Depave.org: Giving Unnecessary Paved Spaces Back to Nature

It’s no secret that paved surfaces aren’t great for the earth. They increase pollution runoff, reflect sunlight and increasingly take over the beauty of the natural world. And yet, more and more of the world is paved with every day that passes. Imagine if instead, we had livable cities where people and wildlife coexist and thrive amidst clean air, clean water and an abundance of plants, trees and vegetation. That’s what Depave.org is hoping for, and they’re helping to remove unnecessary concrete and asphalt from the earth, one property at a time.

Depave.org, a project of Portland, Oregon nonprofit City Repair, provides instructions and inspiration for getting rid of unnecessary paved surfaces.  Their goal is to:

• Provide information, inspiration, and technical assistance to those wishing to remove concrete and asphalt
• Educate the public about the benefits of pavement removal
• Advocate to minimize and/or reduce the amount of impervious pavement in public construction and repair projects.
• Promote responsible and creative reuse and recycling of concrete and asphalt
• Provide an opportunity for greater connection with the natural world

The Depave.org website provides some great examples of what can be done with formerly lifeless slabs of concrete. Big pieces of useless land are transformed into gardens and enjoyable green spaces.

Of course, there’s the question of what should be done with all that broken up concrete and asphalt, called ‘urbanite’. Depave.org has an answer to that to, and some of the examples are stunning. Old concrete driveways are turned into retaining walls for raised garden beds and fire pits.

Check it out – perhaps you’ll get some inspiration to transform your own paved space into something beautiful and natural!

Link [Depave.org]

Floating House Inspired by Nature

Portland, Oregon-based architect Robert Oshatz created this beautiful, floating home for the Fennel family on the Willamette River. Oshatz is known for his curvaceous, swooping architecture and unique approach to design. Since active construction is prohibited on the Willamette, Oshatz had to construct the home off-site on the connected Columbia River and pull it by barge to its mooring. This unique home is kept afloat by locally sourced 80-foot Douglas fir logs, and the exterior design takes its cue from ocean waves.

I’ve always wanted to live on a houseboat. It seems like it would be so relaxing, enjoying the gentle sway of the houseboat as it’s rocked by waves. Sigh.

Link [Environmental Graffiti]

Man-Powered Ferris Wheel is Dangerously Green

Sometimes, low-tech is the best way to tackle a task, and sometimes it’s not. In this case, it may be really fun to watch, but Jesus, you’d have to pay me a lot of money to ride it: a man-powered ferris wheel. A group of about 5 men keep it going by jumping up on it and using their body weight to make it spin, one after the other.

Sure, it’s zero-emissions, but that thing is going awfully fast. And, safety inspectors here in the U.S. would take one look at that thing and condemn it. Watching the video, I was just waiting for one of those guys to get caught in the bars as the wheel turns. That would be painful.

Link [Environmental Graffiti] via [Really Natural]
Photo credit: Flickr user sourabhj via Environmental Graffiti

Pollution Haze in Asia Could Affect World Food Supply

Thick brown clouds of pollution hang in the sky from the Persian Gulf to Asia in what the U.N. is calling the newest threat to the global environment. The regional haze, made up of soot, particles and chemicals, contributes to glacial melting, reduces sunlight and helps create extreme weather conditions that impact agricultural production, giving it the power to threaten health and food supplies across the world.

From MSNBC:

The huge plumes have darkened 13 megacities in Asia — including Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok, Cairo, Mumbai and New Delhi — sharply “dimming” the amount of light by as much as 25 percent in some places.

Caused by the burning of fossil fuels, wood and plants, the brown clouds also play a significant role in exacerbating the effects of greenhouse gases in warming up the earth’s atmosphere, the report said.

“Imagine for a moment a 3-kilometer-thick band of soot, particles, a cocktail of chemicals that stretches from the Arabic Peninsula to Asia,” said Achim Steiner, U.N. undersecretary general and executive director of the U.N. environment program.

“All of this points to an even greater and urgent need to look at emissions across the planet because this is where the stories are linked in terms of greenhouse emissions and particle emissions and the impact that they’re having on our global climate,” he said.

