emissions will lead to a staggering rise of 6 degrees Celsius (10.8 degrees F) in coming decades.
And if temperature increase isn't enough to get our leaders moving on climate, maybe it's time we take more drastic actions. Like hitting the dance floor.
More at motherjones.com. For free weekly green living tips, sign up for our Econundrums newsletter here.
There's no doubt that to pass climate and energy legislation, a diverse constituency is needed. A big boost could come from the evangelical community, many of whom hit the Hill recently to lobby for passage of a bill now. Led by Richard Cizik, who got booted from the National Association of Evangelicals for being too liberal on climate change and gay rights, evangelicals are after similar-thinking Senators who are sitting on the fence.
Photo via the Wall Street Journal
Presidents Obama and Hu Jintao made the wrong sort of news this past weekend when they dashed any hope of a binding treaty next month in Copenhagen. But today they made news for the right reasons, agreeing on a new partnership between their two nations--the biggest two polluters on the planet--to share information about renewable energy technologies. ...
Brazil President Lula
Yesterday Brazil announced its targets for slashing global warming emissions. The emerging economic powerhouse has pledged to cut emissions 36% to 39% below 2020 business as usual levels. In terms of carbon, it represents something close to 1Gt of CO2. The move should be a sign to other developing countries that they too can dramatically cut their emissions but it should be looked at with some skepticism....
Image: Vattenfall
Vattenfall, the Swedish national energy concern named after waterfalls, will announce a new CEO in the coming weeks. Apparently caught by surprise with a candidate who has not yet entirely been confirmed, the company is fighting a stalling action but admitting the truth of the rumors that have taken over headlines in German newspapers. Is it a story of intrigue, politics and a crisis of trust? Did Vattenfall VattenFAIL, as the twitter group claims? Or is this, as Vattenfall claims, just the normal succession planning for Joseffsons' depature on his 60th birthday in October 2010?...
Yemen and other countries in the Middle East are dry and dependent on agriculture. Photo by Ai@ce via Flickr.
Lying at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and the Middle East, both water-poor and heavily agriculture-dependent areas, Turkey has more reasons than many to worry about the effects of climate change. So what are Turkish officials and others in the region doing about it?...
photo: The Nature Conservancy
The Food and Drug Administration announced today that it will back off on its plan to ban as of 2011 the sale of raw oysters from the Gulf Coast during part of the year because they have been linked with about a dozen annual deaths from poisoning. The move met stiff resistance from oysterman and foodies who say that frozen oysters are no substitute and that the ban will ruin a cultural tradition. ...
Scientists don't quite agree on whether bluefin tuna, pictured above, is on the verge of collapse. Photo by Jose Cort courtesy of the NOAA.
Bluefin tuna is on the verge of total collapse. Maybe. It depends on who you ask. We may have been talking about bluefin tuna shortages for years, but many scientists and conservation bodies are now sounding panicked.
This week, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is meeting in Brazil to review population and fishing data, and set quota recommendations for the coming year. ...
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is one Republican who is forcefully speaking out about the importance of climate and energy legislation. He's co-authored an op-ed with Sen. John Kerry, rebuked his fellow Republicans for not seeing that a clean energy future is upon us, and made the rounds on the talk shows to discuss action. But what's his reward? Graham has been censured by the South Carolina's Charleston County Republicans. ...
Happy Thursday, TreeHuggers. Everyone knows that America spends a ton of money on health care. But it turns out we spend a lot of fossil fuels on it, too. In fact, a recent study found that a full 8 percent of our carbon emissions come from health-care-related sources. Hospitals are the biggest culprits, followed by the pharmaceutical industry.
Also on our radar this week: California's water woes. Roll over, John Steinbeck. Drought and climate change are drying up California's once fertile Central Valley. For years, Californians have fought over the state's most vital (and exploited) natural resource. Could a new package of bills end the state's epic water wars for good?
