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Showing posts with label Ecology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ecology. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Eco-Solutions
The energy challenge certainly ranks at the top of the world’s agenda. What makes it particularly difficult to deal with is that it is created by two forces. Though not usually put in these terms, one is globalization--and, in particular--the success of globalization. High growth rates, the emergence of large middle classes in countries like China and India, the continuing integration of the global economy--all this is powered by energy. To keep it going requires energy, lots of it. continue...
For Job Market, Green Means Growth
In 1999, as the dot-com boom reached new heights, environmental journalist Joel Makower launched an online publication covering business and environmental interests: two areas he believed would become more connected.
Smart bet. The tech bubble burst, but Makower's publication, GreenBiz.com, boomed. Providing news and analysis, it's the flagship publication for Greener World Media, a for-profit company he created last year with associate Pete May. "As the greening of business expands, it is filtering into every aspect of business," from procurement to marketing to human resources, says Makower. continue...
Smart bet. The tech bubble burst, but Makower's publication, GreenBiz.com, boomed. Providing news and analysis, it's the flagship publication for Greener World Media, a for-profit company he created last year with associate Pete May. "As the greening of business expands, it is filtering into every aspect of business," from procurement to marketing to human resources, says Makower. continue...
BP's Biotech Bet
The energy giant has become the biggest investor in some of the most out-there genetics research.
Oil companies are better known for burning fossil fuels than splicing genes. But BP, the energy giant formerly known as British Petroleum, has made leading-edge technologies like custom engineered bacteria a linchpin of its strategy to face up to global warming.
In the process, germs would be souped up to make ethanol, biobutanol or other fuels from plants like corn. Scientists would embed the genomes of bacteria with genes taken from termites, sheep guts or microbes that live on your lawn. The very plants they consumed would also be bioengineered, and even more re-engineered bacteria might produce gasoline or similar fuels directly. continue...
Oil companies are better known for burning fossil fuels than splicing genes. But BP, the energy giant formerly known as British Petroleum, has made leading-edge technologies like custom engineered bacteria a linchpin of its strategy to face up to global warming.
In the process, germs would be souped up to make ethanol, biobutanol or other fuels from plants like corn. Scientists would embed the genomes of bacteria with genes taken from termites, sheep guts or microbes that live on your lawn. The very plants they consumed would also be bioengineered, and even more re-engineered bacteria might produce gasoline or similar fuels directly. continue...
The World's Most Nuclear Nations
The United States may have the most generating power in the world, but as it deliberates how to make nuclear power a bigger part of the country's energy future, Eastern Europe and Asia are racing ahead.
Of the 30 plants being built worldwide, seven are in Russia, six in India, four in China and two in Ukraine--home to a place called Chernobyl. Bulgaria, Romania, Pakistan and Iran also have new reactors in the works. continue...
Of the 30 plants being built worldwide, seven are in Russia, six in India, four in China and two in Ukraine--home to a place called Chernobyl. Bulgaria, Romania, Pakistan and Iran also have new reactors in the works. continue...
Monday, July 2, 2007
Small Talk: Biofuel investors lose out as board plays blame game
By Andrew Dewson
Published: 02 July 2007
The demise of Biofuels Corporation might have been widely predicted but it highlights the fact that even if an industry has the potential to start laying golden eggs, you've still got to find a capable midwife. continue...
Published: 02 July 2007
The demise of Biofuels Corporation might have been widely predicted but it highlights the fact that even if an industry has the potential to start laying golden eggs, you've still got to find a capable midwife. continue...
Monday, May 14, 2007
Julia Stephenson: The Green Goddess
'We stayed in the honeymoon suite.The stains! I bet Al Gore doesn't have to put up with this sort of malarkey' Published: 03 May 2007
Recently I've had a spate of invitations to speak at various eco gatherings. Public speaking is an alarming prospect, but in the spirit that if it doesn't kill you it'll make you stronger, I've been saying yes to them all. Besides, nothing will ever be as terrifying as throwing myself off the top of a telegraph post strapped to a safety harness on a course with Tony Robbins, the uber life-coach. People think fire walking is scary, but that's just a question of running fast. Anyway I digress. continue...
