blognetnews.com
» Energy

TerraBlog from TerraPass

  • Advanced recycling for environmental ninjas

    Find out where to get rid of your old CDs, crayons, packing peanuts, and more

    by Nicole Schuetz

    I spent last week visiting some of the landfills TerraPass works with to create carbon offsets. As always, it was great to see these projects and the positive impact they’re [...]

    Posted: December 07, 2009, 6:46pm EST
  • Why does Annie Leonard hate the environment?

    "Story of Cap and Trade" takes a hatchet to climate progress

    by Adam Stein

    Annie Leonard, creator of the anti-consumerist video The Story of Stuff, has now offered up The Story of Cap and Trade, a video purporting to debunk legislation representing the best hope we have of reducing greenhouse gas [...]

    Posted: December 07, 2009, 9:32am EST
  • The climate change debate, live

    Environmentalists once again prove no match for polished naysayers

    by Erik Blachford

    Early last week, while in Toronto, I happened into a ticket to one of the Munk Debates . This series, sponsored by Canadian businessman Peter Munk and organized by a local Toronto thinker, Rudyard Griffiths, [...]

    Posted: December 06, 2009, 10:07am EST
  • State of climate science

    Email controversy provides a good excuse to review what we know about climate change

    by Adam Stein

    Via Clean Break, John Holdren, Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, offers some useful thoughts on the recent controversy surrounding the emails stolen from the Climatic Research Unit at [...]

    Posted: December 04, 2009, 9:33am EST
  • Vampire staked by gadget

    Outlet timers have come a long way in the last few years

    by Erin Craig

    As recently reported, I had a rabid vampire at my house: my set-top box and DVR combination. It is designed to be “on” all the time, so it consumes as much energy [...]

    Posted: December 02, 2009, 9:08am EST
  • Holiday cheer: miracle family tours U.S. on bike built for five

    Girls age 3, 4, and 7 have strength of twenty men

    by Adam Stein

    Via Streetsblog, I stumbled across the story of the Pedouins, a family of five on a 7,000-mile bike trip from Kentucky to Alaska on a custom-built tandem. Pedouin is a mash-up of pedal + bedouin, I [...]

    Posted: December 01, 2009, 11:52pm EST
  • Hacked emails show some scientists are rude

    Earth continues to warm

    by Tim Varga

    I’m as disappointed as the next person in some of the conduct evident in the hacked emails of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia. Although I generally have some sympathy for a derogatory tone taken towards the so-called skeptics — after [...]

    Posted: December 01, 2009, 6:51pm EST
  • California sends a message to Washington and Copenhagen

    Cap and trade rules point way to emission reductions

    by Adam Stern

    CaliforniaÂ’s Air Resources Board (CARB) released draft cap-and-trade regulations (pdf) last week, which will be a central part of the stateÂ’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. The agencyÂ’s proposal [...]

    Posted: December 01, 2009, 4:41pm EST
  • Dutch cabinet approves road tax

    Controversial idea hailed as either savior of destroyer of civilization

    by Adam Stein

    The Dutch cabinet has approved a plan for a GPS-based driving tax, to be set at an average of $0.07 per mile in 2012, rising over time. Motorists will be charged more for driving on [...]

    Posted: December 01, 2009, 10:47am EST
  • Vampires always available

    One homeowner's quest to pry a DVR's fangs from her outlets

    by Erin Craig

    I discovered a vampire at my house. Not a sexy Edward/Eric/Bill type, alas; mine was downright ugly and acted more like an Alaskan mosquito or a leech. IÂ’m talking about an electricity vampire, a [...]

    Posted: November 30, 2009, 7:55pm EST
  • Brother Entropy

    dinosaur-comics.gif

    Apples are a delicious gift from Aunt Thestrongwilleattheweak

    by Adam Stein

    Because I’m pretty sure no one actually reads anything on this web site over Thanksgiving, I’m outsourcing today’s effort to the ever-funny Dinosaur Comics, today delivering a timely message about man’s relationship to the natural world. [...]

    Posted: November 23, 2009, 9:24am EST
  • Outcrazy the crazy

    The comic stylings of Al Gore

    by Adam Stein

    More Thanksgiving lazyblogging. First up, Al Gore on Saturday Night Live, promising to outcrazy the crazy:

    The main problem with this clip is that it’s not particularly funny. Not hugely unfunny, but nothing too spectacular. This one from 30 Rock is better:

    Al Gore pulls [...]

    Posted: November 23, 2009, 7:48am EST
  • What's that you say? Kyoto is working?

