After Svante Myrick, 25, became the youngest-ever mayor of Ithaca, N.Y., he gave up his car to join the estimated 15 percent of his city’s residents who walk to work. As mayor, however, Myrick has a prime downtown parking spot reserved for his exclusive use. So instead of letting it s...
North Carolina is no stranger to the “if you dislike it then you should have made a law against it” model of legislation, but this is extreme: The state General Assembly’s Replacement House Bill 819 would rule that scientists are not allowed to accurately predict sea-level rise . By a...
Jeslin Jacobs was just a few years out of business school when she encountered a sustainability challenge she felt passionate about. Troubled by the fiberglass waste her company, a roofing manufacturer, was sending to the landfill, she approached higher-ups about seeking alternative s...
Read the rest of the series here » Everyone loves craft beer. Photo © 2012 Jason E. Kaplan Craft brewing is an industry that is feel-good in more ways than one. Boasting more than $8.7 billion in total retail sales in 2011 from the nearly 2000 American craft breweries (the highest tot...
An Oklahoma mother brought her daughter to a local hospital after she was raped only to be turned away and refused help by a doctor, purportedly because the hospital lacked the staff to properly process the victim’s claims and injuries. Welcome to the reality of processing sexual assa...
The Law Takes Precedence Over Justice in Germany Commentary by Captain Paul Watson I remain a prisoner in Germany in a case that has become highly unusual, controversial and international. On May 13th, 2012, I was arrested at Frankfurt airport in Germany because in October 2011, Costa...
After six months of relative media silence, GMO salmon are back. Since last fall, AquaBounty Technologies , the breeders of the fish — which is not to be confused with radioactive tuna — have been in a kind of regulatory limbo, awaiting approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FD...
Shoppers might pay next to nothing for those cheapy cheap tables and chairs and bookshelves at IKEA, but the planet pays a much higher price, Environmental Leader reports . According to a forest conservation nonprofit, an IKEA subsidiary is clear-cutting forests that are hundreds of y...
For nearly 20 years, Alan Ehrenhalt served as the executive editor of Governing magazine, examining and writing about a variety of local and state-level trends and policies. In his new book, The Great Inversion and the Future of the American City , Ehrenhalt outlines at length what he...
A few years ago, over 1,000 Americans responded to a Public Agenda survey about energy . The results were startling. Nearly four in ten American adults could not name a single fossil fuel. Over half of respondents couldn’t name a renewable energy source. A few years before that, the N...
Gardening season is in full swing, and Earth-lovers everywhere are putting their green thumbs to the test. Whether you dapple with a few indoor plants , garden on the patio with containers or have a full-fledged backyard mini-farm , you’re probably looking for creative ways to save mo...
Over the last few years, I became aware of this hidden revolution taking place around the world: the buying up of vast swaths of land by foreign entities from beneath its occupiers. Soaring grain prices in 2007/2008 led to countries such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea worrying about ...
Geothermal power from Icelandic volcanoes could supply electricity to the UK under new Memorandum of Understanding The UK and Iceland today signed an agreement that could pave the way for geothermal power from Iceland’s volcanoes to supply electricity to the UK. This came as UK Energy...
It may come as a great surprise to anyone with even just a cursory knowledge of India's cultural relationship with cows, but new data from the USDA Foreign Agricultural Service (h/t The Atlantic ) shows that the way things are going this year India will be the world's largest exporter...
We are fans of wave photography around here, and the popularity of our "Most Beautiful Waves " slideshow is proof. So when we caught word of another photographer doing amazing work in this genre, Scotty Carter , we were excited to show off his images to you. Carter says he started pho...
Instead of solar and wind power, the rapidly growing telecommunications industry is increasingly turning to energy efficiency to reduce carbon emissions, a recent Pike Research report concludes. "The focus of green telecom has swung strongly to energy efficiency," according to Pike Re...
Recently, Christine Lepisto blogged about the weed-killing lasers being developed by researchers in Germany, but while we wait for them: here are three ways you can kill weeds in your garden without reaching for toxic herbicides. 1. Boiling Water I learned about the boiling water tric...
It is well documented that energy management for buildings represents a huge untapped opportunity area, both for individual organizations and for society at-large. Globally, buildings are among the largest energy consumers and drivers of carbon emissions. Buildings annually consume ab...
Eyebeam Art + Technology Center “Surface Tension: The Future of Water” opened today at the Eyebeam Art + Technology Center in Chelsea. Water, a plentiful banality to some Americans but a source of conflict for millions of others, is a more intriguing commodity than you may have though...
Greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2010, as a result of both economic recovery in many countries after the 2009 recession and a colder winter. Nonetheless, emissions growth was somewhat contained by continued strong growth in renewable energy sources. These figures from the greenho...
But the architecture is not just about style and aesthetics. In the machining center, where engine blocks fresh from the foundry are finished before assembly, Mr. Visconti, the architect, “sought to fit the demands of modern architecture with our needs,” said Luigi Bonezzi, who is res...
Can loggers be conservationists? (05/10/2012) Last year researchers took the first ever publicly-released video of an African golden cat (Profelis aurata) in a Gabon rainforest. This beautiful, but elusive, feline was filmed sitting docilely for the camera and chasing a bat. The least...
Crisscrossing the country by Airstream is a vision filed away in the minds of many a retro-romantic enthusiast. Open road, freedom, a silver capsule gleaming in the sun. And then one thinks of the cost (cash-wise, resource-wise) and the sound of screeching breaks quickly halts the rev...
30 May 2012: Water Depletion Threatens Future U.S. Food Supplies, Study Says The rapid depletion of groundwater resources in key U.S. agricultural regions could portend future vulnerabilities in growing the nation’s food , according to a new study. In an assessment of water supplies i...
Living Walls ? Sooo Over: The hottest new trend is living furniture. Unveiled last month at the Milan Furniture Fair , German designer Werner Aisslinger's Chair Farm is a "steel corset" that trains plants into chairs. From Studio Aisslinger's website: The chair is no longer produced i...
You may remember the internet going mildly crazy for this video of a tortoise with sexual identity issues. (Not his identity, just the identity of his chosen mate, which is a Croc.) It had all the hallmarks of a blockbuster — sexy sexy romance, dubious fashion choices, animals making ...
Sunny days are here again. Keep the glare from your eyes with a pair of UV-deflecting shades . Whether you prefer classic Wayfarers or you're a fan of Lennon-style teashades, these 14 eco-friendly sunglasses will protect your peepers while looking out for the planet. Above the "Malibu...
Rising out of the chilly waters of the Irish sea, the Isle of Man is paradise for those who consider the world's most dangerous motorcycle racing circuit to be nirvana. Once again, it is also the setting for the TT Zero : a one-lap race around the 37.7 Snaefell mountain course for all...
While much of the world's oceans remain a vast and mysterious place, one of the planet's slowest moving creatures has enlisted the latest of human technology to conquer these regions more efficiently. But, as it turns out, they don't come alone. For decades, scientists have deployed d...
Freelance designer Luke Clark Tyler keeps all his worldly possessions in the same amount of space that McMansion-dwellers allot for clothes and shoes. His Manhattan apartment is the size of a walk-in closet — 78 square feet, just enough space to park a Mini Cooper. Tyler has a convert...
