environment

One month before the Olympics, the dirtiest air in China is in Beijing

Despite advertised measures to decrease pollution, as the one-month countdown to the Beijing Olympics approaches, the government's numbers rank Beijing as having the dirtiest air in China.

With a rating of 98, officially a "blue sky day" but only by two points, Beijing yesterday had the dirtiest air among monitored cities according to the Chinese government Web site that releases daily pollution figures.

Only four other cities, including the capitals of Sichuan, Qinghai, and Liaoning Provinces, ranked above 90 on the scale.

This does not mean that the air will not get cleaner this month. Large numbers … Read more

Preserve Kitchen offers bright eco-friendly choices

Festive colors adorn the Preserve line of kitchen products. With fun colors such as Milk White, Berry Blue, Apple Green, and Ripe Tomato, these items are sure to jazz up your kitchen. Turns out, while you're spicing up your kitchen, you're helping the environment too.

Recycline, as the name suggests, is a manufacturer that relies on Earth-friendly, recyclable materials. All of their Preserve products are made from 100 percent recycled plastics or 100 percent post-consumer paper. By using recycled materials, the company is helping to preserve natural resources and create an incentive for communities to recycle.

From simple … Read more

Marketing firm helping to green companies--and their images, too

This post was updated at 11:55 a.m. PDT to better describe the scope of TCG's work. It was also updated at 12:52 p.m. PDT with the corrected spelling on Clare Munn's name. We also corrected the photo credit and Sandhu Gurkirpal's title, both of which had been provided incorrectly by a company representative.

The Communication Group, a San Francisco-based marketing firm, isn't just about touting its clients' environmental friendliness. It's about showing them how to be more environmentally friendly.

The firm, also known as TCG, is helping corporations take their first … Read more

Will people pay more for cleaner energy? You decide

It's funny how the same study can spark slightly different, even contradictory reactions. Consulting firm Deloitte released a report Monday of consumers' attitudes about household energy costs and climate change. Here's how two publications interpreted the results.

Greenwire: Most would accept higher electric bills to battle warming -- survey

A majority of Americans say they are willing to pay slightly higher electricity bills to help curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants...More than 36 percent of respondents said they would accept a 5 percent increase, and 17 percent of respondents would accept a 10 percent annual boost … Read more

In China, returning to greener preplastic shopping tech

Chinese authorities in January announced they would ban ultrathin plastic bags, and make customers pay for reusable canvas grocery bags, in an effort to reduce waste.

A Beijing Review article quotes a Hangzhou supermarket manager on the old days, when shopping didn't produce billions of bags worth of waste that will biodegrade only after 200 years, if at all.

"When I was a child, my mother always took me to the vegetable market with a bamboo basket. She put a bowl in the basket for holding bean curd. When we bought sugar powder or salt, the sellers would … Read more

Q&A with Fred Krupp of the Environmental Defense Fund

A lot of ink gets spilled debating technology's next big frontier. I'll leave that to the clairvoyants, but this much is a no-brainer: figuring out ways to engineer a safer, cleaner environment is going to create a lot of new fortunes.

Last year, alone, venture capitalists poured some $3 billion into clean tech. And what's really interesting is that the battle against greenhouse gas emissions is no longer caricatured as simply a "greenie" obsession. In fact, there's no shortage of policy statements on the topic from CEOs at Fortune 500 companies like Duke Energy … Read more

Why I'm fed up with the global warming debate

I've had it. Watching years of endless debate over global warming play out without a final denouement, why not face the hard truth that we're going about it all wrong? Both sides invariably trot out reams of competing statistics or quote scientific tomes to support their positions in a conversation that goes stale fast.

But I've got a better idea. If you could sit down with a big global warming skeptic like United States Sen. James Inhofe, or even with President Bush, forget the "woe is us routine." Instead, why not appeal to their capitalist … Read more

Bush commits to renewable energy for climate change, energy security

WASHINGTON--The world is in the early days of an energy revolution for clean technology, a shift the United States is committed to for economic, political, and environmental reasons, President George Bush said in a speech here Wednesday.

The president spoke to delegates from more than 120 countries at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) 2008, where he described what the United States has done to promote biofuels, fuel efficiency, and renewable power sources like wind.

"America has to change its habits. It has to get off oil. Until we change our habits, we are going to be dependent … Read more

Where's the federal government's green plan?

When I bought my 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid, I realized that I was only going to achieve incrementally improved gas mileage. Nevertheless, I made the plunge because: 1) It felt good to do so, and 2) I knew that I would be getting a fat tax credit from the IRS.

Now that the IT industry has gone ga-ga over green technology, it makes me wonder where the heck Uncle Sam is in this process. Green is good for the environment, but it ain't free. Lots of large companies want to invest in green IT (and other green initiatives) but … Read more