    European trading system offers lessons for U.S. lawmakers to ignore

    by Adam Stein

    At Worldchanging, Eric de Place takes a look at the success of the European cap-and-trade system in reducing emissions:

    The EU’s cap-and-trade program was, indeed, highly imperfect. It relied on inaccurate estimates of emissions, [...]

    Posted: November 22, 2009, 3:07pm EST
  • Women, population, and climate change

    UN report focuses attention on the issue that dare not speak its name

    by Adam Stein

    Population, my least favorite topic, is back in the news as the focus of a recent United Nations report that examines the links between gender and climate change. Amid calls for [...]

    Posted: November 21, 2009, 4:28pm EST
  • Correcting the carbon offset guilt myth -- again

    The Times rehashes old arguments

    by Adam Stern

    On a day when President Obama and President Hu announced new U.S.-China climate agreements in Beijing, the editors at the New York Times chose to give front-page visibility to a story that criticizes carbon offsets. Surely history will [...]

    Posted: November 19, 2009, 3:40pm EST
  • Kyoto works

    Europe is on track to meet goals. The rest of the world should take note.

    by Adam Stein

    It seems like it should be bigger news that the Kyoto Protocol is working:

    According to new data from the European Environment Agency (EEA), all of the EU-15 [...]

    Posted: November 17, 2009, 5:14pm EST
  • Bike-sharing hits rough spot in Paris

    Vandalism and theft affect 80% of bikes

    by Adam Stein

    I more or less ignored some of the early reports of trouble with the Velib bike-sharing program in Paris, because they seemed thinly reported. But the recent Times article paints a troubling picture:

    With 80 percent of [...]

    Posted: November 17, 2009, 3:35pm EST
  • Smart grid round-up

    Stimulus funds, consumer backlash, and intelligent thermostats

    by Adam Stein

    Lotsa smart grid news these days:

    Barack Obama announced $3.4 billion in stimulus funding for smart grid projects. A good chunk of that goes to smart meter deployment and demand response programs. Another huge chunk goes to grid [...]

    Posted: November 17, 2009, 12:50pm EST
  • Is your backyard ready for wind energy?

    Yes, there's an app for that too.

    by Hanh Ho

    Do you ever look out your window, watch the branches swaying in the wind and wonder whether you could be generating your own wind power? Well iPhone users, you can now download the app you never knew you [...]

    Posted: November 17, 2009, 1:12am EST
  • New Project: Pagel's Ponderosa Dairy

    Another project up for public comment

    by TerraPass

    PagelÂ’s Ponderosa Dairy is located in Kewaunee, Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan and Green Bay. The dairy has been family owned and operated for over 60 years, and is currently run by Innovative Dairy Farmer of the Year Award winner John Pagel. The project has [...]

    Posted: November 11, 2009, 6:52pm EST
  • Are livestock responsible for 51% of greenhouse gas emissions?

    New report makes questionable claim

    by Adam Stein

    Conventional wisdom has it that meat production is responsible for about 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions — a shocking enough figure as it is. But lately a much higher number has been circulating, with some claiming that meat is [...]

    Posted: November 10, 2009, 9:43pm EST
  • Comprehending the Pacific Garbage Patch

    Some extraordinary -- and upsetting -- pictures show directly how our waste impacts our environment

    by Pete Davies

    Chris Jordan uses his photographs to illustrate the complexities and enormities of the problem with have with our consumption and its impact on the environment. Until recently his work focused [...]

    Posted: November 10, 2009, 9:20pm EST
  • Gore's hopeful new climate book

    Essential reading for Copenhagen and beyond

    by Adam Stern

    When Al Gore released his movie and book An Inconvenient Truth in 2006, he was praised for raising awareness about global warming. For those who wished he had included more information about solutions, the former vice president has responded [...]

    Posted: November 10, 2009, 6:42pm EST
  • Solar power gets thirsty

    Even renewable energy can be resource intensive

    by Peter Freed

    I’d love to believe that all renewable energy projects are a great way to generate power without putting a strain on our resources and the planet. Unfortunately, many projects present uncomfortable tradeoffs. The New York Times’ greeninc [...]

    Posted: November 10, 2009, 1:44pm EST
  • New project: Crow Wing County landfill

    Another project up for public comment

    by Adam Stein

    Crow Wing County landfill is in Brainerd, Minnesota, about two hours north of Minneapolis. Despite its small size, the landfill is an innovator that has achieved extraordinarily high recycling rates. One of their most recent initiatives is a landfill [...]