Some of the particles in the atmospheric brown clouds, such as soot, absorb sunlight and heat the air. That has led to steady melting of the Himalayan glaciers, which are the source of most of the rivers in Asia. If they keep on melting at their current rate, the glaciers could shrink as much as 75 percent by 2050.

Scientists are stressing that this isn’t a regional problem – it’s a global one. The cloud masses can move across continents within three to four days, affecting weather and bringing health problems to other parts of the world.

With all of these warning signs, it would be pretty dumb of us not to take serious, immediate action on problems like this. We can only hope that the combination of major threats to the environment and the economic crisis will spur a green movement that will span the globe. That’s what we need to fight this – commitment and involvement from the entire world. Can it happen? I sure hope so.

Link [MSNBC]

Commercial Shipping Returning to the Eerie Canal

Commercial shipping is making a comeback in the Eerie Canal after decades of decline. Soaring gas prices have caused some companies to rethink sending goods via truck, turning instead to barges – and they’re not alone. More companies are beginning to look into it. So far this season, there have been 42 shipments up the canal – up from 15 last year. 42 shipments is still far from the numbers seen during the Eerie Canal’s heyday, when 33,241 shipments passed through the lock at Frankfurt, 54 miles east of Syracuse.

From The New York Times:

The canal still remains the most fuel-efficient way to ship goods between the East Coast and the upper Midwest. One gallon of diesel pulls one ton of cargo 59 miles by truck, 202 miles by train and 514 miles by canal barge, Ms. Mantello said. A single barge can carry 3,000 tons, enough to replace 100 trucks.

As the price of diesel climbed over $4 a gallon this summer — the national average is now about $3.31 a gallon — more shippers rediscovered the Erie Canal. On one trip in mid-October, the Margot motored down the canal at about seven knots, pushing a barge loaded with a giant green crane. The machine was being transported from Huger, S.C., to the Pinney Dock, operated by the Kinder Morgan Company in Ashtabula, Ohio.

“It really just came down to economics,” said Lee Demers, the dock’s manager. The other option was to move the crane through the St. Lawrence Seaway, adding more than 1,000 miles and greater fuel costs to the trip.

Wow, who knew barges were so green? If a single barge can replace 100 trucks, that’s really getting somewhere.  Of course, the environmental impacts of a huge increase of barges in the canal would have to be considered, but it’d still be a hell of a lot better than having all those trucks on the road. Interesting, how we’re returning to simpler ways of doing things in so many cases.

Link [The New York Times]

World Energy Outlook ‘Patently Unsustainable’

Grim news from the International Energy Agency this week. The organization’s annual World Energy Outlook reports that the earth simply can’t sustain current trends in energy supply and consumption, and that we’ve got to cut back, stat – but it won’t be easy.

Nobuo Tanaka, the IEA’s Executive Director, says rising imports of oil and gas from the increasingly concentrated production in a small number of countries puts us at even bigger risk of major disruptions. At the same time, our greenhouse gas emissions will continue to rise, putting the world on track for a global temperature increase of up to 6 degrees Celsius.

From The Daily Green:

If government policies don’t change, the world will spend $1 trillion on energy — much of it fossil fuels — and demand will grow 45% by 2030, a slightly slower rate of growth than was predicted last year because of the economic crisis. China and India would account for half the growth in world energy demand, and world cities would account for three-quarters of total demand.

Demand for oil would rise nearly 25% and will remain the world’s “main source of energy” for years to come, even under the most “optimistic” alternative scenarios. But it could come at an increasing cost, as supplies dwindle, oil supplies are nationalized, sources shift to non-traditional forms like oil shale, oil sands and deep-sea deposits, and political instability disrupts supply. “The era of cheap oil is over,” Tanaka said.

Renewable energy, even under current government policies, will become the second-biggest source of electricity sometime in the next few years.

Carbon dioxide emissions will increase 45% by 2030, if current trends continue unabated. Three-quarters of the increase will come from China, India and the Middle East. Reducing emissions to prevent a 3-degree (C) rise in temperature would take a $4.1 trillion investment ($17 per person per year) by 2030 primarily in energy efficiency so that vehicles, homes and appliances demand less energy. That investment would deliver fuel-cost savings of $7 trillion or more. But to prevent a 2-degree temperature increase, the cost would rise to $9.3 trillion, as the world invested heavily in non-polluting forms of energy, and the fuel-cost savings drops to just $5.8 trillion.

