Blogs

Blogger exposes fake global warming skeptics

Hank Green — Wed, 07 May 2008 00:36:15 PDT

Kevin Grandia, who we are proud to be well-acquainted with through working together in the eco-blogosphere, has just been through a bit of a saga.

Curious about the Heartland Institute's list of "500 prominent scientists" who deny global warming, Kevin decided to contact some of the folks on the list.

He put together a list of 150 email addresses ... simply the addresses he found it most easy to acquire. After only 24 hours, he'd received 45 emails from angry scientists saying that they, in no way, denied anthropogenic global warming.

It turns out that the Heartland Institute had never told the scientists they were going on the list, nor did they check to see if these people actually had any doubts about the causes of climate change. Just a sampling of quotes from emails Kevin received:

"I am horrified to find my name on such a list. I have spent the last 20 years arguing the opposite."

"I have NO doubts ... the recent changes in global climate ARE man-induced. I insist that you immediately remove my name from this list since I did not give you permission to put it there."

"Please remove my name. What [they] have done is totally unethical!"

The Heartland Institute has been publicizing this list for years, and not a single journalist took the time to check the names on the list. The Heartland Institute has now distanced itself from the list and withdrawn its claim that the institute is supported by 500 prominent global warming skeptic scientists.

But the institute has yet to apologize.

Kevin deserves a great big "thank you" from the world. Check out DeSmogBlog and, if you think he's as awesome as I do, you might even consider donating to help him keep DeSmogBLog alive.

Carectomy week in review

Joshua Liberles — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:51:49 PDT

HGTV âgreen homeâ: Complete with gas-guzzling SUV!

Has green-washing hit a new low? HGTV has completely missed the point of what it means to be sustainable with its new Green Home Giveaway sweepstakes.

The winner gets a fancy âgreenâ home in Hilton Head, SC, complete with energy-efficient appliances, eco-floors, amenities, doo-dads, etc.; a membership to the local water-sucking, pesticide-spewing golf course; and a hybrid SUV. Of course all of these prizes are carefully branded and marketed through the HGTV programming.

Bicycle City: Perfection, sans picket fences?

Bicycle City sounds like a place Iâd like to live. By plannersâ description, its highlights include a âwalkable, urban design; vibrant local economy; eco-friendly, sustainable design; organic farming; human-powered transportation; strong and diverse community; active healthy lifestyle.â

By contrast to most urban areas, Bicycle City doesnât have âpollution, traffic jams, parking lots, national franchises, strip malls, stress, chemicals, or 'cookie cutter' â designs.

Glastonbury Festival celebrates green transport

The annual Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts is encouraging concertgoers to leave their cars at home. A full third of people attending the three-day celebration (akin to Woodstock, but in the English countryside) will commute by public transport (including via coach and rail) and festival organizers are encouraging all who attend to car-share, if they must commute by vehicle. âThe aim is to reduce the number of cars which come to the festival,â organizers say.

Cars cause a scentless spring

Cars have made us fat, diseased, cash-strapped, and disconnected from one another and ourselves. Now, thanks to air pollution caused by cars and power plants, we don't even have the scent of flowers to appreciate. As National Geographic reports, the potency of the smell of flowers has been reduced by as much as 90%.

Friedman is back and fighting for solar

Hank Green — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:45:52 PDT

Award-winning New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has been on sabbatical for the last half-year or so, and he has been sorely missed.

After spending years talking about how the 'world is flat,' Friedman began writing about a new powerful force in the global economy ... the environment and clean energy. This has lead some (us, actually) to surmise that his next book might be quite EcoGeeky.

Now he's back, and immediately taking on the idiocy of suspending the gas tax for the summer months:

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: âMaximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most.â

And then he gets to the real meat of the issue. It's not that we don't have an energy policy in America, it's that we have the exact opposite of the policy we should have. We continue to subsidize oil and gas and are letting subsidies for wind and solar lapse.