    Posted: November 04, 2009, 5:13pm EST
  • Cities: still greener than small villages

    Access to supermarkets is more important than access to farms

    by Adam Stein

    The review of Green Metropolis kicked off a discussion that illustrates some of the confusion that crops up in discussions of density. Hoisting a representative snippet up from comments:

    I think people can be [...]

    Posted: November 03, 2009, 10:55am EST
  • Hunters, fishers press for climate change bill

    And the religious right gets in on the act

    by Adam Stein

    This isn’t exactly a new trend — I remember writing about it several years ago — but it seems to be picking up some steam:

    More than 13,000 hunters and anglers from across the country [...]

    Posted: November 01, 2009, 7:55pm EST
  • Bashing environmentalists always pays

    It's just simple Freakonomics!

    by Adam Stein

    I generally don’t indulge in blog rants, mostly because I’m just not very good at them. David Roberts, on the other hand, is good at them, and he puts to words some of the deep disgust I’ve been feeling over' [...]

    Posted: October 29, 2009, 4:38pm EDT
  • Parking done right

    San Francisco skips the green garages, focuses on pricing

    by Adam Stein

    Let’s talk parking. Recently I suggested that building new parking garages isn’t an environmentally friendly thing to do, even if such garages are nicely landscaped and have energy-efficient lighting systems. The environmental impact of the structures [...]

    Posted: October 29, 2009, 9:40am EDT
  • Google Maps add bike routes and walking paths

    Tricycles + laser range finders = your daily wow

    by Adam Stein

    I remember being amazed when Mapquest came out in, what, 1997? How could it possibly know where my house was? How was it able to instantly come up with a route between Anchorage and Miami? The [...]

    Posted: October 26, 2009, 5:33pm EDT
  • Another trivially easy thing you can do to end climate change

    Plus: bonus inspirational story to get you in the mood

    by Adam Stein

    Last week I wrote about how writing a letter is this easiest and most important thing you can do to protect the environment. This week, I have a follow-up suggestion: actually write the letter. [...]

    Posted: October 22, 2009, 5:55pm EDT
  • Book review: Green Metropolis

    David Owen finds an green paradise hiding in plain sight

    by Adam Stein

    David Owen’s book Green Metropolis, an expansion of his 2004 New Yorker article on the environmental benefits of cities, puts forth two propositions: first, that urban living is inherently more resource-efficient and therefore [...]

    Posted: October 21, 2009, 11:59am EDT
  • ItÂ’s not where you are going, itÂ’s how you get there

    Exploring alternative transportation options

    by Mark Frey

    Over the past month or so IÂ’ve been rethinking how I get to work. My routine has been shifting as my son sleeps in a bit later at times (thank goodness), and as his activities and naps tend to take place [...]

    Posted: October 21, 2009, 11:51am EDT
  • Prospects brighten for climate bill in Senate

    Kerry and Graham collaboration could lead to 60 votes

    by Adam Stern

    Optimism is growing in Washington that the U.S. Senate could pass comprehensive climate and energy legislation by early next year. A series of developments, including a recent New York Times op-ed by Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) [...]

    Posted: October 20, 2009, 7:19pm EDT
  • Real-time energy stats. With owls.

    Some very cool stuff is happening at one of our carbon offset projects, the Greater Lebanon Refuse Authority landfill in south-central Pennsylvania.

    by Erin Craig

    The GLRA project captures landfill methane, the fourth-largest source of US anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (see this handy EPA fact sheet; all [...]

    Posted: October 16, 2009, 12:49pm EDT
  • The climate is changing and I'm getting cold feet

    Tips for keeping your home comfortable during the in-between seasons

    by Erin Craig

    This time of year, we play a strange game of “chicken” at my house, watching each other to see who will break down and turn on the heat. We have radiant heat, which means a boiler [...]

    Posted: October 16, 2009, 9:12am EDT
  • Blog Action Day: How you, personally, can end climate change

    Three simple steps -- easier than changing your light bulbs

    by Adam Stein

    The topic of this year’s Blog Action Day is climate change, which is convenient for me. In keeping with the spirit of the event, I thought it might be useful to let people know how [...]

    Posted: October 15, 2009, 10:17am EDT
  • The cost of inaction

    Clearing up after a flood costs money, wastes energy and reduces productivity. Just like climate change.

    by Pete Davies

    We’re in the middle of the first storm of the season on the West Coast. As I write this I’m looking at a pile of industrial hairdryers that are [...]

