In partnership with the Daylife people (who we've written about here), we've created the first "green index". It works a bit like a stock market index, except that instead of tracking stocks, it tracks mentions of certain key green phrases in the media. It's a way to gauge how much mindshare certain concepts have and see if they are gaining or losing ground compared to last week. Not very scientific, but lots of fun!
New keywords can be added to it and if you click on an entry, you can see more details and read recent new stories on that particular topic.
Next is what we call the TreeHugger Green Index "badge". It shows the direction the index is moving this week and will link back to the permanent home of the TreeHugger Green Index. We'll make code available that you can cut & paste in your blog if you want to show the badge and have an easy way to keep track of the green index.
Also, if you have any suggestions, please contact us. Thank you.
Recent Business Related Posts
Split Carbon Costs of Deforestation Between Producers & Consumers to Slow Felling Forests
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. ...
U.S. Military Wary About Offshore Wind Power Off Coast of Maryland
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....
$36 Billion Rainforest Protection Plan Agreed to by 35 Nations - Now Who Will Pay For It...?
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?...
Hundreds Speak Out In Support of EPA Global Warming Rule
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 Named Greenest City in the U.K.
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. ...
Breaking: Hackers Infiltrate World's Leading Climate Research Unit
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....
Women and Minorities Getting Left Out of Green Job Market, New Study Finds
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....
Can Turkey Break the Copenhagen Deadlock?
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....
It's Been Proven: Women are Greener Than Men (In Some Countries)
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. ...
World Toilet Day - Really? Yes...Really.
"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....
Inhofe: "I proudly declare 2009 as the 'Year of the Skeptic'"
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. ...
Finally Truth In Oil Company Advertising! Enough Energy to Melt That Glacier
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. ... ......
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