The neglect of these renewable energy tax credits has been discussed over and over again by us EcoGeeks. Friedman's audience (being somewhat larger than our own) will hopefully finally hear this message loud and clear. I sure am glad he's back.

Trash-talk radio

Trystan L. Bass — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 10:51:09 PDT

You may not expect trash talk on National Public Radio, but recently it had a four-part series that took on garbage.

Getting Rid of Junk, Staying Green looks at the stuff Americans throw away. From our seemingly endless stream of mobile phones to the plastic bags we dump the garbage into, NPR explores what's current and what the future may hold. Each article also has related info and links that may help you take care of your excess junk.

Think we can ever get to zero waste? It's worth trying, not just talking about.

Coal industry admits it's dirty

Hank Green — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:24:59 PDT

In an unprecedented move, America's ultra-powerful coal lobby today admitted that coal, in fact, is the world's dirtiest source of energy. Its new campaign highlights, not only the short-term economic benefits of coal, but also the long-term disaster awaiting us!

This marks the first time in the history of the industry that anyone associated with coal ever mentioned pollution. The campaign, entitled "the Alliance for Burning Every Chunk of Coal" (ABECC) stands alongside its much more polished campaign, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC).

ABECC proudly proclaims that it produces 50% of Americas power and 95% of its sulfur dioxide emissions. It also admit that there are many cleaner sources of energy, but that converting America to those sources of power would be really hard.

The industry even has a bit to say about blogs like EcoGeek:

The Internet -- powered by coal! -- is a great source of information. It has lots of information. Of course, not all of it is true. And sometimes, even when it is true, it hurts our feelings.

Following traditional coal techniques, ABECC says that its mission is to ensure that "our shouts will be loud and well-funded enough to drown out all dissenting voices."

My favorite bit of this exciting new initiative may be the FAQ:

Let's try to stick to the point. We're 70 percent cleaner on the stuff the government legally requires us to care about. Is it too much to ask for a simple thank you? And a simple promise to never, ever discuss any alternative sources of energy ever again?

So refreshing ... check out AmericasCoalPower.com today.

News from the Antarctic

James Wang — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:08:25 PDT

This post is by James Wang, Ph.D., a climate scientist at Environmental Defense Fund.

This month, while Arctic sea ice hits its annual wintertime high (such as it is; see previous post), Antarctic sea ice reaches its summertime low.

Weâve written before about the British Antarctic Surveyâs report of a vast ice berg on the verge of breaking off the Wilkins Ice Shelf. Hereâs more on whatâs happening at the South Pole from NASAâs recent briefing on polar sea ice.

Although the Arctic and Antarctic are both at the Earthâs poles, theyâre not mirror images of each other. There are some fundamental differences between them. Antarctica is a land mass surrounded by an ocean, while the Arctic is basically an ocean surrounded by land.

Unlike the Arctic, the Antarctic typically has little perennial sea ice. There are two main reasons:

Because there are no surrounding continents, Antarctic sea ice can float northward into warmer waters where it melts.
Because itâs at a lower latitude, Antarctic sea ice receives more direct sunlight and heat in summer.

Almost all the sea ice that forms during the winter melts during the summer.

Â Â Click to view Windows Media Viewer streaming video.

Also unlike the Arctic, which is one of the fastest-warming places on Earth, surface measurements and satellite data in Antarctica havenât revealed overall trends in temperature or sea ice area.

Warming and sea ice loss in some areas -- notably the Antarctic Peninsula, where the iceberg is breaking from Wilkins Ice Shelf -- have been balanced by little temperature change or even cooling and sea ice gain in other areas.

Still, that doesnât prove thereâs no warming trend in Antarctica. Satellite data has only been available since the 1970s. Earlier observations from whaling ships suggest that there was a greater sea ice area before satellite observations were available.

If Antarctica isnât warming -- or if itâs warming at a slower rate -- it may be due to the atmospheric vortex circulation that surrounds it (from being a land mass centered at a pole and surrounded by ocean). This tends to hold in cold air. But thatâs just one hypothesis that scientists are exploring.