    Posted: October 13, 2009, 7:57pm EDT
  • They paved paradise and put up a paradox

    "Eco-friendly" garages are anything but

    by Adam Stein

    I just finished David Owen’s Green Metropolis, the book-length treatment of his 2004 article claiming that New York is the greenest city in America. A full review will have to wait until next week, but if you want [...]

    Posted: October 13, 2009, 8:44am EDT
  • Net zero water

    Designing water-neutral homes

    by Adam Stein

    Water and climate change are inextricably linked. As the planet warms, weather patterns will shift, exacerbating drought in some areas and delivering more rainfall to others. Water itself requires energy to deliver, so excess use compounds our energy problems. And many renewable [...]

    Posted: October 12, 2009, 9:15pm EDT
  • The Earth's limits

    New study attempts to define thresholds for man's impact on planetary processes

    by Adam Stein

    Surely the scariest aspect of climate change is the concept of tipping points: sudden and potentially irreversible changes in the earth’s natural processes that render the planet much less hospitable for humankind. The [...]

    Posted: October 11, 2009, 8:41pm EDT
  • Sleeping with your values

    Is it possible to buy green and save green when it comes to mattresses, and should you care?

    by Alicia Seiger

    Mattress shopping may be the single most unpleasant purchasing experience one can voluntarily undertake. Even Consumer Reports throws up its hands, saying that comparing mattress makes and [...]

    Posted: October 07, 2009, 2:01pm EDT
  • Saving the planet over lunch

    Three leaders talk through what's needed to get a deal in Copenhagen

    by Adam Stern

    Reaching a climate agreement among the 190 countries expected at the UN talks in Copenhagen in December remains a daunting task. The political and economic differences between industrialized and developing nations may prove [...]

    Posted: October 06, 2009, 8:13am EDT
  • EPA prepares to regulate greenhouse gases

    Agency makes small but significant rule change to tailor Clean Air Act to carbon dioxide

    by Adam Stein

    Last week, the EPA made a minor rule change with potentially large repercussions. Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA is required to regulate polluters who emit more than 250 [...]

    Posted: October 05, 2009, 10:48pm EDT
  • Compact fluorescents: a debacle?

    L Prize competition tries to sidestep early mistakes in quest for better light

    by Adam Stein

    Philips may claim the “L Prize,” a $10 million award from the Department of Energy for any light that can reproduce the color and intensity of a 60-watt bulb using only 1/6 [...]

    Posted: October 05, 2009, 10:40pm EDT
  • Native woodlands razed; native people left jobless

    Economic woes have social and environmental costs

    by Tim Varga

    The recent financial collapse of a forestry plantation on an island in Northern Australia moved me for a number of reasons. For starters, the story, beautifully told by Verlyn Klinkenborg in the New York Times, serves as [...]

    Posted: October 02, 2009, 7:53pm EDT
  • Capitalism to the rescue

    Many capitalists love the economy and the environment

    by Mark Mondik

    Capitalism has gotten a pretty bad rap over the past couple years, and even the most bloodthirsty plutocrat might begrudgingly admit that some of the knocks are deserved. The avarice of recent years underscores one of the [...]

    Posted: September 28, 2009, 6:43pm EDT
  • Left-wingers conserve like this, right-wingers conserve like that...

    No Impact Man pushes back on his critics

    by Adam Stein

    In a Grist interview, Colin Beavan (aka No Impact Man) muses over the question of why some critics seem eager to cast his project as a poor alternative to political activism, rather than as a complementary [...]

    Posted: September 28, 2009, 4:54pm EDT
  • Retrofitting suburbia for the elderly

    Good places to grow up aren't always good places to grow old

    by Adam Stein

    I do understand the appeal of the suburbs — the privacy, the open space — but one thing has long seemed pretty clear: suburbs are a difficult place to grow old.

    I’ve certainly' [...]

    Posted: September 28, 2009, 3:43pm EDT
  • Light rail notches a success in the West

    Phoenix system outpaces expectations, proves detractors wrong

    by Adam Stein

    Any proposed new mass transit system inevitably touches off a religious war between those who see light rail as the saving grace of car-choked, sprawling metropolitan areas, and those who view it as an expensive boondoggle. Unsurprisingly, my [...]

    Posted: September 28, 2009, 3:04pm EDT
  • Schwarzenegger Defends AB 32

    Governor says the law cutting greenhouse gases is vital for California's future.

    by Adam Stern

    Speaking on the third anniversary of the signing of CaliforniaÂ’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32) in San Francisco yesterday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a full-throated defense of the stateÂ’s landmark law' [...]

