Want to Live a Long, Happy, Sustainable Life? Consider Central America

Happy, healthy & sustainable: Green countries scored the highest, yellow and orange in between, red the worst. Image via happyplanetindex.org. What if, instead of comparing different countries on the basis of things like GDP, we measured the health, happiness and ecological footprint of people living in those countries? Would the map look different – or does economic wellbeing encompass everything else? The Happy Planet Index, an alternative development index just released by the New Economics Foundation, is an attempt to do just that, and the results are fa...

Should Al Gore Take on Hunger Next?

Can Al Gore do for hunger what he did for global warming with An Inconvenient Truth? That's the goal of Action Against Hunger, a NGO dedicated to tackling world hunger. To recruit Gore, the organization has started a guerilla marketing campaign that makes it appear as if their film, No Hunger, is Gore's next film. A little investigation on their web site reveals that the group is r...

How Gas Leaks Stop Fuel Cells and What To Do

Image: Flickr, David Tolnem Is Your Gas Leaking? What does natural gas smell like? If you said, "rotten eggs," think again. Natural gas is completely odorless. The stink that alerts you to a leaky stove or bad connection on the barbecue grill is an additive. The sulfur-based additive is put in natural gas on purpose, to avoid the countless deaths and destruction that undetected gas leaks would otherwise cause. But the sulfur additive is poison to fuel cells. Currently, fuel cell manufacturers have to use a filter to remove the sulfur compound. Removal is inefficient: why add a thing just to take it out a...

Recirculating Marine Aquaculture: Farmed Fish Minus the Pollution

Image credit: UMBI Center of Marine Biotechnology Fully Contained, Indoor Fish Farming The dire state of global fish stocks is pretty well known by now - with costs of poor management of fish stocks running to $50 billion a year. Yet what's the alternative? Sea-based fish farming c...

Cycling in Detroit, LEED-washing and Debating Sustainable Development

Toby Barlow writes about making Detroit a city for cyclists instead of cars.

While bike enthusiasts in most urban areas continue to have to fight for their place on the streets, Detroit has the potential to become a new bicycle utopia.

New York Times An online debate:

This house believes that sustainable development is unsustainable.

The Economist...

Eco-Roundup | 7.3.09

Honey, Someone Shrunk the Sheep! Sheep on Soay Island off the west coast of Scotland are getting smaller, defying the evolutionary advantage that typically accrues to larger animals when food becomes scarce during cold weather. Increasingly warmer winters have shortened the season of scarcity, enabling smaller sheep to survive — and give birth to more small [...]

Step Forward | Green Up Your Vacations

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” — Miriam Beard There are various shades of green travel. To find yours, start by taking your growing environmental consciousness along on your trip. Apply the same effort to preserve and protect the [...]

San Francisco Mandates Separating Biodegradables for Composting

On June 10, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved what may be the toughest recycling law in the nation, adding mandatory composting of food scraps and biodegradables to its already acclaimed recycling program. Beginning this fall, residences and businesses will be required to sort their refuse into three, color-coded containers: blue for recycled items, green [...]

USGCRP Reports Global Warming Unequivocal and Primarily Human-Induced; Examines Impacts by Region

A comprehensive, 190-page report released this month by The U.S. Global Change Research Program concludes that evidence of global warming is unequivocal and confirms previous evidence that global temperature increases in recent decades have been primarily human-induced. The report, “Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,” compiles years of scientific research and takes into account [...]

That's Not Industrial Waste, It's "Fill Material"

Last week, the US Supreme Court reversed the decision of a federal appeals court and gave Alaska’s Kensington gold mine the go ahead to dump up to 4.5 million tons of mining waste  into nearby Lower Slate Lake. The waste, known as tailings, is a slurry of crushed rock and water laced with copper, aluminum, [...]

House passes sweeping energy, climate bill

The House approved a sweeping energy and climate bill Friday which could for the first time usher in widespread government restrictions on greenhouse gases and help renewable energy become cost competitive with fossil fuels.

White House report warns of climate change effects

Man-made climate change threatens to stress water resources, challenge crops and livestock, raise sea levels and adversely affect human health, according to a report released by the Obama administration on Tuesday.

Pachauri: Stern stance on China climate talks 'pragmatic'

The head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has rejected suggestions that the United States has adopted too soft a stance on climate change negotiations with China.

Climate change may displace up to 200 million

A new kind of refugee is on the rise. And by 2050, there could be as many as 200 million of them.

Bill Clinton to cities: Act on climate

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton on Tuesday urged urban leaders and policymakers they need to take the lead now in fighting climate change.

America's most polluted cities

The nation's air has gotten marginally better over the past 10 years, according to an annual report released Wednesday, but many cities still suffer from severe pollution problems.

Why CEOs want carbon laws

What do CEO Bill Ford of Ford Motor, CEO Jim Rogers of Duke Energy and CEO Bruce Usher of carbon trader EcoSecurities have in common? A deep aversion to unpredictability.

Greenhouse gases pose health hazard, EPA says

Six heat-trapping gases that contribute to air pollution pose potential health hazards, the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday in a landmark announcement that could lead to regulation of the gases.

EPA to monitor air around 62 schools

The Environmental Protection Agency will monitor 62 schools across the nation to determine whether the air around them contains toxic pollutants, the agency said Tuesday.

Recession squeezes recycling programs

When Lynn Heinisch and her neighbors in Atlanta's Lake Claire neighborhood take their recycling to the curb for pickup each Thursday, they cross their fingers and hope for the best.