Recently I've had a spate of invitations to speak at various eco gatherings. Public speaking is an alarming prospect, but in the spirit that if it doesn't kill you it'll make you stronger, I've been saying yes to them all. Besides, nothing will ever be as terrifying as throwing myself off the top of a telegraph post strapped to a safety harness on a course with Tony Robbins, the uber life-coach. People think fire walking is scary, but that's just a question of running fast. Anyway I digress. continue...
The wild bunch: Britain's eco entrepreneurs
Fields, woods and beaches are a rich source of income for the growing number of businesses turning a living from nature's harvest. Sanjida O Connell meets Britain's eco entrepreneurs
Published: 10 May 2007
This year, I made my best sloe gin. It wasn't just that 2006 was unseasonally warm and the hedgerows were laden with blossom, so consequently the blackthorn were bowed down with the weight of their glaucous blue-black fruit by early autumn. It was more that when I got home I discovered I had no gin. continue...
Published: 10 May 2007
This year, I made my best sloe gin. It wasn't just that 2006 was unseasonally warm and the hedgerows were laden with blossom, so consequently the blackthorn were bowed down with the weight of their glaucous blue-black fruit by early autumn. It was more that when I got home I discovered I had no gin. continue...
EU boycotts 'provocative' Israeli anniversary party
By Eric Silver in Jerusalem
Published: 14 May 2007
Ambassadors from European Union states are to boycott celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Israel's conquest of Arab East Jerusalem this week - in the opening shot of what promises to be a challenging summer for Israeli diplomacy.
The United States ambassador, Richard Jones, is also expected to join the Europeans in snubbing the celebrations .
What Israelis commemorate as the "reunification" of their historic Jewish capital is seen by most of the international community, not to mention the Palestinians, as a unilateral attempt to pre-empt a key issue in any peaceful solution. One-third of the city's 725,000 residents are Palestinians, who have opted to reject offers of Israeli citizenship. Along with most other countries, the Europeans keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian parliament, yesterday welcomed the European boycott as a blow for international law and peace. "The Israelis," she said, "cannot get away with creating facts on the ground and then forcing everybody to fall in line". continue...
Published: 14 May 2007
Ambassadors from European Union states are to boycott celebrations of the 40th anniversary of Israel's conquest of Arab East Jerusalem this week - in the opening shot of what promises to be a challenging summer for Israeli diplomacy.
The United States ambassador, Richard Jones, is also expected to join the Europeans in snubbing the celebrations .
What Israelis commemorate as the "reunification" of their historic Jewish capital is seen by most of the international community, not to mention the Palestinians, as a unilateral attempt to pre-empt a key issue in any peaceful solution. One-third of the city's 725,000 residents are Palestinians, who have opted to reject offers of Israeli citizenship. Along with most other countries, the Europeans keep their embassies in Tel Aviv.
Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian parliament, yesterday welcomed the European boycott as a blow for international law and peace. "The Israelis," she said, "cannot get away with creating facts on the ground and then forcing everybody to fall in line". continue...
Friends dis-united: The social scandal that tore Manhattan apart
Flip, irreverent and bitchy as hell, the internet sensation Socialite Rank caused a frenzy among Manhattan's hip, beautiful and obscenely wealthy. The anonymous website that put party girls in their places was loved - and feared - by the bright young things it fed on. But then the mystery bloggers went a posting too far...
Isaiah Wilner reports
Published: 14 May 2007
It was the perfect letter - if the goal was to blow up New York society. A bombshell of preening and aspiration, it set off a war between an ageing princess and the girl who threatened to snatch her crown.
There was just one catch: according to a complaint filed last week with the Manhattan district attorney's office, the letter was a fake.
The publisher of the letter was socialiterank.com, a mysterious website that appeared on 24 April, 2006, declaring itself unofficial judge, jury and executioner of 10021 - the postcode of upper Park Avenue and Fifth, and the home of many young women who appear on the charity-ball circuit. Each fortnight, the site released a "Social Elite Power Ranking", scoring the women on their style, public appearances and publicity efforts. The perennial No 1 girl was Tinsley Mortimer, a Virginia rug salesman's daughter who'd married into New York society. continue...
Isaiah Wilner reports
Published: 14 May 2007
It was the perfect letter - if the goal was to blow up New York society. A bombshell of preening and aspiration, it set off a war between an ageing princess and the girl who threatened to snatch her crown.