    Posted: September 25, 2009, 7:49pm EDT
  • Helping your business to understand climate legislation

    Join us for a webinar on upcoming legislation and its implications for your business.

    by Pete Davies

    A quick plug:

    On Tuesday September 29 TerraPass will be hosting a free webinar called Climate change legislation and what it means for your business.

    It’s open to all (but you need to register in advance) [...]

    Posted: September 22, 2009, 5:36pm EDT
  • Beyond the bulb

    Thin, flexible OLEDs may be the future of lighting

    by Adam Stein

    Old-school incandescent light bulbs are going the way of the dodo — already illegal in Europe and soon enough in the United States as well. Mostly CFLs will replace them in the near term, but as [...]

    Posted: September 20, 2009, 12:41am EDT
  • Carbon in the French style

    Sarkozy proposes emissions tax, plus tariffs on products from polluting countries

    by Adam Stein

    France is getting ready to impose a $25-per-ton carbon tax on heating oil, gasoline, and natural gas. President Nicolas Sarkozy claims that the new fee is really a tax shift — the money [...]

    Posted: September 20, 2009, 12:41am EDT
  • Amusing ourselves to death

    California proposes television efficiency standards, but most gadgets go unregulated

    by Adam Stein

    Gadgets, those little energy vampires that remain almost constantly plugged in, are sucking our energy system dry:

    Worldwide, consumer electronics now represent 15 percent of household power demand, and that is expected to triple [...]

    Posted: September 20, 2009, 12:39am EDT
  • G8 makes 2° commitment, misses the point

    We've got to focus on the cause, not the symptoms

    by Tim Varga

    In early July at the Major Economies Forum in L’aquila, Italy, G8 leaders took a big step by publicly announcing a goal of limiting global warming to 2° C. Let us all acknowledge that it' [...]

    Posted: September 17, 2009, 10:35am EDT
  • The World Carbon Database

    A new worldwide database to list carbon offset purchases

    by TerraPass

    ThereÂ’s a new database in town. The World Carbon Database (WCD) is a non-profit open source site that comprehensively indexes carbon offset purchases. Visitors to the WCD website can look up any individual or company to see if their offset [...]

    Posted: September 16, 2009, 2:11pm EDT
  • The secret to preventing fishery decline: stop fishing so much

    We have a range of tools to restore fisheries, but all require good government

    by Tim Varga

    The concept of restoring ecosystems damaged by human exploitation has always interested me, so the recent edition of Science featuring Restoration Ecology sent my heart into a pitter-patter. There are a [...]

    Posted: September 15, 2009, 9:04pm EDT
  • Cash for clunkers: still looking pretty good

    The program was cheap, stimulated the economy, and reduced emissions. Why the carping?

    by Adam Stein

    I’m not sure why it’s so hard for people to admit that the Cash for Clunkers program basically worked.

    I mean, I know it seems like the ultimate boondoggle: let’s pay people [...]

    Posted: September 15, 2009, 9:46am EDT
  • Climate ads running on TV

    New campaigns seek to influence votes in Senate

    by Adam Stern

    Television advertising may be pivotal in the coming debate about climate legislation in the U.S. Senate. Analysts believe that 20-25 senators may still be undecided on how they will vote on an energy/climate bill later this year. That leaves room for [...]

    Posted: September 15, 2009, 9:13am EDT
  • Defusing the population bomb

    Study suggests family planning is one of the lowest-cost ways to reduce CO2

    by Adam Stein

    People may be the problem, but what’s the solution? Although energy use is driven by demographic trends, we don’t seem to have many tools readily at hand for addressing population as a [...]

    Posted: September 10, 2009, 6:40pm EDT
  • Cadillac Desert

    A century of damming and diverting threatens to leave the West high and dry

    by Nicole Schuetz

    I just finished reading the environmental classic Cadillac Desert, by Marc Reisner. The book tells the story of water policy in the Western United States from the mid-1800s (the time of [...]

    Posted: September 10, 2009, 6:07pm EDT
  • Space-based solar energy

    California and Japan pursue projects to beam energy from satellites

    by Adam Stein

    Generating solar energy in space stations and beaming it down to earth is a wacky idea, but it’s also an interesting one, and not just for the obvious reasons (outer space, energy beams, etc). To [...]

    Posted: September 08, 2009, 3:14pm EDT
  • Paris to launch innovative car-sharing program

    And Better Place will provide electric taxis in Tokyo

    by Adam Stein

    Paris is preparing to unveil a car-sharing program consisting of a 4,000 electric cars and 1,400 rental stations scattered throughout the city and neighboring suburbs.

    Dubbed Autolib, after the popular Velib bike-sharing program, the car-sharing service [...]

