Categories: Environment

Dispatch from Copenhagen: Heading Towards Nopehagen?

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 17

Global leaders woke up in Copenhagen on Dec. 17 to find a blanket of snow covering the ground. But it was inside the Bella Center—the conference hall where delegates from...

Dispatch from Copenhagen: Why Trade Matters

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 16

This entry is cross-posted from Europe Insight. With protestors staking out the climate talks and politicians continuing to point fingers at each other, one issue isn't getting much play in...

Dispatch from Copenhagen: Protestors Try to Storm Talks

Posted by: Mark Scott on December 16

This entry is cross-posted from Europe Insight. Snow was thick on the ground in Copenhagen on Dec. 16, but that didn't put off thousands of protestors who tried to force...

Most environmentally friendly de-icer: Not rock salt

Posted by: Adam Aston on January 19

With New York City slushing through its third snowy weekend of the new year, a couple of folks have asked me about greener alternatives to conventional salt to de-ice sidewalks....

Jeff Sachs: Why we need GM seeds tool help fight food shortages

Posted by: Adam Aston on June 12

In this week's issue, my colleague Brian Hindo talked with Jeff Sachs, an expert on the interplay between global development and the environment at Columbia University. Here are his comments...

Hurricanes ahead mean rising damage for unprepared infrastructure

Posted by: Adam Aston on May 28

Coastal residents and infrastructure planners, take note. The 2008 hurricane season, starting June 1, is expected to be worse than historical averages. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts this...

GM Stumbles, Sees the (Green) Light

Posted by: Arthur Eves on May 14

Like most Americans, GM made some bad strategic choices in the last decade or so and has come to regret it. Bob Lutz called hybrids an "interesting curiousity" and went...

Put a Little Green in Your Life

Posted by: Arthur Eves on May 08

I spend a lot of time thinking about how existing industries can navigate the difficult transitions to a global, more sustainable approach. There are a lot of obstacles. Two critical...

Beware Angry Parents and Plastics

Posted by: Heather Green on May 07

A broad group of environmental and educational organizations are banding together and urging parents to basically yell at Congress and follow Canada in banning Bisphenol A or BPA, the organic...

My Retro Biofuel Fantasy

Posted by: Arthur Eves on May 02

Last year I was inspired by Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma to visit Joel Salatin's Polyface Farms where I saw beyond-organic natural grass-farming in action. He uses active management...

Forget those water bottles: Pity the pets

Posted by: Adam Aston on April 21

Amidst all of the hullabaloo going on over the toxic threat of plastics containing BPA--and the ensuing panicked rush to dump pretty much every water bottle in sight--a report...

How nature flourishes when humans leave

Posted by: Adam Aston on April 18

The New Scientist has a surprising look at Bikini Atoll, which was famously blasted by the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated in the atmosphere back in 1952 (not to...

Concrete that clears the air

Posted by: Adam Aston on March 20

Concrete is about to start helping in the fight against air pollution, thanks to a new recipe spiked with titanium dioxide, a compound that becomes chemically active in sunlight....

Burmese pythons head for the Jersey shore

Posted by: Adam Aston on February 26

Climate change is already forcing polar bears south and triggering bird migrations earlier than ever. Now the US Geological Survey reports that that Burmese pythons are spreading through the...

Bitter news for wine makers

Posted by: Adam Aston on February 25

For many great wine growing regions, a warming planet doesn't mean a sudden end of production, but we may see a slow degradation of wine quality as vineyards overheat, dry...

The trouble with toxic TVs

Posted by: Adam Aston on February 15

As TV makers continue their march toward an all flat-panel future, they’re leaving a growing pile of toxic trash in their wake. With more households upgrading to sleek thin panel...

Are recessions good for the enviroment?

Posted by: Adam Aston on February 12

There's a lively rivalry boiling over at Treehugger.com. Lloyd Alter posted a tongue-in-cheek riff on how the economic slowdown could help the environment. Think about it: from goods like iPods...

Managing nature, or not, at the National Elk Refuge

Posted by: Adam Aston on February 11

Last week, after a couple of days of skiing in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, some friends and I decided to take a day off. We drove a few miles out...

2007 second hottest year on record

Posted by: Adam Aston on January 16

Last year was the second hottest year since 1951, when scientific instruments first start rigorously tracking global temperature, according to data released last week. The chart above shows a...

Carbon calculators: Some good advice

Posted by: Adam Aston on January 16

Check out Greenwashing.com which debuted in time for the FTC summit that my colleague Heather Green blogged about last week. Run by EnviroMedia Social Marketing in partnership with the advertising...

Dying bees and antibiotic-resistant bacteria: Common roots?

Posted by: Adam Aston on December 20

In case you missed it over at the New York Times Magazine, check out Michael Pollans' "Our Decrepit Food Factories," a brief, alarming look at the roots of two troubling...

"Free range Chinese silk worms!"

Posted by: Adam Aston on November 06

"We made sure our second home was green, all 10,000 square feet of it." "Do we really need to cage our silkworms?" "Who needs the Kyoto protocol when we can...

A little good news, lots of bad news

Posted by: Adam Aston on September 13

I'm the first to admit that covering the environment in an age of climate change can be dispiriting. In the face of a constant flow of cataclysmic predictions (whether its...

Film review: Manufactured Landscapes

Posted by: Adam Aston on July 04

A visually riveting mix of video and stills, Manufactured Landscapes unfolds with the beauty of Koyaanisqatsi and packs all the environmental punch of An Inconvenient Truth. Check it out on a big screen if you can. More here:

Do ecosexuals eschew eco-porn?

Posted by: Adam Aston on June 20

Over at Grist, in “Preposterous Prefix Parables” Mark Peters has a good time tracing the origins, uses, and abuses of “eco-“. First separated from the word ecology in 1969, the prefix has of late become one of the most abused in the English language. A few of the more obscure eco-terms Peters has dug up: eco-porn; ecobot; eco-whistleblower; and econolomics (ugh!).

GreenWords -- Top eco-tales to check out

Posted by: Adam Aston on June 12

As they catch my eye, I plan to post links to important, controversial or outstanding stories on the environment and green biz. Here are few recent picks. In the "The...

Worrying about a tidal wave of water bottles

Posted by: Adam Aston on June 01

What drives me nuts is the trail of flattened, crushed and glinting plastic bottles left in the wake of all this hydration. The bottles are problem from cradle to grave. During production and distribution, the energy used to pump, bottle, ship, and chill the millions of bottles water is enormous, especially when contrasted with the highly efficient network of reservoirs, tanks, pipes and spigots that bring water to most homes and buildings in the U.S.