Is ZAP all PR, no car?

Hank Green — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:39:40 PDT

Wired magazine published an absolutely scathing denouncement of ZAP electric car company in the most recent issue. The feature article is a long and in-depth review of what the EV manufacturer has promised and what it has actually delivered.

Auto manufacturing has pretty much the highest barrier to entry of any industry (aside from maybe making nuclear submarines). And attempting to take the world by storm with all-new technology while struggling with limited resources is probably even more difficult.

Among ZAP's eight-car lineup of heavily promoted vehicles, only two have actually been created. Though that doesn't stop it from charging dealers to create.

It seems that ZAP's business model is mostly based on giving the founders stock, printing out press releases, waiting for the stock to rise to a couple of dollars, and then selling the stock. The company's board of directors is controlled by the owners, and they have made a practice of paying for all of their expenses (right down to janitors) with stock in the company.

ZAP has managed to create a couple of products, including a three-wheeled, low-power car,called the Zebra and a truck built on the same platform.

You don't have to run out and buy a copy of Wired -- the full article is now online.

Win a 'green house' and a big SUV

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:14:05 PDT

Win a "green house" that comes with a big SUV.

How's that again? The green blogs are in an amused and outraged tizzy about a new contest from the folks at HGTV. In conjunction with the presentation of its annual green home, the network is holding a sweepstakes that you can enter to win the Hilton Head, South Carolina house, completely furnished with lots of eco-friendly goodies.

So far, so good. But guess what else comes in the prize package: an SUV. Now to be fair, the SUV in question is the GMC Yukon Hybrid, which, according to GMC, "offers a 50% improvement in city fuel economy with the performance, capability and comfort of a full-size SUV."

OK, but the mileage is still only an estimated 21 mpg city/22 mpg highway, and that just seems uncool in conjunction with a contest that's promoting green living.

What's better are the appliances inside the house, such as the Kenmore HE5t Steam Washer, which uses 73 percent less water and 77 percent less energy than typical washers. That's a green prize worth winning.

Win a 'green house' and a big SUV

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:14:03 PDT

Win a "green house" that comes with a big SUV.

OK, but the mileage is still only an estimated 21 mpg city/22 mpg highway, and that just seems uncool in conjunction with a contest that's promoting green living.

The EPA can help you get greener

Don Willmott , Forecast Earth Correspondent — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:37:08 PDT

If you've made any attempt at all to go green at home then you've probably come across the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star site, an indispensible resource for anyone making smart shopping decisions for household appliances and learning how to use them the right way.

It's good to know there's at least one government agency that's really on the green bandwagon, even if some of its attempts fall flat. GreenDaily hates the EPA's new green site designed specifically for teens, calling it badly designed, "painfully boring," "unfinished," and "poorly thought out."

As for the games that kids can play at the site, they're "dull" and "good for a five-year old... but definitely not a teenager." Oh, well. Maybe you should show it to your teen anyway.

Still, the EPA is trying. Its site has a great climate change section that includes 30 steps you can take to live a greener life at home. Sure, we'd all like to see the government do better, but at least it's doing something, and for that I'm at least a little bit grateful.

Escape from the suburban fringe

Trystan L. Bass — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 13:22:30 PST

The subprime-mortgage crisis has hit suburbia bad. Is this the straw that breaks the back of McMansions and unwalkable cities?

In the March 2008 issue of The Atlantic, Christopher B. Leinberger suggests that towns filled with identical houses and clipped green lawns may soon be a thing of the past.

He writes: "The pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue." Cities offer the ability to walk to shopping, jobs, and entertainment. With rising gas prices, this is a big advantage.

The article also points out: "If New York City were its own state, it would be the most energy-efficient state in the union." A large part of this is due to less reliance on cars.

While not everyone wants to walk or take the bus, clearly some folks want the choice. Suburbs don't offer these options, while urban landscapes do.