    Posted: September 08, 2009, 2:10pm EDT
  • Crunching numbers on my home energy use

    Nine year's of utility bills tell a story of one family's energy use over time

    by Erin Craig

    During an attempt to bring order to our household files, my husband and I discovered that we saved enough utility bills to reconstruct a nearly complete record of our household energy and water use [...]

    Posted: September 04, 2009, 6:03pm EDT
  • Sprawl: a problem without a solution?

    New study suggest we need to look elsewhere to curb carbon emissions

    by Adam Stein

    Dueling headlines cropped up in my newsreader today:

    More People, Less Driving: The Imperative of Curbing Sprawl (Smart Growth America)

    Vs.:

    Forget Curbing Suburban Sprawl: Building denser cities would do little to reduce [...]

    Posted: September 03, 2009, 5:42pm EDT
  • New project available for public comment

    Flathead project is first landfill gas-to-energy plant in Montana

    by Adam Stein

    The next project up for public comment is the Flathead County Landfill gas to energy plant, the first such system in the state of Montana. Located 25 miles from Glacier Park, this project will expand [...]

    Posted: August 31, 2009, 3:27pm EDT
  • Digital books: greener than real books

    Study claims the devices pay themselves back in a year

    by Adam Stein

    Last week brought the unsurprising news that mp3s are more environmentally friendly than physical CDs. I wondered at the time whether the same might be true for digital books:

    ItÂ’s not clear to me, [...]

    Posted: August 31, 2009, 1:12pm EDT
  • The greenest city in America

    And the lessons it offers for a more sustainable future

    by Adam Stein

    I’m not sure what link trail led me to this five-year-old New Yorker piece on the greenest city in America, but it holds up quite well. According to New Yorker magazine, the greenest city [...]

    Posted: August 31, 2009, 11:38am EDT
  • California proposes auction to boost solar energy

    Kind of like a feed-in tariff, but possibly much better

    by Adam Stein

    California has proposed setting up an open bidding process for mid-size solar projects. Under the scheme, utilities would rank bids by price and accept all of the cheapest proposals that their budgets allow. The [...]

    Posted: August 31, 2009, 10:12am EDT
  • Searching for Impact Man

    Taking aim at wannabe Thoreaus (including Thoreau)

    by Adam Stein

    If you read only one piece of long-form environmental journalism this month, make it Elizabeth Kolbert’s New Yorker piece on the uncertain lessons to be learned from “eco-stunts,” the tradition of self-promotional experiments in green living that [...]

    Posted: August 29, 2009, 8:17am EDT
  • McKinsey finds $700 billion lying on the ground

    Energy efficiency shows vast potential for environmental and economic benefits

    by Adam Stein

    I had hoped to have time by now to actually read the splashy new McKinsey report on the potential for energy efficiency measures to slash the national carbon footprint. But I haven’t, so I’m just going to quote [...]

    Posted: August 25, 2009, 4:42pm EDT
  • Automated pizza ovens and horse-drawn hybrids

    naturmobil.jpg

    Some less-than-worldchanging ideas for a more energy efficient future

    by Adam Stein

    An Iranian engineer has come up with an unlikely breakthrough in gasoline-free transportation by creating a hybrid automobile that connects an electric drive train — to a horse.

    In a design that owes more to the Volt [...]

    Posted: August 25, 2009, 1:17pm EDT
  • Why did the Reburbia design competition fail?

    "Sprawl" is too squishy a target to hit, but the contest's results are still instructive

    by Adam Stein

    I had some fun last week with the Reburbia design competition, a contest seeking to “re-invent the suburbs” via “future-proof spaces and systems” — “the wilder the better!” The [...]

    Posted: August 25, 2009, 11:14am EDT
  • Couple goes waste-free for a year

    Litter box and toothpaste tubes pose environmental conundrums great and small

    by Hanh Ho

    Amy and Adam live in a small community in Dallas, Oregon. On July 6, 2009, they began their pledge of living without producing garbage for one year. Like many of us, they believe that [...]

    Posted: August 24, 2009, 10:55am EDT
  • Bike sharing comes big to Boston

    Memories of a great experience in Berlin have me rooting for the system in the U.S.

    by Peter Freed

    Boston has just announced what is slated to become the largest bike sharing network in the U.S. and I’m awfully jealous. My first experience with bike sharing was [...]

