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There are many reasons to overcome fashion's destructive downside.

John O'Brien provides some performance updates to the recently launched Australian Clean Tech Index. In the report, there is a good explanation of how clean tech sector is different from the traditional Socially Responsible Investments SRI) or Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance. SRI and ESG look at incremental improvements in company performance and can be seen as ‘operational hygiene measures that find the best in class. Cleantech focuses on companies whose output positively enhances the communities and ecologies in which they reside. It is about doing more good rather than less bad . With over 70 companies falling under the coverage of the Index and with a combined market capitalisation of over $15Bn, the ACT Australian CleanTech Index presents for the first time a picture of the Australian cleantech industry s growth in a single measure. Comparative Performance of the Index: Percentage Change FY06 FY07 JUN'08 YTD CY08 FY08 ACT Australian Clean Tec Index 93.3% 42.9% -1.8% -10.9% -16% S&P/ASX 200 17.2% 25.4% -8.3% -17.4% -16.4% S&P ASX All Ord 19.6% 40.4% -12% -20.6% -23% For a good explanation, sub-sectors, charts of performance and other information do..

In the eve of the draft climate change report from Ross Garnaut , Reputex , a ratings and research firm released the best low-carbon companies in the ASX 300. Yesterday, in view of the BCA release of passing on costs due to carbon to consumers, I commented that “This will surely happen but for businesses which will start implementing carbon reduction programs from now on will have a competitive advantage to hold or reduce their prices. This is an opportunity for forward thinking businesses. Did you start talking to a carbon consultant ?” Reputex says: Regardless of the shape and scope of a local scheme, at the end of the day it s a simple equation, companies with lower emissions will be better positioned. These companies will better insulated from any carbon tax, and better positioned to benefit from constraints oncompetitors. Other stocks will simply be playing catch up , he said. Babcock and Brown Wind is leading in Australia especially since it is “able to generate electricity with 97% less emissions than its sector peers. When this is translated into life under an emissions trading scheme it will represent a considerable competitive advantage .” Excerpt..

Take it easy.  Go slow.  Take your time. Lately, I’ve been writing about lessons learned during my three-month sustainable living experiment.  Most of them are not concrete facts, but rather emotional insights which came to the forefront when the stresses of my new lifestyle began taking their toll. Welcome to my most significant understanding : that developing an environmentally sustainable lifestyle MUST be personal, too.  It must reflect the individual.   It is not a one-size-fits-all game plan for green living .  There’s an unfortunate popular “Wonder Diet” mindset pervading American media, which says: There IS one solution. It’s painless and requires no real effort or commitment. It’s quick and tidy–no mess! I realize I made a mistake in planning for my Sust Enable project by embodying some of these cultural concepts of media in MY media.  For the sake of being easily recognizable and gimmicky, I assigned a strict deadline to my sustainable living project, thus making it sound more like a game show than the life-changing experience it has been. Three months exactly.  From Day One to Day 92.  A riveting progression from novice..

Take it easy.  Go slow.  Take your time. Lately, I've been writing about lessons learned during my three-month sustainable living experiment.  Most of them are not concrete facts, but rather emotional insights which came to the forefront when the stresses of my new lifestyle began taking their toll. Welcome to my most significant understanding : that developing an environmentally sustainable lifestyle MUST be personal, too.  It must reflect the individual.   It is not a one-size-fits-all game plan for green living .  There's an unfortunate popular “Wonder Diet” mindset pervading American media, which says: There IS one solution. It's painless and requires no real effort or commitment. It's quick and tidy–no mess! I realize I made a mistake in planning for my Sust Enable project by embodying some of these cultural concepts of media in MY media.  For the sake of being easily recognizable and gimmicky, I assigned a strict deadline to my sustainable living project, thus making it sound more like a game show than the life-changing experience it has been. Three months exactly.  From Day One to Day 92.  A riveting progression from novice to expert, from struggl..

Adelaide Green Drinks is all set to launch this coming Tuesday, 8th July. The venue is Sangria, Corner of Gouger and Morphett St, Adelaide. For more, Check this .

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75 percent less electricity than incandescent light bulbs for the same amount of light. (For why, see Bill’s post “ Why Switch to Compact Fluorescents “.) But some people fear CFLs because of the tiny amount of mercury they contain. The risk from a broken CFL is extremely small , but CFLs should be disposed of properly so landfills aren’t polluted. Sealing used bulbs in plastic bags before placing them in the trash can slow the release of mercury if the bulb breaks. But recycling is ideal. The problem, until now, has been that recycling CFLs was inconvenient for post people. That’s about to change, thanks to Home Depot. The New York Times reported this week that Home Depot will offer CFL recycling at all of its nearly 2000 U.S. stores. That puts 75 percent of Americans within 10 miles of a CFL recycling location. If you’re not part of that 75 percent, you still have options. Ikea stores provide CFL recycling bins , as well. Or visit Earth 911 or Lamp Recycle to look for a recycling location near you. Need help choosing the right CFL? Visit our online guide, “ How to Pick a Better Bulb “.

Compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) use 75 percent less electricity than incandescent light bulbs for the same amount of light. (For why, see Bill's post “ Why Switch to Compact Fluorescents “.) But some people fear CFLs because of the tiny amount of mercury they contain. The risk from a broken CFL is extremely small , but CFLs should be disposed of properly so landfills aren't polluted. Sealing used bulbs in plastic bags before placing them in the trash can slow the release of mercury if the bulb breaks. But recycling is ideal. The problem, until now, has been that recycling CFLs was inconvenient for post people. That's about to change, thanks to Home Depot. The New York Times reported this week that Home Depot will offer CFL recycling at all of its nearly 2000 U.S. stores. That puts 75 percent of Americans within 10 miles of a CFL recycling location. If you're not part of that 75 percent, you still have options. Ikea stores provide CFL recycling bins , as well. Or visit Earth 911 or Lamp Recycle to look for a recycling location near you. Need help choosing the right CFL? Visit our online guide, “ How to Pick a Better Bulb “.