There was just one catch: according to a complaint filed last week with the Manhattan district attorney's office, the letter was a fake.
The publisher of the letter was socialiterank.com, a mysterious website that appeared on 24 April, 2006, declaring itself unofficial judge, jury and executioner of 10021 - the postcode of upper Park Avenue and Fifth, and the home of many young women who appear on the charity-ball circuit. Each fortnight, the site released a "Social Elite Power Ranking", scoring the women on their style, public appearances and publicity efforts. The perennial No 1 girl was Tinsley Mortimer, a Virginia rug salesman's daughter who'd married into New York society. continue...
Health concerns over mobile phone masts prompt review
'IoS' report on the dangers of electronic smog from wireless technology examined by ministers
By Marie Woolf and Geoffrey Lean
Published: 13 May 2007
Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases because of "electronic smog".
They will review the exceptionally favourable rules that allow mobile phone companies to escape normal planning regulations and stop councils from considering the effects of the masts on health, even when they are sited near homes and schools. continue...
By Marie Woolf and Geoffrey Lean
Published: 13 May 2007
Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases because of "electronic smog".
They will review the exceptionally favourable rules that allow mobile phone companies to escape normal planning regulations and stop councils from considering the effects of the masts on health, even when they are sited near homes and schools. continue...
Friday, May 11, 2007
Corn-based ethanol: the biggest greenwash ever?
Posted by Tom Philpott at 6:51 AM on 29 Mar 2007
It's hard to imagine what politicians and corporate chiefs are intending to do by crafting a corn-based ethanol boom, beyond rigging public policy (and raiding the public purse) to generate huge private profits.
But whatever their intentions, they're methodically creating environmental and social disasters -- while brazenly brandishing the "green" flag. continue...
It's hard to imagine what politicians and corporate chiefs are intending to do by crafting a corn-based ethanol boom, beyond rigging public policy (and raiding the public purse) to generate huge private profits.
But whatever their intentions, they're methodically creating environmental and social disasters -- while brazenly brandishing the "green" flag. continue...
On the peculiar American habit of demonizing food
On the peculiar American habit of demonizing food
| 10 May 2007
Not long ago, a reader wrote in with an interesting response to one of my many articles condemning industrially grown corn.
Yes, you can buy it! Photo: iStockphoto
I can see why she might be confused. Even as U.S. farmers prepare for what will almost certainly be the largest concentrated corn harvest in world history, criticism has rained down like fertilizer on an Iowa corn patch. Michael Pollan placed corn at the center of what he called "our national eating disorder" in his best-selling Omnivore's Dilemma. I've personally joined the chorus tying corn to everything from the obesity epidemic to the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, and to the "biggest greenwash ever," ethanol. continue...
Speaking of fake 'butter' and industrial corn ...
Posted by Tom Philpott at 6:23 AM on 11 May 2007 
My latest Victual Reality column looks at how perfectly wonderful foods like corn and butter get twisted up by food-industry marketers and flavor engineers, confusing people and often sending them scurrying in search of dubious, unhealthy, artificial substitutes -- which the food industry is only too willing to provide.
As if on cue, out comes a New York Times piece on the horrors of microwave popcorn. Those unpleasant fumes that cloud the office when one of your co-workers pops a bag of Orville Redenbacher into the microwave? They really are noxious. continue...
My latest Victual Reality column looks at how perfectly wonderful foods like corn and butter get twisted up by food-industry marketers and flavor engineers, confusing people and often sending them scurrying in search of dubious, unhealthy, artificial substitutes -- which the food industry is only too willing to provide.
As if on cue, out comes a New York Times piece on the horrors of microwave popcorn. Those unpleasant fumes that cloud the office when one of your co-workers pops a bag of Orville Redenbacher into the microwave? They really are noxious. continue...
Shake, rattle, ride: What effect does a white-knuckle ride have on your body?
A roller-coaster ride may be the ultimate cheap thrill - but what does it do to your body? Guy Adams climbs aboard Britain's latest white-knuckle ride to find out.
Published: 09 May 2007
It takes a shade over 30 seconds to complete a journey on Infusion, a new ride that gives Blackpool Pleasure Beach the distinction of owning "the world's first suspended looping roller-coaster running entirely over water". continue...
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