Scary. I don’t know about you, but things like this make me even more grateful that we’ve at least got President Elect Obama about to take charge, instead of another Republican who’d continue the status quo. This is no time to let oil industry buddies influence how we move forward on such a pressing problem.

Link [The Daily Green]

Obama Might Be Able to Overturn Bush’s Environmental Measures, After All

President Bush has been all too eager to use his last few months in office to get in as many favors for industry buddies as he can. He’s been pushing forth measures left and right that compromise our water quality, open national parks to destructive drilling and invade the habitats of endangered species. It’s been looking as though Bush’s final desperate moves would be difficult for Obama to quickly reverse, leading many conservationists to feel as if years of work have been lost. But, Congressional Democrats might just have found a way to roll back Bush’s midnight regulations, including ones that have already taken effect.

From Politico:

“Fortunately, [the White House] made a mistake,” said a top Senate Democratic aide.

Last May, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten instructed federal agency heads to make sure any new regulations were finalized by Nov. 1. The memo didn’t spell it out, but the thinking behind the directive was obvious. As Myron Ebell of the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute put it: “We’re not going to make the same mistakes the Clinton administration did.”

President Bill Clinton finalized regulations within 60 days of the 2001 inauguration, meaning Bush could come in and easily reverse them.

It could take Obama years to undo climate rules finalized more than 60 days before he takes office — the advantage the White House sought by getting them done by Nov. 1. But that strategy doesn’t account for the Congressional Review Act of 1996.

The law contains a clause determining that any regulation finalized within 60 legislative days of congressional adjournment is considered to have been legally finalized on the 15th legislative day of the new Congress, likely sometime in February. Congress then has 60 days to review it and reverse it with a joint resolution that can’t be filibustered in the Senate.

In other words, any regulation finalized in the last half-year of the Bush administration could be wiped out with a simple party-line vote in the Democrat-controlled Congress.

Despite the fact that the Congressional Review Act can’t be filibustered, Congress could still run into difficulty overturning Bush’s midnight regulations. But Jerry Brito, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University thinks the Obama administration can simply package all the Bush regulations it wants overturned into one large vehicle to be voted up or down. That will limit the special pleading that’s sure to come from the people who stood to benefit from Bush’s moves.

What a relief. There’s hope after all! Imagine the mess Obama would have had to wade through trying to fight these final desperate acts of Bush’s while also dealing with the economic mess. That’s probably what Bush was counting on. If Congress can overturn all f these business-first, environment-last regulations, it’ll be a huge victory for anyone who cares about the earth.

Link [Politico]

Souring Economy Snags Pickens’ Wind Energy Plan

Even billionaires are being affected by the current state of the economy, as evidenced by the fact that T. Boone Pickens has been forced to delay his massive wind energy project in Texas. A drop in natural gas prices and the tightening credit market have led Pickens to believe now isn’t the right time to get started on the project.

From CNN Money:

“With natural gas prices where they are, you can’t kick off a wind project, you’re not economical.” Pickens said Tuesday at a news conference in Arizona.

But Pickens, who has spent millions over the last few months promoting his “Pickens Plan” to wean the United States off foreign oil by switching to wind and natural gas, said natural gas and oil prices will rise again in less than a year, and characterized the setback as temporary.

A spokesman for Mesa Power, Pickens’ company that is building the Texas wind farm, laid the blame more on the credit markets.

“The capital markets are problematic for everyone and…may lead us to scale back a bit,” Jay Rosser, a spokesman for Mesa, said in a statement. “But we are still going forward with our wind business.”

Picken’s wind farm in Texas, known as the Pampa Wind Project, would have been the largest wind farm in the world, generating enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes. It’s not grinding to a complete halt, however – a spokesman for Pickens says turbines are still being purchased for the first phase of the project, which will generate 1,000 megawatts of power.  Pickens remains confident that once this economic downturn is over, wind energy will continue to rise in demand.

