News & commentary on sustainability, activism, urban planning, politics, and our world.
When times are tough, the tough plant victory gardens! [Digging a Victory Garden. Creative Commons photo by Tavis Ford] Last Thursday, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack began turning a stretch of pavement at the Department of Agriculture into a garden. They dedicated the land on the 200th anniversary of the USDA founder’s birth: Abraham Lincoln. [...]
According to the Hanoi-based Prosperity Initiative, a shift toward more bamboo production by small scale farmers in Vietnam could bring 750,000 people out of poverty by 2020. It could also help circumvent worldwide demand for timber as a building material. Due to its many benefits, bamboo has been touted as an environmental miracle crop. It’s [...]
The Environment Minister for the Australian territory Christmas Island, Peter Garrett, has publicly said the local pipistrelle bat has decreased in numbers so much that it will likely go extinct. The population has been in a rapid decline for the last fourteen years. Yet the reasons for the serious drop-off are still not clear.
Leading economists – including Nicholas Stern – call for immediate $400bn global fund to generate clean power, insulate homes and create jobs. Governments across the world must commit to hundreds of billions of pounds in green investments within months in a combined attack on the global economic crisis and global warming, according to leading economists [...]
Google wants to help folks use less power by empowering them with real time information about their energy usage. [Remix of a Creative Commons photo by John Wilson] There’s a famous quote from Lord Kelvin: “If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” When it comes to lowering your energy consumption, Google says, “You [...]
