Mar 10 2010

Long Wait for the Bus? Budget Cuts Could Be the Reason

good public transportation cuts photo Image credit: Good Times are tough for everyone—including municipal governments. One are that has suffered from diminished budgets is public transport. Across the country, transit workers are losing their jobs, making it that much harder to maintain the systems and schedules. Though there are some signs of economic recovery, more public transit jobs are expected to be lost before things get better....Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

The Port of NY/NJ Will Replace Dirty Old Diesel Trucks to Slash Air Pollution

nj containers in port photo Photo: Public domain Other Truck Fleets, Pay Attention Did you know that replacing a pre-1994 diesel truck (or at least the engine) with a 2004-2006 model could cut soot pollution by about 2/3, and reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions by more than half? Post 2007 diesel trucks are even better, with a reduction of soot particles by about 95% and NOx by at least 3/4. That's a pretty big difference (though it doesn't solve CO2 emissions), and it esp...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

There Could Be Libraries For Everything

trinity-college.jpg Trinity College, Dublin TreeHugger loves Product Service Systems, where you borrow and share instead of own. They are also called libraries, and Kris De Decker of No-Tech Magazine points us to a lovely post by Brian Kaller, a former newspaper reporter now living in rural Ireland. He loves his local library, but more importantly, writes about the principle beh...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

Today on Planet 100: China Signs Copenhagen Accord (Video)

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Mar 10 2010

Canada’s Largest Supermarket Chain to Install Solar Panels on 100+ Stores in Ontario

loblaws supermarket photo Photo: Google Maps Loblaw Couldn't Resist Ontario's Generous Feed-in Tariff? Loblaw is announcing today that it will put solar panels on the roof of 4 supermarkets in a pilot program, with the ultimate goal of installing solar arrays on more than 100 stores in Ontario. This is not surprising considering how insanely generous the feed-in tariffs for solar power are in the province (between 53.9 and 80.2 ยข/kWh, with 20-year contracts). I just hope that measures have been taken to avoid repeating what happened in S...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

Freakonomics Watch: “The Primitive Food Movement”

freakonomics-watch The first Freakonomics book was a lot of fun; the second less so, as it sort of devolved into "if the scientific consensus and/or coast-hugging liberal elite are for it, we are against it" type of thing. Hence Freakonomics Watch; or perhaps it should be called James McWilliams Watch, since he appears to be the contributor to their blog with the most attitude about anything green. Now he is on about The Persistence of the Primitive Food Movement, where "Bicycles are losing gears, runners are afoot in shoes designed to create a barefoot sensation (some are even running barefoot), and m...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

Hard Rocker Joins Fight for His Homeland’s Forests

armenia bike tour teghut forest photo Cyclists assemble in Yerevan, Armenia, for a bike tour to Teghut Forest. Photo by Ruzanna Hovasapyan via ride-earth on Flickr. Armenian environmental activists fighting plans to build a copper mine in an endangered forest got a boost recently when former System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian, surely the world's most famous Armenian-American rock star, sent a me...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

All-Black Penguin Discovered, Seems Underdressed

all-black penguin photo Photo via Andrew Evans of the National Geographic King Penguins are notorious for their prim, tuxedoed appearance--but a recently discovered all-black penguin seems unafraid to defy convention. In what has been described as a "one in a zillion kind of mutation," biologists say that the animal has lost control of it's Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

Call for Entries: The 2010 James Dyson Award

dyson award entries photo
Designers, engineers, inventors, and crafty gadgeteers, it's time to get the brain juices percolating and submit for the 2010 James Dyson Award. The competition is put up by the James Dyson Foundation, founded by the British inventor responsible for the now-iconic Dyson vacuum cleaners, the Airblade hand dryer, Air Multip...Read the full story on TreeHugger

Mar 10 2010

Gary Lauder on the Social and Environmental Impact of Stop Signs and Roundabouts (Video)

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