Crash Survival Zone

More than half of the 15 trillion gallons of sewage Americans flush annually is processed into sludge that gets spread on farmland, lawns, and home vegetable gardens. In theory, recycling poop is the perfect solution to the one truly unavoidable byproduct of human civilization. But sludge-based as fertilizer can contain anything that goes down the [...]

Some $4 billion from President Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan that was budgeted to renovate public housing will be spent to create so-called “green jobs” by making the dwellings more energy efficient.

Housing Secretary Shaun Donovan was making the announcement Tuesday in Denver at a meeting of Obama’s Middle Class Task Force.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, [...]

Commencement Address to the Class of 2009, University of Portland, May 3rd, 2009

by Paul Hawken

When I was invited to give this speech, I was asked if I could give a simple short talk that was “direct, naked, taut, honest, passionate, lean, shivering, startling, and graceful.” Boy, no pressure there.
But let’s begin with the startling part. [...]

By Paul Krugman

In a way, it was easy to take stands during the Bush years: the Bushies and their allies in Congress were so determined to move the nation in the wrong direction that one could, with a clear conscience, oppose all the administration’s initiatives.

Now, however, a somewhat uneasy coalition of progressives and centrists rules [...]

Forget sticks, and stick with carrots instead. So says Brent Schulkin, founder of a fledgling movement of activist consumers employing a kind of reverse boycott that he calls a Carrotmob. The concept is simple: instead of steering clear of environmentally backward stores, why not reward businesses with mass purchases if they promise to use some [...]

By Paul Krugman

I have seen the future, and it won’t work.

These should be hopeful times for environmentalists. Junk science no longer rules in Washington. President Obama has spoken forcefully about the need to take action on climate change; the people I talk to are increasingly optimistic that Congress will soon establish a cap-and-trade system that [...]

By Paul Krugman

The 2008 election ended the reign of junk science in our nation’s capital, and the chances of meaningful action on climate change, probably through a cap-and-trade system on emissions, have risen sharply.

But the opponents of action claim that limiting emissions would have devastating effects on the U.S. economy. So it’s important to understand [...]

Electronic devices and appliances that use electricity even when they’re idle may be costing you hundreds of dollars a year, experts say.

Are vampires sucking the life out of your household energy budget?

Almost every household has at least one electricity vampire that sucks up power and costs you money.

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LA Times

Unemployment in the euro zone rose to 8.9 percent in March, up from 8.7 percent in the previous month, the European Union (EU)’s statistics bureau Eurostat said on Thursday.

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Xinhuanet

When we think of green buildings, we tend to think of new ones–the kind of high-tech, solar-paneled masterpieces that make the covers of architecture magazines. But the U.S. has more than 100 million existing homes, and it would be incredibly wasteful (not to mention totally unrealistic) to tear them all down and replace them with [...]