It’s frightening to see how many important projects are being put on hold right now, just when we need them the most. This economic crisis has the potential to stall crucial action on renewable energy and global warming, if we let it. Hopefully, many projects will still be moving forward.  Time will tell.

Link [CNN Money]
Photo credit: Zimbio

Bush Admin Wants To Open Thousands Of Acres Near National Parks For Drilling

In yet another act seemingly bent on cementing the Bush Administration’s reputation as worst ever on the environment, the Bureau of Land Management is giving even more land over to oil and gas companies for drilling. And this time, it will include tens of thousands of acres on or near the boundaries of three national parks.

From The New York Times:

National Park Service officials say that the decision to open lands close to Arches National Park and Dinosaur National Monument and within eyeshot of Canyonlands National Park was made without the kind of consultation that had previously been routine.

The inclusion of the new lease tracts angered environmental groups, which were already critical of the bureau’s original lease proposal, made public this fall, because they said it could lead to industrial activity in empty areas of the state, some prized for their sweeping vistas, like Desolation Canyon, and others for their ancient petroglyphs, like Nine Mile Canyon.

The bureau’s new maps, made public on Election Day, show not just those empty areas but 40 to 45 new areas where leasing will also be allowed.

Park managers are concerned about how the proximity of industrial activity might affect the air, water and wildlife within the parks. The Park Service was not given time to comment on the leases. The tracts will be sold at auction on December 19th, the final lease sale before Bush leaves office. If any leases are sold that day and delivered to buyers before Inauguration Day, Obama’s new administration may not be able to reverse the decisions.

Bush sure does love oil, doesn’t he? We’ve been so happy about the fact that he is about to leave office, but it seems as if he’s cramming another 4 years of bad decisions into these last few months. Bush is doing all he can to give his buddies in the industry a few last favors before Obama takes over, since Obama will be unlikely to put their needs above those of the environment and the people.  Sickening, but not surprising at all.

Link [The New York Times]

Robots Made From Recycled Styrofoam

Styrofoam: no matter what we may do to avoid it, somehow it still ends up in our possession time after time. I mean, we do have to buy new stuff sometimes, and manufacturers still haven’t put the time and energy into finding a suitable, less planet-killing replacement. I know I have a pile of it in my basement that I haven’t figured out how to dispose of yet.

That conundrum is what prompted artist Michael Salter to come up with a creative reuse for the ubiquitous material, and the results are downright rad. He built this 22-foot-tall robot and its smaller companions in an attempt to make a statement about our consumerist culture.

From Komo News, via Treehugger:

“I have a sneaker collection,” he admits, “which is absurd, right? You don’t need more than one pair of sneakers. But at the same time, I’m conscious of the fact that this culture is about collecting stuff. The fact that we buy electronics at a time when they’re no longer really repairable … I mean, I know there’s a TV-repair shop somewhere, but I’ve never gone to a TV-repair shop in my life. You drag it to the curb and then you buy a new one. And the foam takes up more space in the box than the object does.”

Sure, styrofoam robots may not be the solution to styrofoam, but they sure are a fun way to make use of it and call attention to the problem!

Link [Komo News] + [Treehugger]

China’s Dirty Secret: 60 Minutes Follows America’s Electronic Waste

The gangs who run the electronic wasteland in China don’t want you to see it. In fact, they’re so keen on keeping it out of the media that they attacked a 60 Minutes crew that was attempting to document the frightening, toxic mess full of lead, cadmium, chromium, polyvinyl chloride and other dangerous substances. But, 60 Minutes and correspondent Scott Pelley got the scoop anyway, exposing what happens when our electronics are illegally shipped overseas for dumping.

From CBS News:

It’s worth risking a visit because much of the poison is coming out of the homes, schools and offices of America. This is a story about recycling - about how your best intentions to be green can be channeled into an underground sewer that flows from the United States and into the wasteland.

At a recycling event in Denver, 60 Minutes found cars bumper-to-bumper for blocks, in a line that lasted for hours. They were there to drop off their computers, PDAs, TVs and other electronic waste.

Asked what he thought happens once his e-waste goes into recycling, one man told Pelley, “Well my assumption is they break it apart and take all the heavy metals and out and then try to recycle some of the stuff that’s bad.”