Proof that the Internet saves energy

Hank Green — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:17:23 PST

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy rocks. It has put numbers to what I've long suspected to be true: computers save tons of energy, while using less energy than the lightbulb that lights the workstation. And now we know how much.

The council's new study focused on a metric called "energy intensity." Basically, that's the amount of energy necessary to produce a dollar of economic output.

The first major drop in energy intensity occured after the oil crisis in the 1970s. That was a cost-based drop, not generally the ideal.

Then, after OPEC lost its stranglehold, energy intensity stopped dropping because energy was once again cheap. But then, starting in the late 1990s, energy intensity began to drop significantly again. This drop was unrelated to energy costs and was, in fact, a technologically spurred change.

Computers were helping us become more efficient -- first, by using their power to design more efficient practices. Second, and much more significantly, computers allowed people and things to travel digitally, instead of physically.

Telecommuting a couple days per week, reading news online, emails, document downloads, and instant messages all let people and things travel while consuming much smaller amounts of energy. What's more, online shopping has reduced trips to retail stores, resulting in significant energy savings.

Energy intensity has continued to drop more than 2% every year since the Internet first appeared. Without the Internet, the paper's authors suggest that we would need one billion more barrels per oil per year!

Indeed, ever kilowatt/hour we spend on the Internet looks to have saved about 10 kilowatt/hours of energy.

Not that I need another reason to spend time online...

Via CSMonitor

Are newspapers greener than websites?

Hank Green — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 15:32:02 PST

An interesting little controversy has popped up in the last few weeks.

It all started with Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired and writer of The Long Tail, telling the world that the hard copy of his magazine is greener than the online version.

Now, not to be too much of a skeptic, but the hard copy of Wired obviously makes more money than the online version, so it's not surprising that Anderson would promote it.

But leaving that aside, his logic goes like this: magazines and newspapers sequester carbon!

Which, in a manner of speaking, they do. Trees take carbon dioxide out of the air, then the paper industry processes it into paper, and then we lock that carbon away in landfills.

So it makes perfect sense until you add in the clear-cutting of Canadian forests, toxic chemicals used to process and bleach the paper, and all of the fossil fuels necessary to power the processing and distribute the paper where it needs to go.

Now a study (PDF) has been released that actually gives numbers to Anderson's argument. At first glance, it looks a bit damning. Even taking into account all of the energy used to process and distribute paper, the numbers seem to show that newspapers produce less carbon than websites by simple virtue of not needing power during viewing.

Unfortunately the Swedish study still does not take into account the environmental effects of clear-cutting forests or releasing toxins in bleaching and recycling paper, only the carbon effects.

What's worse, they seem to have some ridiculous numbers on the energy use of home computers. How about 160 watts for your computer and 120 watts for your screen?

I don't know about you, but I have a pretty high-end system that pulls about 100 watts total, including peripherals and the screen. Those numbers plummet further if you're reading on a laptop or PDA, as many now are.

Maybe the study was done back when people will still using CRT monitors.

In any case, I think this points to a troubling trend in environmental accounting. The focus on carbon and global warming has made everything oh-so-simple to calculate. As long as we don't worry about any of those old, passe elements of environmentalism (toxic pollution, habitat loss, etc.), then we can see the answers clear as day.

Unfortunately, that's not how the Earth works. Global warming isn't the only environmental problem we face, and I'm tired of people who pretend like it is.

One thing remains clear, using electrons only gets cleaner as our world adopts renewables and computers and servers become more efficient. The logging industry, it seems, isn't planning on stopping the clear-cutting any time soon.

Spotted at Slate

GreenOptions: a blog network for everyone

Hank Green — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:10:57 PST

You may not have noticed, but I certainly have, that the environmental blogosphere is growing extremely quickly. What was a couple dozen blogs just last year, has quickly become a couple thousand.

