August102010
Portugal Gets 45 Percent of Its Energy From Renewable Sources »
“’I’ve seen all the smiles — you know: It’s a good dream. It can’t compete. It’s too expensive,’ said Prime Minister José Sócrates, recalling the way Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, mockingly offered to build him an electric Ferrari. Mr. Sócrates added, ‘The experience of Portugal shows that it is possible to make these changes in a very short time.’”
Tags: /Environment /sustainability /europe
July12010
Cities Increasingly Turn to Landfills As Alternative Energy Source »
“The expanded energy plant allows more methane gas to be turned into electricity, which reflects the city’s desire to address climate change and pleases local environmental groups such as Ecology Action.Company officials estimate the plant can reduce greenhouse gases by 9,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
‘The plant is taking advantage of a resource to create energy out of something that is here already,’ Kirsten Liske of Ecology Action said. “It’s really exciting.’”
Read more: similar projects all over the U.S. — in Charleston, S.C., Sioux Falls, S.D., Cartersville, GA., and Edinburg, TX.
Tags: /Environment
May292010
Reining In Coal Plants in the U.S. »
“‘The cost of Wolverine coal would have meant diminished health, diminished economy, and great injury to our environment which sustains our lives,’ said Jean Veselenak, a resident of Rogers City. ‘Wolverine must now put its head to the real thing; wind, solar; and new technology that already exists in Michigan. Our families deserve these jobs and their health after long promises.’”
Tags: /Environment
May262010
Drastic Changes in Management of Canadian Forests »
“The plan calls for an immediate three-year moratorium on logging on 29m hectares while conservation plans to protect woodland caribou are developed; the goal is eventually to distinguish those lands that can be logged using sustainable techniques and those that cannot be logged at all….The parties to the agreement, 21 companies which make pulp, paper and other wood products, and between them hold 70% of the boreal timber rights in Canada, and nine big environmental groups, ranging from the uncontroversial Nature Conservancy to firebrands like Greenpeace, say this is the biggest conservation deal in history.”
Tags: /environment
May192010
World's Smallest Waterlily Saved from Extinction »
“‘We can turn this corner. We have the capability to do it. There’s no reason why another species of plant should go extinct if we apply just a bit of resource and a new attitude towards caring for the natural world.’”
Tags: /Environment
April212010
U.S. Military Shrinking Its Carbon "Bootprint" »
“The Army and Air Force have several bases that are partially powered by solar energy, one of which — Fort Irwin in California — is expected to be able to stop taking energy from the public electricity grid within a decade.
The navy has set itself a key goal of getting 50 percent of fuel used ashore and afloat from non-fossil sources by 2020, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus told a telephone news conference after the report was issued.”
Tags: /Environment
April202010
40 Years After First Earth Day, Ohio River is Much Cleaner »
“Biologists with the eight-state Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, which sets water quality standards for the Ohio River, say a return of a viable fishery is among the strongest evidence of improvement. Forty years ago, about all that lived in the Ohio were tough, pollution-tolerant carp and catfish, said Peter Tennant, deputy director of the commission. But surveys dating to the 1950s show steady improvement in the number and variety of fish, as well as their overall health, said Erich Emery, biological programs manager for the commission. Fish that have come back include paddlefish, smallmouth bass and logperch.”
Tags: /Environment
April122010
Lemur Thought Extinct Discovered in Madagascar »
“Scientists have long believed that the Sibree’s dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus sibreei) went extinct following the destruction of its only known forest habitat. But a few years ago Mitchell Irwin of McGill University in Montreal and his research team encountered some dwarf lemurs that didn’t quite look the way they expected the species to appear. Two lemurs were caught, their DNA tested, and the Sibree’s dwarf lemur was revealed.”
Tags: /environment
April92010
Boulder, CO Shows How American Cities Can Become Bike-Friendly
Tags: /Environment /sustainability
March232010
The Success of Environmental Regulation »
“In the 1970s, many scientists felt that the planet was on an unsustainable course in terms of pollution. Which is how we had the blossoming of the environmentalist movement. The creation of the Earth Day holiday. The growth of ‘green’ parties in Europe’s multi-party system and the rising influence of environmental interest groups in the United States. We passed the Clean Air Act and created the Environmental Protection Agency. And as Mark Perry from the conservative American Enterprise Institute points out these environmental policies worked and the air is now far cleaner.”
Tags: /Environment
March212010
After 5 Decades, U.S. Department of Transportation Deems Pedestrians, Cyclists, and Motorists Equals »
“In what amounts to a sea change for the Department of Transportation, the automobile will no longer be the prime consideration in federal transportation planning. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says the needs of pedestrians and cyclists will be considered along with those of motorists, and he makes it clear that walking and riding are ‘an important component for livable communities.’
‘People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning,’ LaHood wrote on his blog. ‘This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.’”
Read more: an excerpt of Pedaling Revolution and an excerpt of Autophobia: Love and Hate in the Automotive Age
Tags: /environment /U.S. policy
March62010
Solar Power Becomes More Affordable »
“Solar power continues to become more economical with every passing month. The price of standard monocrystalline/polycrystalline 210W to 300W modules has halved, from above $3/watt to below $1.70/watt in the past 12 months. The Canadian province of Ontario has become the first location in North America to offer an aggressive feed-in tariff comparable to the feed-in tariffs in Germany and Spain, paying above 80 cents/kWh for power generated by small rooftop photovoltaic installations.”
Tags: /environment
March12010
Transforming Sewage Waste to Biofuel With the Q Microbe »
“It can ingest—and produce ethanol from—virtually anything that contains cellulose, including human and animal sewage waste….Obviously, waste materials are a burden to farms and municipalities, both financially and ecologically. But by putting the Q microbe to work, small-scale ethanol plants situated around sewage processing plants could become a reality.”
Tags: /environment /innovation
February222010
A Base for War Training, and Species Preservation »
“Today, herculean efforts to save threatened species are unfolding at dozens of military sites across the nation, from Eglin, Fla., where the Air Force has restored and reconnected streams for the Okaloosa darter, to San Clemente Island, Calif., where the Navy has helped bring the loggerhead shrike back from the brink of extinction.”
Tags: /environment
February172010
Norway Announces Plan to Cut Emissions by 30% in 10 Years »
“But by taking these drastic measures, the nation is putting itself at the forefront of the incipient global clean energy economy—when the rest of the world’s nations catch up, it will have the relevant infrastructure and policies already in place. Talk about getting ahead. Norway, we salute you—you’re an inspiration at a time when the world needs one.”
Tags: /environment /Europe
