US Green Builders Praise and Celebrate
What do you get when you mix green engineers, architects, and contractors with alcohol, awards, and a massive Samba band? Building-savants dancing the Brazilian tango and a fantastically good time. Image by Christopher Auger-Domínguez, Studio 4b. Saturday night, I attended the USGBC’s (United States Green Building Council) first annual LEEDers…
30×30 says Bloomberg
On Sunday, April 22nd, New York City’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg will announce PlaNYC 2030 – one of the more advanced 25-year climate action plans put forth to date. After six months of work, the NYC team put together a plan that will reduce the city’s total emissions 30 percent by…
It's a Nice Day for a Green(er) Wedding
Do you know someone getting married this Spring or Summer? Even if they’re completely eco-unconscious, you can still help them make their wedding green (whether they like it or not, dammit!!) Especially if you still have to buy a gift for them, you might want to consider offsetting the carbon…
Solar to power the world
The amount of energy hitting the earth from the sun every minute is great than the amount of energy the would burns up in fossil fuels in one year. That’s a whole lot of energy just sitting around waiting to be used while we continue to use oil and crap…
Deep Economy: Q&A with Bill McKibben
When Bill McKibben wrote The End of Nature in 1989, it was the first popular press book to address global warming in a meaningful way. Since then, McKibben has not only carved out a career as an environmental journalist; he has become one of the most steadfast and trustworthy voices…
TP Does Matter, or: Don't Forget to Think Little While Thinking Big
As I’m cruising around the Internets reading away, I sometimes come across statistics like this one on toilet paper: “If every household in the U.S. bought just one four-pack of 260-sheet recycled bath tissue, it would eliminate 60,600 pounds of chlorine pollution, preserve 356 million gallons of fresh water,…
Ocean Acidification: Another Symptom of Global Warming
I attended the 8th Annual Roger Revelle Commemorative Lecture at the Smithsonian on March 5th entitled “What Corals Are Dying To Tell Us About CO2 and Ocean Acidification.” Ken Caldeira, the presenter, spoke to about 500 people in a packed auditorium about the current trends worldwide in coral reef…
The Climate Cover-Up
This bit of news is getting up slightly later than I’d like to be getting it up – but I know a few people who will want to read this who may not have read it else where and it is no less important today than it was 3 days…
Casual Car Pool
Every weekday morning, mostly in the East Bay, you see them lined up like lemmings — sedans, SUVs, pickup trucks and the odd sports car, creeping along the curb. Coming up the sidewalk toward them, dressed for the day’s battle with the city, are the hardy commuters. — San Francisco…
To condemn the condom, or not…
Durex 2003 Sex Survey Highlights People have sex an average of 127 times a year. Three quarters of those polled are happy with their sex lives. Eastern Europeans (Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Russians) are the most sexually active 45% of those taking the survey reported having a one night stand. Those…