    Posted: August 18, 2009, 4:44pm EDT
  • Bits o' carbon: digital downloads are greener than CDs

    Now if someone would just do a similar study for electronic books...

    by Adam Stein

    This is hardly a shocking result, but it’s kind of fun nonetheless: a life cycle analysis reveals that downloading music digitally creates less than one sixth the carbon emissions of buying it from [...]

    Posted: August 17, 2009, 3:17pm EDT
  • What does it mean for a car to get 230 miles per gallon?

    Not much, but don't blame GM. Rating the fuel efficiency of plug-ins is hard.

    by Adam Stein

    GM has created a bit of buzz around its claim that the Chevy Volt gets 230 miles to the gallon in city driving. From the internet a great chorus has' [...]

    Posted: August 17, 2009, 8:00am EDT
  • Competition dreams up new ways to harrass suburbanites

    Because real solutions to our energy problems are too dull, designers have cooked up some loopier ones

    by Adam Stein

    Dwell magazine and Inhabitat have teamed up to sponsor a “Reburbia” competition in which designers re-envision suburbia in ways that make environmentalists seem as scary and dingbatty as possible.

    The [...]

    Posted: August 15, 2009, 1:36pm EDT
  • Is population a problem?

    And what responsibility do we bear?

    by Mark Mondik

    I feel as though I cannot enjoy anything anymore. Every action seems tainted by nagging questions about environmental impact or sustainability. For example, I really like hamburgers but the carbon footprint of cattle production is so high that my [...]

    Posted: August 11, 2009, 4:33pm EDT
  • Two new projects for your consideration

    The Red Hills Wind Farm and Charleston Landfill gas-to-energy project may join our portfolio

    by Adam Stein

    We present to your our latest projects for public review.

    The Red Hills Wind Farm, located in Elk City, Oklahoma, has 82 turbines, with a total capacity of 123 megawatts — [...]

    Posted: August 11, 2009, 4:15pm EDT
  • How to have a million-dollar car accident

    Wind turbines are awkward to ship, so manufacturers are getting creative

    by Adam Stein

    A wind turbine blade passed me going the other direction on the highway the other day, followed by another one. If you’ve never seen these things in real life, you’re missing out. Hundreds of [...]

    Posted: August 07, 2009, 6:55pm EDT
  • Friday video fun

    Including bonus Where The Wild Things Are

    by Adam Stein

    David Roberts brings the funny in his quest for “songs that express environmental concern and don’t suck.” It’s a quest that largely fails, unless “slightly better white-boy rapping” about methane capture counts as success. The TerraPass office represents 75% of the [...]

    Posted: August 07, 2009, 2:23pm EDT
  • Create your own bike lane, for real

    Bikes + lasers = awesome

    by Adam Stein

    This past winter, we (meaning I) wrote about LightLane, a concept design for a lighting system that paints a virtual path around your bike at night to encourage cars to keep a safe distance. The idea caught the internet’s imagination, so much so [...]

    Posted: August 06, 2009, 10:56pm EDT
  • Cash for Clunkers is a hit. But does it work?

    Kind of. But a less-glamorous variant promises real green benefits.

    by Adam Stein

    The unexpected popularity of the cash-for-clunkers program has sent congress scrambling to find more funding. About 250,000 people have taken advantage of the incentives to trade older cars for ones with better fuel efficiency, [...]

    Posted: August 04, 2009, 8:11pm EDT
  • The four-day work week works

    Utah's experiment shows happier employees and environmental benefits

    by Pete Davies

    17,000 Utah state employees have been working four-day weeks since last August. Non-critical government and agency staff have worked ten-hour days Monday-Thursday and then taken three-day weekends. Some of the first findings from the experiment are [...]

    Posted: August 04, 2009, 7:53pm EDT
  • Potty time

    Given the high impact of both cloth and plastic, the best option is ditching diapers as soon as possible

    by Erik Blachford

    As our third child approaches his third birthday, my wife and I find ourselves contemplating how best to get him out of diapers. We’ve been through [...]

    Posted: August 03, 2009, 3:25pm EDT
  • What's the most Italian herb?

    Hint: it's not basil

    by Adam Stein

    According to Chris Cosentino, it’s mint.

    Chris is best-known for his artistry with organ meats (which, I confess, I love), but in his most recent blog post, he offers up a laundry list of ideas for mixing more mint into [...]

    Posted: August 02, 2009, 10:03pm EDT
  • I drink your milkshake!

    Climate change shakes up ecosystems in ways difficult to predict

    by Tim Varga

    Perhaps the thing about climate change that worries me the most are “unknown unknowns” — those feedback loops and unpredictable shifts in the way the biological and physical worlds function together that could potentially doom [...]

