analysis
Green innovator gets unfair rap as environmental offender
Yale Environment 360 Nov 11, 08 4:26 PM CST
(Newser)
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The world's attitude toward China's environmentalism is "hypocritical and decidedly unfair," writes Fred Pearce in Yale Environment 360—this coming from someone who has "literally held my nose at the foul air." Yes, China's "development zeal" has it doing "the bad things that most of the world does," but it's also the world's leader in green innovation, waste recycling, and alternative energy sources.
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Daytime eco-projects cut costs and boost social behavior
Associated Press Nov 2, 08 4:54 AM CST
(Newser)
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Forget the chain gang and license plate production. Many of today's US prisoners are busy collecting rainwater and recycling old uniforms, AP reports. Facing costs in the billions and a rising prison population, more officials are putting inmates to work on daytime eco-projects. "It reduces cost, reduces our damaging impact on the environment, engages inmates as students," one administrator said.
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Kids are America's new eco-police
New York Times Oct 10, 08 11:23 AM CDT
(Newser)
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They’re watching. No, not surveillance cameras; the growing population of “eco-kids”—children who, lectured on sustainability at school and elsewhere, are pushing green practices at home. They rummage through garbage bins, agitate for hybrid vehicles, and even even turn off the water while parents are brushing their own teeth, the New York Times reports. "He learned it at school," one mom says of her 4-year-old eco-cop.
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OPINION
British site encourages kids to spy on parents' energy habits
Treehugger Oct 2, 08 7:30 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A new website from British energy company Npower is encouraging children to spy on their parents—to save the environment, Mark Ontkush writes on Treehugger. After completing a series of “missions” on the Climate Cops site, kids are kitted out with the necessities for keeping careful tabs on the energy-consumption habits of local adults, and are encouraged to track the folks' “energy crimes.”
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Thicker plastic requires more energy to produce, decomposes slower
Wall Street Journal Sep 27, 08 5:54 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Reusable shopping bags are this year's “it” giveaway, but they may not be as green as their feel-good slogans—like “Save the world” and "I used to be a plastic bag"—claim. The problem is that old habits die hard—many people simply forget to reuse them, the Wall Street Journal reports. And that's troublesome because the trendy bags take 28 times more energy to produce than a traditional plastic bag, decompose slower, and often arrive on oil-powered transport from China .
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OPINION
Green voters left with one choice after McCain ceases being a maverick
New York Times Sep 3, 08 2:46 AM CDT
(Newser)
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John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin completes his transformation from the most green-leaning GOP candidate for years into just another mouthpiece for Big Oil, Thomas L. Friedman writes in the New York Times . Palin backs drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and she does not believe humans play any role in climate change, Friedman notes.
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Ban on food offerings 'angers' hungry lizards
Wall Street Journal Aug 25, 08 5:53 AM CDT
(Newser)
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Komodo dragons in an Indonesian park are increasingly attacking humans, and villagers who share their habitat say environmentalist policies are to blame, reports the Wall Street Journal . Inhabitants of Komodo National Park have traditionally left deer and sheep for the carnivorous lizards, the largest in the world. But new laws banning the offerings have made the dragons “angry with us,” said a villager.
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OPINION
If rich countries were really water-neutral, we'd all be dead
Spiked Aug 24, 08 3:07 PM CDT
(Newser)
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A new UK campaign urging people to be more “water wise” lays bare a flaw in the environmental movement, Brendan O’Neill writes in Spiked. The campaign urges people to be conscious of the “virtual water” used on their behalf to carry out tasks like growing coffee beans and feeding cows—as if rich countries airlifted gallons of the stuff away from developing nations.
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Glossies
Australian aims to overcome fish shortage by simulating breeding grounds
Time Aug 17, 08 7:22 AM CDT
(Newser)
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A seafood entrepreneur thinks he can solve the world's bluefin tuna shortage by making the fish feel frisky, Time reports. German ex-pat Hagen Stehr, the baron of a $230-million Australian seafood empire, is simulating the tuna's breeding grounds in a hatchery—a "fishy virtual reality" with 14 hours of daylight and water at 73°F—and has succeeded in harvesting fertilized eggs from bluefin breeding stock.
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Environmental groups hammer out standard for 'sustainable living'
Newsweek Jul 13, 08 3:59 PM CDT
(Newser)
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Ecofriendly travelers once camped outdoors and foraged for food, but today a hotel in Times Square can claim it's as green as a lodge in the Costa Rican rain forest, Anna Kuchment writes in Newsweek . In other words, eco-vacationing has gone big business, and environmental advocates fear the notion is being diluted. "A lot of people want to use terms like 'ecotourism,' because it's cool and hip now," one expert said.
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OPINION
Republicans should go after the affluent upper middle class
National Review Jul 11, 08 4:45 PM CDT
(Newser)
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The GOP coalition—seemingly indomitable 4 years ago—is in shambles, losing ground “on nearly every demographic and geographic front,” write Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam in the National Review . Republicans must expand their base, and the writers have a plan: Seduce “the affluent, well-educated, increasingly liberal upper middle class.”
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Bill Nye, Ed Begley compete for smallest carbon footprint in Calif. neighborhood
Associated Press Jul 10, 08 2:33 PM CDT
(Newser)
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It could only happen in California—a pair of celebrity neighbors, actor Ed Begley Jr. and "Science Guy" Bill Nye, are involved in a contest of environmental one-upsmanship, the AP reports. Since Nye moved onto Begley’s block in Studio City 2 years ago, the two have been competing to see whose house can leave a smaller carbon footprint.
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Smaller homes built to strict LEED specs are all the rage
New York Times Jun 22, 08 8:41 PM CDT
(Newser)
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When it comes to building green, a LEED rating is the ultimate cachet-- but they're tough to get, the New York Times reports. And homes approved by the Leadership in Energy and Evironmental Design council tend to be small and pricey, with one platinum-certified four-bedroom house in California on the market for $2.8 million. Still, cities and homebuilders alike are jumping on the bandwagon.
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