June 2009
15 posts
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A Guide to Sustainable Food Blogs →
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Sears Tower to Be Revamped to Produce Most of Its... →
You go, Chi-town!
By the way, I wrote about the Empire State Building retrofit here and about NYC’s proposed package of green building legislation here. On Friday, I attended City Council hearings about the legislation. It was standing room only, and the mood was decidedly jubilant (though not everyone is in favor — namely, those who represent the real estate industry). However, it...
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Science and the planet sold out for a bowl of... →
This legislation might be our last hope of tackling climate change before it’s too late.
It looks like that hope is lost.
From The Reality-Based Community:
[Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry] Waxman appears to have sold out the indirect land use issue in a deal with [Agriculture Chairman Collin] Petersonon the climate change bill.
Waxman also consented to block EPA from calculating...
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Putting A Financial Spin On Global Warming →
Interesting segment on NPR this morning on an Oakland think tank, The Breakthrough Institute, that is aiming to make clean energy as cheap as possible through government-supported innovation, rather than making carbon expensive through regulation.
Michael Shellenberger, one of the Institute’s founders, explains his position to a group of new summer interns:
“When was the last time...
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You'll have to pry my car out of my cold, dead,...
But seriously … meet you in Kalawao?
Air Toxins Raise Cancer Risk In U.S. Neighborhoods:
Millions of people living in nearly 600 neighborhoods across the country are breathing concentrations of toxic air pollutants that put them at a much greater risk of contracting cancer, according to new data from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The levels of 80 cancer-causing substances...
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Extreme green: the nudist vacation →
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Sunlight Foundation blasts climate-bill secrecy →
1,200 pages of … what?
250 pages were stuffed into the already behemoth climate energy bill (which focuses on cap-and-trade legislation) and members of the House’s Energy and Commerce committee have just 24 hours to absorb and make changes.
And that’s how Washington sausage gets made.
(Via jake_brewer.)
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Gotham Greens: NYC's first hydroponic rooftop farm →
I’m the staff adviser for the CUNY Urban Agriculture Study Group, and we have a blog. If you’re interested in this topic, follow urbanagriculture.
Via urbanagriculture:
“We are trying to demonstrate that sustainable, urban agriculture can be economically viable in the city,” said the company’s greenhouse director, Jennifer Nelkin, 30.
Nevin Cohen, an assistant professor of Urban...
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Spam Emails: the SUVs of the Internet
The Economist reports:
“According to a report from an environmental consultancy… some 62 trillion unsolicited e-mails were sent in 2008, using 33 terawatt hours of electricity. That is equivalent to the energy consumed by 1.5m American homes or 3.1m cars over a year. If generated by coal-fired power stations it would release 17m tonnes of carbon dioxide, some 0.2% of global emissions of this...
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Shell to Pay Out $15.5 Million to Settle Landmark... →
Amy Goodman reports:
The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay a $15.5 million settlement to avoid a trial over its alleged involvement in human rights violations in the Niger Delta. The case was brought on behalf of ten plaintiffs who accused Shell of complicity in the 1995 executions of Nigerian writer and environmentalist Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others. Ken Saro-Wiwa was the founding...
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“Sheikh Maktoum built his showcase city in a place with no useable water. None....”
– The dark side of Dubai - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent (via wiesen)
Dubai scares the beejesus out of me.
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What One Stimulus Buck Could Do →
Sounds like a fantasy, but Santa Fe-based architect Edward Mazria has done the math, and his “14x” plan, which he calculates will generate $14 in private spending for every stimulus buck spent, is creating major buzz in city halls and statehouses across the country.
Mazria was in Washington, D.C., last week pitching his plan to senators, administration officials, and perhaps more importantly,...