This is, of course, fantastic. The more people we have covering these stories, the better situated the whole world will be to understand the issues that we face and tackle them with greatest efficacy.

While EcoGeek is never going to be able to highlight every one of those blogs, we are happy to have expanded ourselves into a blog network and to have good company in the environmental space.

GreenOptions, like EcoGeek, was once an independent blog, and has branched into a network along with us, already providing over a dozen blogs under its umbrella.

They're covering everything from global news to arts and crafts. And, yes, they have an ecogeeky offering as well.

Blog networks allow writers to focus on writing, while marketing, technical development, and monetization can be handled by a team that would be completely unsupportable by individual blogs.

GreenOptions has done a wonderful job of expanding itself into a huge variety of niches.

As of right now, I think that my favorite GreenOptions blogs remain Green Building Elements and SustainaBlog, but there are gems throughout the network. You can find all of their blogs in their top bar, which lives on every page in their network.

Green vices

Trystan L. Bass — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:43:01 PST

Who says environmentalists are a dull bunch? We aren't all boring leftists who demand that you give up the good things in life just to save the planet. Heck no.

In fact, our pals at Grist.org have exposed the secret behind real green fun: earth-friendly sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll.

Yep, you can get vegan condoms for your big date or buy non-toxic love toys. Cop a buzz from organic beer, wine, and spirits. Groove to hot tunes from digital music by green-leaning artists, or even make music yourself on a sustainable-wood guitar.

Proof that you can still party without leaving a huge carbon footprint.

Via Grist.org

Bon green appetit

Trystan L. Bass — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:26:44 PST

Foodies and tree-huggers can be friends, according to the February 2008 issue of Bon Appetit magazine. The glossy gourmet rag has long been fond of fresh, seasonal treats, but this month the editors really get into local, sustainable, and organic ingredients.

The online version adds some tempting recipes. New York chef and renowned locavore Dan Barber cooks up a pile of veggies including cauliflower steaks and creamy rice with parsnip puree.

Get tips and tricks for throwing a fabulously eco-friendly dinner party. See how you can be a carnivore while still treading lightly on the planet. Don't miss the handy guide to buying winter vegetables too.

Read up on the best of the year

Trystan L. Bass — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 12:44:37 PST

The independent media source AlterNet has published its list of the top 10 best environment stories of 2007, and this insightful collection is worth checking out.

With articles from Grist, Mother Jones, and AlterNet's own host of tough reporters, the list covers a range of green issues, some of which were downplayed by more mainstream sources.

You Call Yourself a Progressive -- But You Still Eat Meat? takes a hard look at how an animal-based diet is harming our environment. Top 100 Ways Global Warming Will Change Your Life points out that many types of wine, salmon, even baseball bats will be gone if climate change continues.

But it's not a bad news. Do You Live in One of the World's 15 Greenest Cities? celebrates the pleasures of Portland, Oregon, and Copenhagen, Denmark, because of their commitments to greener spaces. Austin, Texas, also comes in at #15 for solar manufacturing and parkland, while Chicgao, Illinois, gets props as a runner-up for eco-friendly buildings.

Some cool tools and links

Sheryl Canter — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 09:40:58 PST

This post is by Sheryl Canter, and Online Writer and Editorial Manager at Environmental Defense.

Sex and the Socket - Hilarious video on why CFLs are better. View below, or click link for hi-res version.

EPA Power Profiler -- Most carbon footprint calculators, including ours, rely on averages to estimate your carbon footprint. But you can get a more accurate picture if you know how your power company generates electricity -- coal? hydro? nuclear?

The Power Profiler can tell you; just enter your zip code. If there's more than one power company in your area, it can help you choose between them.

Divorce Harms the Environment -- Researchers at Michigan State University have discovered the obvious: Living separately not only costs more, it puts more stress on the environment. People living separately take up more space, and use up more energy and water. Love really is the answer to everything.

Kangaroo Flatulence -- People had fun talking about farting this week, but really it's more about burping. Farm animals like cows and sheep belch out methane gas -- a significant contributor to global warming -- as a natural part of ruminant digestion.