    Posted: July 29, 2009, 2:10pm EDT
  • 101 salads, in your face

    Mark Bittman brings the leafy green pain

    by Adam Stein

    This is why Mark Bittman writes for the New York Times, and I don’t: 101 fairly awesome-looking salad ideas in one epic article.

    I’ll be outsourcing full recipe duty to Mr. Bittman today. A couple of excerpts, chosen [...]

    Posted: July 28, 2009, 10:12pm EDT
  • "Eek! Markets! Wall Street! Bad!"

    Derivatives, speculation, Goldman Sachs and other four-letter words

    by Adam Stein

    Paul Krugman digs into an issue that deserves more attention: will Goldman Sachs’ use of derivatives to manipulate the carbon markets inevitably cause the sun to explode, blotting out all life on earth?

    Actually, he digs into [...]

    Posted: July 28, 2009, 7:24pm EDT
  • Reading the tea leaves on the climate bill

    Summer negotiations in the Senate will be a hard slog

    by Adam Stern

    The dog days of summer will soon arrive with Congress starting a month-long recess and official Washington becoming a very quiet place. But behind the scenes, negotiations on a federal climate bill will continue as [...]

    Posted: July 28, 2009, 5:04pm EDT
  • Want to reduce your footprint? Take a vacation

    Sure, planes are bad, but low-carbon locales might help you work off the debt

    by Mark Frey

    I’ve just returned from a long-awaited vacation, a return to two of the many places that I have called home over the past several years. The planes, trains, and automobiles along [...]

    Posted: July 28, 2009, 3:07pm EDT
  • Desert dust helps lower ocean temps

    But as climate change kicks in, seas could end up in nasty feedback loop

    by Tim Varga

    Sea levels continue to rise, and not just because of melting ice caps, but also because warmer global temperatures cause thermal expansion. The rise in temperature would be even greater if [...]

    Posted: July 27, 2009, 7:09pm EDT
  • TerraPass offset transparency wins #1 spot

    Greenopia says our transparency is unmatched

    by Pete Davies

    TerraPass is one of the only offset providers to work directly with its offset projects. This means that the offsets we sell to individuals and businesses haven’t been sourced through a third-party, but from farms and landfill owners with [...]

    Posted: July 27, 2009, 3:53pm EDT
  • Cilmate change skeptics: put your money where your mouth is

    Think it's getting colder? There's a bet for that...

    by Pete Davies

    We tend to post sites and articles we’ve read and found interesting on our twitter feed (it also has all of our blog posts if you can’t wait for the newsletter). But every now and again one crops up [...]

    Posted: July 21, 2009, 9:53pm EDT
  • Can Twitter help us to save energy at home?

    Does a display of information help us to save energy? Or will it take something more?

    by Pete Davies

    There’s a house that tweets all of it’s energy usage. And that’s really just the beginning of the information it dumps onto Twitter every day. Even the mousetraps are wired into the matrix…

    Residential [...]

    Posted: July 21, 2009, 8:10pm EDT
  • Does America still have the Right Stuff?

    We put a man on the moon 40 years ago. But are we up to the challenge of climate change?

    by Alicia Seiger

    Forty years ago today astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped out of their Apollo spacecraft onto the moon and into what Aldrin described as [...]

    Posted: July 20, 2009, 8:02pm EDT
  • Wal-Mart announces Sustainability Index

    Scorecard will rate thousands of suppliers on environmental impact

    by Adam Stein

    By dint of its sheer size, pretty much everything Wal-Mart does is important. So the long-anticipated launch of the Wal-Mart Sustainability Index — a company-led project to evaluate all of the suppliers whose products appear on [...]

    Posted: July 19, 2009, 6:09pm EDT
  • Recipe: pearl barley salad with summer squash and almonds

    A hearty and healthy warm-weather meal

    by Adam Stein

    I had this salad at franny’s, a restaurant in Brooklyn that you’d be wise to visit. franny’s is a distinguished member of the new class of Neapolitan pizza-fetish parlors, but the non-pizza portion of its menu is equally beguiling.

    If you’ve ever cooked [...]

    Posted: July 19, 2009, 4:52pm EDT

Blog Info:
TerraBlog from TerraPass

» http://www.terrapass.com/blog/

Categories

BNN Traffic Index

Alexa: 142,390
-2,914

Compete: No data
0

Quantcast: No data
88,651

BNN Traffic Index: -2,914

BNN Authority Index

Technorati: 0

Google: 1

BNN Authority Index: 0.5

» Subscribe to the TerraBlog from TerraPass feed