From the monthly archives: September 2008
Unless he or she is “just not that into you,” the mood has been set. Now it’s just all about where and when.
Your bed will make all the difference; a naked romp in a verdant meadow isn’t your only green option. Invest in an organic comforter set. Don’t worry—if you are living off a [...]
On Thursday, Charlotte based utility company Duke Energy unveiled plans for a pilot program that will test whether or not 850 North Carolina homes can collectively produce the energy of a small solar power plant. While the panels will only be placed on 850 roofs, it is estimated that they will actually [...]
If soaring household freezer sales are any indication, then the answer is yes.
While this might sound strange, remember that next to plasma televisions and air conditioning, refrigerators and freezers are the biggest energy-cows in American homes. Even Energy Star certified deep freezers swallow around
Citing two years of low precipitation and barren water reserves, California officials have announced a plan to purchase water from Sacramento Valley farmers and sell it to Southern state agencies – a program that’s been dormant in the Golden state for 17 years. The fear of yet another drought this year is pushing the [...]
Finally, something both parties can agree on. We need to integrate green living into every aspect of our lives: a single stinky compost heap isn’t enough (it may also be a mood-killer). They may say that “politics makes for strange bedfellows,” but this three-part miniseries will teach you how to get over your differences [...]
I did not drive at all on Monday.
If you live in New York City, London, Paris, or on Mackinac Island, and you either have access to a great subway system or cars are banned from your small island, going for 24 hours without driving is not a big deal. But here in Chicagoland, despite a [...]
The Phoenix Suns NBA basketball team has announced that they will be installing 1,125 solar panels on their parking garage to help power their arena. The clean energy project will cost about $1.5 million and will reportedly not increase ticket prices for fans. The 194 kilowatt solar power system will [...]
One of my passions in life is climate science and research, and I am a strong defender of the science proving anthropogenic global warming. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has long attempted to bring to the forefront the scientific facts about humanities effects on the environment. Naturally, there have been those [...]
Another whopping chunk of ice has broken free from Ellesmere Island in Canada’s northern Arctic. This Markham Ice Shelf, just one of five remaining shelves in the Canadian Arctic region, split away sometime in August. The shelf is gianormous. It’s 19-square miles, around the size of Manhattan, and now adrift in the Arctic [...]
With Alaska in the political spotlight, and with that spotlight showcasing someone with a less-than-stellar record when it comes to the environment, reading about sustainable life in Alaska, in this case, the rural Arctic, might just be a blast of cold, last frontier air. Seth Kantner’s second book,
Why is it so easy to be green in Canada?
I spent the first night of my summer vacation in a bed-and-breakfast in Toronto with my family. (Yes, I blogged while on vacation. That’s what happens when free wireless is available everywhere and you have obsessive-compulsive disorder.) We drove from Chicago in our Toyota [...]
A new study in the journal BMC Ecology indicates that coastal wolves in British Columbia switch to eating salmon in the fall as a primary food source, rather than deer. Scientists arrived at this conclusion after analyzing wolf poop they collected over a four year span.
Among the thousands of stools that [...]
According to one study released last week, your answer doesn’t matter much: even if you walk to the burger joint, your food will have its own set of wheels—and an exhaust pipe.
While it’s now common knowledge that activities like driving conventional cars cause global warming, the [...]
For the first time in recorded human history, the Arctic has become an island to itself, completely separate from the landmasses that the Arctic ice normally stretches out onto. This distressingly historic event has been captured by NASA satellites, depicting both the Northwest and Northeast passages as ice free.
For the past [...]