Most folks in line were hoping to do the right thing, expecting that their waste would be recycled in state-of-the-art facilities that exist here in America. But really, there’s no way for them to know where all of this is going. The recycling industry is exploding and, as it turns out, some so-called recyclers are shipping the waste overseas, where it’s broken down for the precious metals inside.

60 Minutes followed the container of e-waste that was collected in Denver for 7,459 miles to Victoria Harbor, Hong Kong. It turned out that the carton of e-waste that would supposedly be ‘recycled’ was just one of thousands on an illegal smuggling route, to be dumped in poor communities. The town of Guiyu was described by 60 Minutes as ‘a sort of Chernobyl of electronic waste’.

Greenpeace has been filming around Guiyu and caught the recycling work. Women were heating circuit boards over a coal fire, pulling out chips and pouring off the lead solder. Men were using what is literally a medieval acid recipe to extract gold. Pollution has ruined the town. Drinking water is trucked in. Scientists have studied the area and discovered that Guiyu has the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world. They found pregnancies are six times more likely to end in miscarriage, and that seven out of ten kids have too much lead in their blood.

The whole article over at the 60 Minutes website is definitely worth a read. It’s a sobering reality check for anyone who thought that recycling drives are the answer to our massive electronic waste problem. Both consumers and manufacturers have got to take responsibility for where these products end up when they’ve outlived their usefulness to us.

Watch a video of the attack on the 60 Minutes crew at The Huffington Post.

Link [60 Minutes]

Department of Energy Stopping Important Global Warming Research Project

For over a decade, scientists have been working on a federally-funded research project called ‘Free Air CO2 Enrichment’ (FACE) to determine the effect of carbon dioxide on forests. Millions of dollars have already been spent pumping elevated levels of CO2 into experimental forests, and scientists say they’re on the cusp of receiving key results that may be crucial to our understanding of how global warming will affect the planet. But, the Department of Energy is ready to cut the trees down, saying they need the funding for other things.

From The Huffington Post:

That plan has upset some researchers who have spent years trying to understand how forests may help stave off global warming, and who want to keep the project going for at least a couple of more years.

“There has been an investment in these experiments and it’s a shame we are going to walk away from that investment,” said William Chameides, an atmospheric scientist at Duke University, where one of the experimental forests is located. “There is no question that ultimately we want to cut the trees down and analyze the soil. The question is whether now is the time to do it.”

Ronald Neilson, a U.S. Forest Service bio-climatologist in Corvallis, Ore., said the experiments should continue because they still have potential to answer key questions about how rainfall and fertility affect how much carbon a forest will store long-term _ essential to understanding how forests may soften the blow of climate change.

The Energy Department is insisting that cutting down the trees now and digging up the soil will allow the first real measurements of how much carbon various parts of the trees have been storing. They also say that ending the experiments will allow them to forward the funding to new research that will examine the effects of higher temperatures, changes in rainfall and variations in soil fertility.

Some of the scientists associated with the project say that if it’s stopped now, all of the time spent on this all-consuming project will be for nothing. Ram Oren, associate professor of ecology at Duke University and principle investigator of the experiments there, says “To stop an experiment that cost $55 million, $10 million before it reaches its real conclusion makes no sense to me.”

What’s the deal with the Bush Administration lately? It seems as if this is yet another part of their recent hackjob on the environment, destroying progress and ensuring that Obama’s task of cleaning up their mess is even more difficult.

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Duke University

Number of Nashvillians Working From Home Soars 54%

Nashville, Tennessee has seen a huge increase – 54% in a year – in the number of residents working from home, according to new census data. Davidson County now has 14,990 telecommuters, outpacing the nation’s growth as well as that of comparable cities like Charlotte, North Carolina.

From Business Opportunities:

The growth spurt was probably boosted in small measure by musicians working out of their homes rather than going to a larger studio, said Dr. Patrick Raines, dean of Belmont University’s College of Business Administration and professor of economics.

In addition, businesses that outsource work to at-home workers are often able to trim office expenses, and that may be another factor driving the trend here.

More home workers is always a good thing – less cars on the road means less pollution, and Nashville’s highways are already packed on weekdays. I wonder if pajama sales have gone up in the area, too. Because, you know, all of us telecommuters sit around in our pajamas all day. Or naked. With an alcoholic beverage in hand at all times.