Good news for kids: Sesame Street's going green. Watch Michelle Obama help Elmo plant a vegetable garden here. Bad news for kids: Big Coal is pushing yet another creepy coloring book. Oof. Disillusioning news for kids: What's in Loch Ness? Not a giant, friendly monster, but thousands of toxic golf balls.
Plus: Are you being bamboozled by fake bamboo fabrics?
More at Motherjones.com. ...
Image credit: Discovery News/DCI
At a time when many newspapers and other news organizations are cutting back, Discovery Communications has decided to step out and fill an increasingly empty niche. The launch of Discovery News signals a new commitment to covering the latest science and technology news with original reporting and features....
Photo via Flickr
Riddle me this. What do you get when you combine rainforest destruction, tar sands, and palm oil plantations in one project? You guessed it, an environmental nightmare. This perfect storm of climate disruption badness can all be found in oil company Eni's plans to develop tar sands and oil palm in the Congo Basin, one of the most biodiverse places on earth. This would be the first tar sands exploration in Africa and one of the largest palm oil plantations, which produce the oil used in thousands of household products from detergents to Pringles. ...
Mosquito on the wall. Image credit:DesertUSA.
To lower mosquito exposure in malaria-prone places there are two basic pesticide use strategies. The half-century old approach - a remnant of 1950's era thinking - is to spray entire towns, as well as the surrounding countryside, with a pesticide such as DDT or pyrethrin.
Washingon DC-area Think tanks seem enamored of those spray-glory days, in spite of the fact that it would be a logistical impossibility and far too costly to repeat the Bald Eagle extirpating performance for the many thousands of poor communities in developing nations where malaria is a serious threat.
Targeted application
The contemporary strategy is targeted pesticide application, interrupting the exposure where it counts most - at home - and leaving the wildlife and farm animals alone. Pyrethrin-soaked bed nets have long been used to protect sleeping children; but, not everyone has a "bed" and the nets are too expensive for people on a subsistence income. Plus, just as happened with DDT, widespread spraying with pyrethrin has selected for resistant mosquitos.
Now, via SciDev.net comes news of promising results from field trials of carbamate-impregnated polypropylene, non-woven fabric or "sheeting" as it is being called....
The site of the London Olympics is just one example of a plan to improve a city through retrofitting and connecting. Artist's impression via London 2012.
Dense urban centers are good; sprawling suburbs are bad. Put in the simplest terms, that's what the conventional environmental wisdom tells us. But sometimes spreading out a little is just what a big city needs....
A worker sprays carbofuran on a tree in Kannenfeldpark, in Basel, Switzerland. Photo by pppspics via Flickr.
As of the end of the year, one more pesticide will be absent from food crops grown in the United States.
In May the EPA ruled that the current residue limits of the insecticide carbofuran on food crops was too high, and the agency has now decided to fully revoke carbofuran tolerances (more commonly known as residue limits). What this means is no carbofuran residue on a food will be deemed acceptable as of 2010. The move follows in the footsteps of the European Union, which banned carbofuran nearly a year ago. But the U.S. ban isn't all that surprising--it has, after all, been three years in the making....
photo: quinn.anya on flickr
From all I can gather, the actual on-paper negotiations are moving this week, progressing in some way towards some kind of agreement. (We'll get to what kind of agreement soon.) But we wouldn't have much way of knowing, since proceedings largely disappeared behind closed doors this week. I've been told by plenty of folks--including two former US negotiators--that I shouldn't complain about the lack of access, because it's the closed-door meetings where things really get done. Still, it's frustrating that an institution that prides itself on openness seems to operate best through closed meetings. The American delegation does seem more confident at this stage that there's an agreement out there to be achieved....
Image by hawkins.matt via flickr.
I spend a lot of my time as an advocate. To be able to champion a cause and educate others about the importance and necessity of action at this critical time, I must first educate myself about the reality of the challenges we all face. I need to keep it real.
