Tag Archives: business & politics

Another Crack: Petermann Glacier, Giant Ice Island, Breaks Off Into The Sea

A NASA image shows the large chunk of ice breaking away from Greenland’s Petermann Glacier. Credit: NASA While the Senate, the White House, and delegates in Bonn at the international climate negotiations dither, Mother Nature keeps the hits coming. Russia is of course baking in record heat and now the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland has lost an iceberg of 87 square kilometers in size. For scale, the ice sheet is said to be 4 times the size of Manhattan. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Another Crack: Petermann Glacier, Giant Ice Island, Breaks Off Into The Sea

Climate Change Could Destroy 80% of World’s Rainforest by 2100

Photo via Gangajal Seeing as how it’s Friday, I figured I’d just go ahead and rain on everyone’s parade a little bit: Climate change and deforestation are going to more or less wipe out tropical rainforests as we know them in about 90 years. Yes, according to a recent study, 80% of rainforests — which hold a full half of the world’s plant and animal species — stand to be destroyed by climate change as soon as 2010. Happy Friday!… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Climate Change Could Destroy 80% of World’s Rainforest by 2100

Is ‘Conscious Capitalism’ an Oxymoron? (Video)

There’s no doubt that the last decade or so has seen the rise of what we might term ‘conscious capitalism’. Consumers have increasingly put a premium on paying more for goods and services that have a philanthropic bent — look at the Fair Trade coffee of Starbucks, the organic produce at Whole Foods, or the donation of shoes through Tom’s. Few would argue that this has been a positive development. But there’s at least one man who’s doing exactly that: the philosopher Slavoj Zizek. In this animated feature, he argues that ‘conscious capitalism’ is really just making us feel better about maintaining what is at its core an u… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Is ‘Conscious Capitalism’ an Oxymoron? (Video)

GOP Candidate: Bike Sharing Threatens Our Personal Freedoms

Photo via UberGizmo I’ve always been amazed how much opposition simple ideas like promoting bicycling in urban areas receives. After all, what on earth could be wrong with a program that allows residents to rent bikes at multiple locations around a city as a means to conveniently get around — and get some exercise in the process? Evidently, more than you and I could possibly imagine. The GOP candidate for governor in Colorado has recently attacked the mayor of Denver for instating a successful bike-sharing program, saying that it’s part of a nefarious plot t… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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GOP Candidate: Bike Sharing Threatens Our Personal Freedoms

How Can President Obama Cut Carbon Emissions Without a Climate Bill?

photo: Beth Rankin via flickr With Congress still not able to get out of its own way and actually move forward any legislation with the word ‘climate’ in it, what options does President Obama have to make good on his oft-stated commitments to make reductions in greenhouse gas emissions? Leaving aside the EPA mandating carbon emission reductions (remember it’s now officially a pollutant), over at

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How Can President Obama Cut Carbon Emissions Without a Climate Bill?

Artist Drenches Models in Fake Oil to Protest Gulf Oil Spill (Slideshow)

Image credit: Jane Fulton Alt When news broke on April 20, 2010 that an explosion had occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform , artist Jane Fulton Alt was in the hospital, meeting her new grandson for the first time. He had been born the previous day. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Artist Drenches Models in Fake Oil to Protest Gulf Oil Spill (Slideshow)

How to Turn a Toothbrush Into Gold

Image via Ellie Marie When I first started Terracycle, I spent a lot of my time explaining what upcycling was . It was this foreign concept whose name wasn’t on a lot of people’s radar. Now, a handful of years later, more than 10 million people are collecting the brand specific waste that we’ve used to make a range of products; it has become increasingly common and may some day be as conventional as recycling. Currently, several startups are building their busi… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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How to Turn a Toothbrush Into Gold

Massive New Wind Project Moves The Ball In California

photo via flickr Although it may be in some trouble, California’s aggressive goal of attaining 33 percent of its energy from clean renewable energy by 2020 is still on track–for now at least. In fact, wind energy in the state got a shot in the arm today when Terra-Gen Power LLC announced that it has secured $1.2 billion of financing to build four wind farms northwest of Los Angeles. All told, the complex could generate as much as 3,000 megawatts of electricity. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Massive New Wind Project Moves The Ball In California

Could Obama Help Sell Energy Reform Even If He Wanted To?

Photo via Black River Falls Those who’ve long waited for climate and clean energy legislation to make its way out of the Senate are nervously watching the days tick away before the November elections — wherein the prospect of lost Democratic seats will make it much harder to seriously reform US energy policy and address climate change. As the bill has mutated, been abandoned , picked up again

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Could Obama Help Sell Energy Reform Even If He Wanted To?

Ditching Ethanol Subsidy Not Only Will Save US $6 Billion, But Won’t Hurt Domestic Production

photo: Kevin Dooley Two new pieces in NRDC ‘s Switchboard blog remind us that the debate over corn ethanol subsidies is alive and well; and illustrate, through two new reports, the benefits of ditching Federal support altogether. The first, from the Congressional Budget Office , details how much money eliminating the Volumetric Ethanol Excise Tax Credit; the second, from

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Ditching Ethanol Subsidy Not Only Will Save US $6 Billion, But Won’t Hurt Domestic Production