Hopefully this will become a national trend – there are so many people getting on the road to head to an office every day, for no good reason. There are plenty of jobs that can be done at home, at least part-time. It’s better for morale, less expensive for the company and has an environmental advantage. And, contrary to some boss’s fears, a good employee isn’t going to suddenly stop doing their work as soon as they’re no longer being watched.

Link [Business Opportunities]
Photo credit: Flickr user Brit Selvitelle

Sam’s Club Selling $100K Electric Cars

If you’re in the market for a new, high end, six-figure electric car, where’s the first place you think to shop? If you said Sam’s Club, the warehouse store where you can pick up 5-gallon barrels of pickled eggs and a 30-pack of underwear for $5, you’re – um – correct.

Sam’s Club is currently offering a “Once-in-a-Lifetime Electric Super Car Package” which includes Hybrid Technologies’ new electric sports car with a top speed of 150 mph.  It also goes from zero to sixty in 5 seconds, has a charge range of 200 miles and comes with an invite to a race track in LA (including first-class airfare and accommodations).

Seriously, who buys $100k electric cars from Sam’s Club? Could you even fit a gallon jug of mayo in its trunk?

Link [Gizmodo]

5 Terrible Bush Environmental Policies We Hope Obama Fixes

The Bush Administration was the worst on record in terms of the environment, perpetrating one crime against nature after the other as they pushed their industry-first agenda at the expense of human and environmental health. And they’re not even done yet – Bush is in the midst of a sprint toward destruction, enacting as many harmful environmental laws as he possibly can before President-elect Obama takes up residence in the White House in January.

Eight years worth of horrifying misdeeds won’t be cleaned up easily; some of the measures Bush is pushing through at this very moment will take months or even years to undo, and Obama is no miracle worker. But we know that the environment – and global warming, in particular - is one of Obama’s top priorities, and we’re hopeful that he’ll get to work quickly to reverse the damage that Bush and Co. have done.

These five examples are, of course, only a sampling of Bush’s environmental follies. To get a real sense of the worst president in history’s environmental record, we recommend reading Crimes Against Nature by possible future EPA Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Putting lobbyists in top environmental positions

Bush has a lot of lobbyist friends, and he wasn’t afraid to give them top-tier jobs in his administration. The same goes for industry lawyers, spokespeople and advocates. More than 100 high-level officials in the Bush Administration once represented the industries they now regulate.

Some examples include putting a former meat-industry lobbyist in charge of determining how meat is labeled, giving an energy lobbyist the job of handing out parcels of land for oil drilling to his former clients and friends, and appointing a lawyer who formerly represented utility companies – some of the biggest polluters – as head of the EPA division that controls air pollution.

More so than any President before him (save, possibly, Nixon), Bush brought a culture of corruption into Washington – an essential conflict of interest that ensured that these officials would not properly do their job. It’s a case of the fox guarding the hen house. Luckily, we’re pretty confident that Obama will put the safety of the people first and choose officials who will be truly dedicated to their jobs.

Refusing to address climate change

For far too many years, Bush was silent on climate change and what we need to do to address it. By the time he finally acknowledged – albeit begrudgingly – that global warming poses a significant threat, years of inaction had passed. And, even after some empty speeches about how serious the problem is, Bush still sat on his hands, doing absolutely nothing meaningful to address it.

Unsurprisingly, Bush has suggested completely voluntary limits on greenhouse gas emissions. It’s obvious to most of us why that won’t work (haven’t we learned by now that businesses will do whatever they can get away with?), but Bush has been all too content to give in to pressure from his buddies in the industry. Bush also famously refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty, insisting that it would seriously harm the U.S. economy (yeah, because his way of doing things worked out great, didn’t they?).

President-elect Obama, on the other hand, has mentioned climate change as a top priority many times throughout his campaign, vowing to begin an aggressive fight to reverse its effects. Obama has pledged to reduce U.S. emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, and then a further 80 percent by 2050 via a cap-and-trade program. That will likely be just the beginning as we begin as a nation to turn toward an economy based on renewable energy.