The wake-up call
Larry Schweiger, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation, reminds all of us what our challenge is regarding climate crisis and the survival of all species in his newly released book, Last Chance: Preserving Life on Earth. Climate crisis is not a destination in our future. It is happening now. I don't like the too-well-proven conclusion that I come to: We must act dramatically or lose civilization as we know it. A bold, overused, uncomfortable statement, I know. But in all my reading and research, this is the book that wakes me up in the middle of the night--not in fear, but with profound clarity: It is time to focus.
...
Photo via Jaymi Heimbuch
For years, New York City has been working to toughen up electronics recycling laws, and for years the electronics industry has been less than thrilled. The city has gone forward with a plan that requires electronics manufacturers to offer free door-to-door pick-up service of used devices. However, electronics companies say this too expensive, too labor intensive, and too annoying - so they sued. Now, government officials from across the nation are asking the electronics industry to drop the suit, saying that it's not about a troublesome e-cycling regulation, it's about trying to take power away from the states to regulate e-waste....
Phillies fan bicycle helmet. Image credit:MLB Phillies Shop
The Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition reports, based on a US Census survey, that Philadelphia is ranked number one among the ten largest US cities for bicycle commuters per-capita. Per the Census data, 1.6% of Philly commutes are estimated to be by bicycle. Poor New York City came in at 6'th place (0.6%). "Philadelphia also tied for 10th among the country's 60 largest cities and the second highest percentage among east coast cities (only Washington DC has a higher percentage). Philadelphia's percentage of commuters who bike is nearly three times the national average of 0.55%." Look below for the rankings for all ten of the largest US cities.q...
Todd Stern and Hillary Clinton (Photo: EPA)
The head US climate negotiator, Todd Stern, and Sen. John Kerry have announced that they are giving up hope of reaching a deal for a new climate change pact at next month's meeting in Copenhagen. The move comes as world leaders are meeting in Barcelona to finalize negotiating text in advance of the December meeting in Copenhagen. Without the US's participation, there is no hope for a treaty that will result in capping emissions any time soon....
photo: Perrimoon on flickr
Well that's settled. There won't be a Senate bill before Copenhagen. Which means a lot of things: the US won't have concrete numbers on mitigation targets and finance commitments before COP15 convenes; the difficult job of the American negotiators just got even harder; the international community has even more cause to accuse the US of coming up short; the chances of a fair, ambitious and binding deal coming out of Copenhagen have taken a serious blow; and finally, any hope for the talks to succeed depends on a dramatic shift in how the State Department approaches the negotiations....
The Pirin mountains are among Bulgaria's threatened natural habitats. Photo by Marin Nikolov via Flickr.
Come December, the European Council will assess Turkey's slow, sometimes stumbling efforts toward EU accession. If the country gets a decent grade, the next chapter of negotiations to be opened is likely to be the one dealing with environmental issues. And if neighboring Bulgaria's recent experience is any indication, the European body won't be letting Turkey off easy....
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.
on 11.20.09
Image: 
Yemen and other countries in the Middle East are dry and dependent on agriculture. Photo by 
Scientists don't quite agree on whether bluefin tuna, pictured above, is on the verge of collapse. Photo by Jose Cort courtesy of the 
Happy Thursday, TreeHuggers. Everyone knows that America spends a ton of money on health care. But it turns out we spend a lot of fossil fuels on it, too. In fact, a recent study found that a full 
Image credit: Discovery News/DCI
At a time when many newspapers and other news organizations are cutting back, Discovery Communications has decided to step out and fill an increasingly empty niche. The launch of 
Mosquito on the wall. Image credit:
The site of the London Olympics is just one example of a plan to improve a city through retrofitting and connecting. Artist's impression via 
A worker sprays carbofuran on a tree in Kannenfeldpark, in Basel, Switzerland. Photo by 
photo: 
Image by 
Photo via Jaymi Heimbuch
For years, New York City has been 
Phillies fan bicycle helmet. Image credit:
photo: 
The Pirin mountains are among Bulgaria's threatened natural habitats. Photo by 
