Following a decision last week by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) not to take an institutional stand on global warming, an independent group of 86 Evangelicals calling themselves the Evangelical Climate Initiative took matters into their own hands to urge Congress to pass legislation curbing emissions of carbon dioxide, which most scientists agree is contributing to climate change.
Because it is surrounded by oceans, many Australians have wondered for years if desalinization could provide fresh water to the country’s growing population. But desalinization is an energy-intensive process and has thus far proven prohibitively expensive. Now, two Australian companies have joined forces to test a unique desalinization plant that is run on wave energy.
Mira Engler, associate professor at Iowa State University, says, “Waste should be brought closer to our lives and our landscape.” Her 2004 book Designing America’s Waste Landscapes (Johns Hopkins University Press) suggests ways to make garbage dumps and sewage plants architecturally more prominent and dignified, as well as more accessible to citizens. She challenges designers to plan waste landscapes as integral and essential parts of community life.
A growing number of smart, ambitious people are rejecting the lure of lucrative careers for the promise of a simpler agrarian lifestyle. Many of those in the new crop of young farmers boast the kinds of diplomas typically found in Silicon Valley cubicles, Wall Street suites or Hollywood editing rooms. But instead of pursuing fast-paced careers, these members of the so-called "best and the brightest" class are choosing to spend their days weeding carrots and building compost.
The rapid growth of “car sharing” companies—five have sprouted up in the U.S. since 2000—do more than fill a growing niche market. Car sharing also reflects a green business trend called “product service systems” (PSS), otherwise known by its more ungainly iteration, “servicizing.” Morph a product into a service, so the logic goes, and you reduce the ecological footprint of the product itself.
After spending four years connecting dozens of dots, two Oregon State University professors published a study crediting Yellowstone Park’s reintroduced wolves with unilaterally beginning a dramatic restoration of the ailing Lamar River valley. And the implications, like the wolves themselves, have spread beyond the borders of Yellowstone to other regions of the Pacific Northwest, where splinter packs are eventually expected to take up residence.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and an independent scientific review panel that advises it have conflicting views on whether an important chemical causes cancer. A majority on the review panel believe that there is sufficient evidence to recommend that the chemical perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and its salts are "likely" carcinogens, while the EPA had determined that there was only "suggestive evidence."
Ford Motor Company has created the first hybrid vehicle that runs on an ethanol mix, the Escape Hybrid E85. The hybrid is able to run on a mix of gasoline and up to 85 percent ethanol, a clean-burning, corn-based additive.
A new law went into effect last week making Maine the first U.S. state to force manufacturers of televisions and computer monitors to pay for and handle the recycling of their own outdated equipment. Beyond saving money for the local taxpayers who usually bear the brunt of municipal recycling costs, the long-term aim of the law is to give manufacturers an economic incentive to design less-toxic and easier-to-recycle products.
Municipal leaders in Texas’ capital city, Austin, announced the formation of a new coalition of city governments and electric utilities united to lobby automakers to step up production of a new breed of plug-in hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles. These new vehicles would allow drivers to charge up their batteries via wall sockets overnight and make their entire round trip commutes to work the next day using only electricity–and no gas whatsoever.