Failing to protect endangered species

Bush’s parting moves on the environment have been a sobering reminder of just how much damage he has done in his nearly decade-long presidency. George W. Bush already has the worst track record of any president for listing endangered and threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, allowing hundreds of species to continually decline in population while waiting to be added. Now, his administration is creating significant exemptions to regulations that require expert scientific review of any federal project that could possibly harm endangered or threatened species. The proposal would also let federal agencies pass on considering the impact of global warming on species.

It’s like Bush is giving us all the finger before he finally makes his big exit. His administration knows that no matter what, Obama won’t be able to change the laws that Bush is currently pushing through for months or possibly even years, especially with the economy taking so much of his attention. It’s their parting gift to the businesses who fear that Obama will no longer give them a free ride when it comes to profiting at the expense of the environment. And don’t doubt that he won’t – Obama, unlike Bush, is no industry’s bitch.

Rolling back laws on clean air and water

Another of Bush’s recent moves was to reduce pollution runoff limits for factory farms, literally opening the floodgates to allow toxic substances into our water. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Under pressure from polluters, the Bush Administration repeatedly took steps to remove Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act safeguards. Only the passionate opposition of conservation groups, dedicated members of Congress and citizens did Bush and Co. fail to carry out quite as much damage as we initially feared they would when he was elected.

The New York Times recently noted that they expect the EPA to issue a final rule that will weaken a program created by the Clean Air Act, which currently requires utilities to install modern pollution controls when they upgrade their plants to produce more power. The EPA is also expected to issue a final rule that will make it easier for coal-fired power plants to operate near national parks, despite longstanding Congressional mandates to protect air quality in such areas.

Obama, of course, will reverse these decisions. Upholding the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act are common sense, when you don’t have puppet masters pulling your strings.

Always putting oil first

The era of oil is coming to an end, but if Bush had his way, we’d cling to it until the last human on earth exhaled his dying breath. After all, Bush comes from an oil family and has many ties to the industry. And, he certainly hasn’t been shy about doing favors for oil companies while the clean energy industry had difficulty getting off the ground due to lack of funding and support.

Back in 2001, the Bush Administration’s National Energy Policy was created based on recommendations from coal, oil, nuclear and other dirty energy companies. Since then, Bush has leased nearly 27 million acres of public lands to oil and gas companies for drilling and has opposed incentives to promote clean energy. See what Bush said about renewable energy versus what he actually did at the Center for American Progress.

There’s hope, though – Obama’s clean energy plan is so large we can’t even fit it all here. But for starters, he will create 5 million new green collar jobs through the investment of $150 billion in clean energy, a move that will address both the economic crisis and the energy crisis at once. He’ll also put 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road, and ensure that 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by 2012 and up to 25% by 2025.

Hope. We’ve heard that word a lot over the last two years, and now it’s becoming reality. Not being angry and fearful of the government’s environmental decisions sure will take a weight off our shoulders.

George W. Bush Sewage Plant Proposition Fails

Sadly, there will be no sewage treatment plant in California named after George W. Bush. Backers of the proposition gathered in excitement awaiting the results, only to be crushed to learn that it had been defeated by a 70-30 margin. Especially sad were Bob Katz, who flew in all the way from Florida for what he thought would be a Proposition R victory party, and Peaches Christ, the proposition’s “basket-ball player sized drag queen” spokesperson. Reality is so often stranger than fiction.

From The Snitch:

Not all of the folks gathered near the Abe Lincoln statue voted for the proposition — or even knew about it. Barbara Coleman said Bush didn’t deserve the honor of having anything named after him.

“He done fucked the country up. What I want is for him to pack up his shit and get his ass out of the White House so Barack Obama can move in — tonight!”

Jacinto and McConnell quietly puffed on cigarettes and sipped from clandestine beers in the shadow of city hall. “We gave it the college try,” noted Jacinto, a city planner when he’s not writing ballot propositions. “We got our message out far and wide to get people thinking about George W. Bush’s legacy.”

Check out one of the group’s campaign ads:

“Pansy” from Brian M on Vimeo.

Ah, San Francisco.

