This Month In Wired: Nothing
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 07. 5.07
Well, almost nothing. I have loved Wired for years, but perhaps I have changed and it has not. They were always on top of trends, but they are missing the big green one. It is not that they are unaware of green issues and sustainability; they are building the Wired Home as a green prefab after all, although they are filling it with "the latest in gadgets, gear and appliances and a BMW Hydrogen 7" and it costs four million bucks. It is just that it has become a car mag for rich geeks: everything in it is expensive, excessive and/or loud.
We need a green Wired: Long well written stories at the back, the ADD stuff at the front, with terrific ads that make you just want to run out and buy insulation and caulking, not Jennifer Anniston peddling a really silly bottled water.
Wait- there are four electric lawn mowers. "Your noisy gas mower spews out as much pollution as 11 cars" so they say electric mowers will "impress your eco-fascist neighbors". Except all they do is shift the pollution to the coal fired plant making the electricity; the only green mower is a reel mower. I take back the "almost." ::Wired
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You skipped over the article on the easiest cars for biodiesel conversion. That was pretty green.
I managed to build up a backlog of over 8 months worth of Wired magazines that I'm just now getting taken care of (I read March '07 on the bus this morning). I have to speak up in defense of the magazine: they don't have something new and green every month, but they reliably do carry such stories. They have a very broad audience, and with limited space to fill in the magazine they need to discuss science, technology, culture, politics, space, green tech, gaming, and so on.
I enjoy it almost every month. I enjoy the green articles when they come along, and because I am interested in many other things they cover, I enjoy those articles too.
You might find a bit more of what you're looking for at the Wired Science blog, where we cover a lot of sustainability science and green issues.
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/
you skipped over the artile that discusses the need for more High Speed Rail service in the US.
I'm no fan of Wired or lawns but the statement about lawn mowers and the argument against electric lawn mowers are both wrong:
"Your noisy gas mower spews out as much pollution as 11 cars" so they say electric mowers will "impress your eco-fascist neighbors". Except all they do is shift the pollution to the coal fired plant making the electricity; the only green mower is a reel mower.
The important pollutant these days is CO2 which is directly proportional to the amount of gas burned. Ever see a lawn mower with a 15 gallon tank? No. Lawn mowers are not contributing anything like automobiles to CO2 let alone 11 times as much.
Electric lawnmowers do shift the pollution to power plants but even a coal fired plant producing electricity for an electric lawn mower is a better deal than the lawn mower burning gas. This analysis was done oh so thoroughly for electric cars. We're way better off with electric cars or lawn mowers even if the juice comes from coal.
I think a better alternative to the reel lawn mower is no lawn. Put in some native plants.
I have been a loyal Wired reader for several years. I believe the quality has gone down a bit lately but I still read it cover to cover every month. I find most issues to touch on green topics but they are a technology magazine not Tree Hugger. I think we do the cause a disservice by putting down anything that is not hard core environmentalism. There has to be a compromise.
In response to the lawn mower comment-- I have read in several places about how inefficient and polluting two-stroke lawn more engines are. Surely an electric mower is better then using a gas powered mower. Electric is not a good as a push mower, and a push mower is not as good as not having a lawn in the first place but it’s a start and it’s a compromise for the weekend environmentalist.
In defense of Wired:
They actually do regularly write about green developments in tech as a lot of the folks of dotcom yesteryear are working on green startups today. However since they are first and foremost a tech mag, OF COURSE the gadgets come first.
If you want more green though, perhaps some of the Treehugger writers should pitch a few stories to them.