Most enviros these days have their sights set squarely on Keystone XL (KXL) as the true barometer of the Obama climate change legacy. Given that, just yesterday, the British Columbia government shut down the possibility of piping the extremely dirty Canadian tar sands oil from Alberta to the coast through the BC province, Obama’s decision […]
Both on private and public land, tree surveys are conducted to provide the information necessary to maximise benefits received from trees while minimising any damage they might inflict. Recording individual veteran trees and ancient trees and determining their effect on the surrounding habitat enables informed decisions to be made regarding their future. Inventorying trees by […]
I wrote a post for CleanTechnica on December 6, 2011 concerning something I’d never before heard about, integral fast reactors — you guessed right, nuclear reactors. Titled, “Our Nuclear Trash Heap Needs IFRs,” I wrote about a 2008 book by environmentalist, Tom Blees, “Prescription for the Planet.” When I posted this story, I was soundly […]
Why is sustainability so sexy these days? There are a lot of reasons. My top theory is that it’s become so clear that people can save money through green living ideas. So on Earth Day, we at the Inspired Economist wanted to inspire you to save money in a few ways that will also lower […]
It seems a perfect storm of events has lined itself up to create a political environment that *should* push forward a carbon tax. Will it happen, what would it do, and could it work? Let’s start with a quick definition. A carbon tax, in its simplest form, is simply a tax on polluting carbon emissions. […]
Last week, I gave much love to the city of New York (see Green, New York Style, March 15th). Today it’s time to drive some good spirited competition into the mix, based on the following press release I received this morning. It was titled simply, “Boston Rules.” The full, very concise text read as follows, […]
In a potential sign of things to come, a west Texas meat packing facility has shuttered its operations as meat demand, and supply, drops. Demand for factory farmed meat is dropping for a variety of reasons, but the supply is dropping due to climate change, as persistent droughts sweep across formerly fertile farmlands. Cargill, one […]
Recently, there has been a lot of talk about how America is on a slow slide to oblivion given our lowest-in-history birthrate and U.S. Census projections showing slower population growth. While it’s true that fewer babies were born last year than in previous years (due to the recession, most likely), our total fertility rate – […]
Three European countries have pledged a combined $180 million to the Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF), an institution created by the World Bank to compensate developing countries for reductions in carbon dioxide emissions achieved by preserving their forests. The contributions from Finland, Germany, and Norway bring FCPF’s capitalization to around $650 million, guaranteeing that developing […]
Investors reacted lukewarmly to the passage of the “beyond midnight” fiscal cliff compromise that left Democrats unhappy and Republicans, well, unhappy. When investors react with a mere “meh” to a bipartisan deal that averted what we were told was the potential end of the world as we know it, that might mean one of two […]
We’ve been hearing about the fiscal cliff a lot lately, about the risk of falling over the edge by failing to reach a political agreement, triggering automatic tax increases and spending cuts by theUSgoverment. It sounds like we’re about to sail off the edge of the world, a new end of the world since the […]
The European Union has long been ahead of the curve in terms of sustainability efforts and legislative action around carbon emissions, cleaner energy, toxins in consumer products, and the like. The journey for the EU is well underway and looks to be picking up speed. For instance, pervasive GMO labeling laws across EU member states […]
When citizens of the Italian town of L’Aquila started noticing that the semi-regular tremors along the fault line on which they lived had started becoming a little more regular and a little more intense, many became nervous about the possibility of a cataclysmic event. Seven seismologists from the Italian civil protection agency evaluated the data […]
Of all the extreme water sports out there, the activity of surfing may have one of the most smallest environmental footprints of any hobby or sport. After all, it’s human power and nature’s energy combining to provide thrill ride after thrill ride. Only just recently have people figured out how to bring mobile electronics with […]