Link [The Snitch]

NYC Reduces Light Pollution, Saves Energy with Efficient Lighting

The New York City skyline is a little dimmer as of late, a result of more energy-efficient lighting that saves money, reduces consumption and keeps light pollution to a minimum – at least, as minimal as it can be in such a large city. Office buildings, apartment towers and other structures in NYC are using motion sensors to ensure that unoccupied rooms aren’t being lit for no reason, and dimmers soften overhead lights that would otherwise burn bright all night.

From The New York Times:

Gone are the days when cheap electricity, primitive lighting technology and landlords’ desire to showcase their skyscrapers kept floor after floor of the city’s highest towers glowing into the night. Now, rising energy costs, conservationism, stricter building codes and sophisticated lighting systems have conspired to slowly, often imperceptibly, transform Manhattan’s venerable nightscape into one with a gentler glow.

Instead of tower after tower shining at all hours — the World Trade Center stayed aglow long after its occupants went home — the skyline is becoming a patchwork of sparsely sparkling buildings decorated with ornamentally lighted tops.

Unshielded traffic lights, neon signs and illuminated billboards once made NYC one of the most light-polluted cities in the country.  Though some people might mourn the loss of NYC’s formerly dazzling, glitzy display of city lights, this is a great development. Imagine how much electricity is being saved, especially compared to just a few years ago when everything was constantly ablaze!

Link [The New York Times]

Is Your Cell Phone Drenched in Blood?

Cell phones were once a luxury, something that people thought were sort of frivolous. But in today’s age of ever-advancing technology, we’ve come to consider them an absolute necessity. Now practically everyone owns one – and we replace them with new ones every 1-2 years. But at what cost? It turns out that a vital raw material used in many cell phones is often mined illegally, and by slave labor.

As we told you back in July, coltan – short for Columbite-tantalite – is refined to create a heat-resistant metal powder called tantalum that sells for $100 a pound, and illegal operations have cropped up in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Rwandan rebel soldiers were sending prisoners – including children – down into the dangerous mines to do the dirty work. All so we can enjoy our electronics.

Now, we’re being warned that the coltan mining in Congo is threatening the endangered Mountain Gorilla.

From The Inquisitr:

As well the mining of Coltan is located in the area as the Kahuzi Biega National Park which is the home of the Mountain Gorilla and because of this mining the gorilla population has been decimated. Whether it be from starvation because the mining is removing their habitat or from being shot to feed the people doing the mine this need for Coltan has a growing effect on both the people and the animals of the Congo.

Watch this video on coltan mining to get a real sense of the problem. It really makes you think about whether these gadgets are really worth it, doesn’t it?

Learn more about the effects of coltan mining and what electronics companies have to say for themselves in our previous post, ‘African Minerals and Electronics: Technology Soaked in Blood’.

Link [The Inquisitr]
Photo credit: Pulitzer Center

Democrats Might Have a 60-Vote Bloc on Energy, After All

Despite the fact that Democrats didn’t reach that magical number of 60 filibuster-proof seats in the Senate, they might be able to get a lot done without interference from staunch business-first Republicans after all. Democrats currently have 56 seats with a few still undecided, and both candidates in Oregon are pro-clean-energy. Beyond that, there may be as many as half a dozen Republicans willing to reach across the aisle and help pass important clean energy legislation.

From The Wall Street Journal:

New Energy Finance says that could include both Republican senators from Maine, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins. Ms. Snowe worked with California Democrat Diane Feinstein on energy-efficiency and solar-power incentives. Ms. Collins is a true “all of the above” energy advocate, supporting biofuels, tougher fuel-economy standards, and a national renewable-energy standard.

Longtime Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and John Thune of South Dakota are both big-time ethanol supporters. And as prairie-state senators, they have both become vocal advocates of federal support for renewable energy, especially wind power. In Nevada, Republican Sen. John Ensign worked with Washington Democrat Maria Cantwell to bolster federal support for alternative energy.

Other possibilities include incoming Republican Senator Jim Risch, and Obama’s former opponent John McCain.

This help from Republicans won’t necessarily come across for all issues, especially cap-and-trade schemes. But, it will make all the difference in moving forward the way we need to in order to properly address the energy crisis, global warming and the economy all at once.

Link [The Wall Street Journal]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

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