But kangaroo flatulence contains no methane, thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs. Scientists are working on isolating the bacteria so it can be transferred to cattle and sheep.

Search engines offer insight into green

Hank Green — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 15:35:27 PST

I just got an email from Jessica Waight of Outcast (Yahoo!'s ad platform) showing me a bit of search data from Yahoo!. The email was titled "the year of green searches." I'm not sure about that, but I do like the trend.

Topping off the list was "recycling," which somehow beat out "global warming." My guess is that most people searching for recycling are actually hoping to find information on their local programs...which is more appealing to people than just doing research on global warming.

But a fascinating third place goes to the world "freecycle," which will lead you to freecycle.org, a website that lets you connect with nearby people to give away stuff you have cluttering your basement (a lady just picked up an aquarium from me yesterday.)

Freecycle has active communities all over the world now, and if I can get free sweaters in Montana in the winter, you city dwellers shouldn't have any problems reducing your purchases and increasing your freecycling.

Way to go, freecycle!

Other top eco-searches included Earth, pollution, Al Gore, Environmental Protection Agency, Live Earth, hybrid cars, and solar energy. Hooray for some green technologies making the list there at the end!

The Internet will save billions of tons of carbon

Hank Green — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:11:13 PST

I love the Internet, no doubt about that. And I love the Earth too. Using the Internet to help the Earth is why I started EcoGeek.

But it turns out that the Internet is doing a lot more than just helping get the word out about environmental problems and solutions. It is, itself, an environmental solution.

A new report from the American Consumer Institute has calculated the current and future effects that broadband Internet will have on our carbon emissions.

The numbers are staggering.

In the next 10 years, ACI reports that the world will save roughly 1 billion tons of carbon by operating on the Internet.

The trends break down like this:

E-commerce will reduce emissions by 200 million tons.
Telecommuting will prevent 250 tons of carbon emissions from reduced driving, 30 million tons from reduced office construction and 300 million tons of energy savings.
Teleconferencing could prevent 200 million tons of carbon emissions (if it replaces 10% of face-to-face meetings).
Shifting newspaper from print to digital could save 60 million tons of carbon.
Digitally shipping other goods, such as music, movies and books would also contribute.

Rock on, Internet! Well done. Read the full report here (PDF).

The Canary Project

Molly McCall — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:36:10 PDT

You don't have to see "An Inconvenient Truth" to know that there's a new kind of canary in the coal mine,in the form of Austria's desiccated glaciers or Costa Rica's enervated cloud forests.

At numerous places around the globe, the Earth is melting, drowning, drying up, or increasingly battered.

Since 2005, The Canary Project has dedicated itself to capturing large-scale photographic evidence of locations in the grip of such dramatic climate change.

In some cases, the landscape's physical grandeur belies its desperation. In other cases, such as Belize's coral reefs, the underwater world seems so clearly, and unnervingly, diminished, it looks almost dry.

The project doesn't restrict itself to nature's far fringes or deeply submerged realms, either. New Orleans and Venice, perhaps the most canary-like of all the world's great cities, figure prominently here.

Find the original review for this siteâand other reviews of the Web's coolest offeringsâon Yahoo! Picks.

Blogs

Blogger exposes fake global warming skeptics

Carectomy week in review

Friedman is back and fighting for solar

Trash-talk radio

Coal industry admits it's dirty

News from the Antarctic

Is ZAP all PR, no car?

Win a 'green house' and a big SUV

Win a 'green house' and a big SUV

The EPA can help you get greener

Escape from the suburban fringe

Proof that the Internet saves energy

Are newspapers greener than websites?

GreenOptions: a blog network for everyone

Green vices

Bon green appetit

Read up on the best of the year

Top 10 global warming science stories of 2007

Some cool tools and links

Search engines offer insight into green

The Internet will save billions of tons of carbon

The Canary Project