Biodiesel processors are in strong demand now that the price of petrol is going through the roof. (Small) businesses are increasingly beginning to produce their own biofuels and in an effort to breath more life into the new market, the U.S. Biofuels Exchange Inc. (USBE) has launched a biofuels platform. The new platform matches biofuel producers of all sizes with buyers. The USBE is internet based and works very similar to eBay; it has a rating system to track and follow deals, display real time pricing and quantities on sale. A board member of the exchange, James Kaufman, told Ethanol Producer Magazine that “the efficiency in the [biofuels] marketplace doesn’t exist because there are too many ‘back room’ small deals and no central exchange.” The new exchange is set to change this and Kaufman has had and overwhelming amount of reactions from interested parties, he said. The 'back room producers' of biofuels range from domestic people to small or large companies and they're doing nothing secretive. Biofuel processing equipment being marketed comes in various shapes and sizes and levels of sophistication. It´s easiest to brew your own bio diesel from used vegetable oils a..

Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #36. In a previous post, I gave background information on coffee growing on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. We reviewed two selections from the Dominican Republic, and now were...

We are really, really, really trying to make most of our baby’s solid food instead of buying it in tiny glass jars. But apparently you’re not supposed to make your own carrots or spinach because of some issue with nitrate levels, and he really likes carrots and spinach, so we are generating a number of jars around here. The lids don’t fit properly once they’re opened, which is a shame, or I could use them to store the food we’re making. The necks are smaller than the jars, which makes it annoying to feed him out of them, or I could use them as dishes. (Might do that anyway, actually, since we tossed out all the plastic in the kitchen a while back thanks to reports about safety issues on our sister blog Eco Child’s Play .) While I investigate other brands in hopes of better reusability, what the heck can I do with all these bitty jars? Yes, candles, I know. We don’t burn any in our house. What else? According to the internets, I can also glue stuff on them to make them look like reindeer, snowmen, turkeys, or Santa Claus. Slightly out of season, I’m afraid. If the lids fit, I could definitely make progress on some areas of our home wi..

Living in the city, it’s natural that your thoughts may turn at one point or another to daydreaming about having your own produce generating garden. But then they just as quickly get tossed in the mental recycling bin as an impossibility. Or maybe not, but with your erratic schedule, it sits there, limping along. Maybe you’ve been wanting to participate in an urban farm or a community garden , but there again, your life gets in the way. My Farm in San Francisco has come up with a solution: They partner with you to cultivate a specified plot of land in your own yard, from as small as 4′ by 4′ to as big as your whole yard. And the deal maker? You don’t have to do any gardening yourself! My Farm does all the work, and depending on how much your garden produces, you can get a box of goodies weekly, and also have My Farm chefs make a fresh food feast out of what you and others produce. And what if you don’t have a back yard? The garden’s collective harvest exceeds the needs of the garden owners, so My Farm provides CSA style veggie boxes as well. While this is all a lovely idea, their intention here is beyond that. We live in a world today wher..

Forget the fact that I lived in Japan and absolutely love its culture, I didn't know that Toyota had a homes unit.  And they've been in the business of making homes for over twenty years!  The company adapts automobile manufacturing technology to build stylish, earthquake-resistant homes for sale within Japan.  The Toyota Homes unit accounts for only .5% of the company's $262 billion in annual sales, and Toyota would like to beef that up a little bit.  Plus, with the roll-out of the plug-in hybrid beginning in 2010 (remember all that discussion here about solar homes and plug-in hybrids replacing gas stations ?), Toyota would like to do more with their environmentally-friendly, prefabricated homes.  According to the Wall Street Journal, Toyota Homes are built from six or more modules in under 45 days.  They have a conservative home model called the Smart Stage that sells for $200k.  It's about a 1000 sf, two-story home.  There's also a more expensive, custom-built 2600 sf home that sells for around $800k.  Toyota Homes are strong and guaranteed for about 60 years, which is twice the average lifespan of a home in Japan.  As you migh..

There's a lot of positive stuff going on for Jetson Green these days and we're sure having fun keeping up.  Just this week, Stephanie from Apartment Therapy's Re-Nest gave me the grill on various green building topics and posted the "Green People" Q&A today.  We talk about my biggest green inspiration, my biggest green frustration, promising green building products, my favorite green building project, and finish it up with some green advice.  Don't miss the advice part -- you seriously need it!  Thanks Re-Nest! [+] Green People: Preston Koerner (aka Jetson Green) [Re-Nest]

My pick for a sustainable, green, yearn worthy-ness yarn for this week is a plant fiber. Yup plant, not animal like yak or quivit or just plain old sheep . This week I’ve been hunting down linen. Linen is that elusive fiber that I sometimes come across in interesting summertime knitting patterns for open weave shirts, tunics and shawls. I always make a mental note of it, thinking, huh linen. But I’ve never actually made anything with it. Linen itself is harvested from the flax plant which produces long and strong fibers known as linen. It has a natural luster and is found in creamy white to tan and can easily be dyed other colors. It is mostly known for bedding and towels made from the strong fabric that is created when the linen is woven. Less known is the yarn itself, which while not labeled “organic,” is pretty environmentally friendly. The flax plant can grow most anywhere with little to no pesticides and is very similar in its growth to hemp, which we know is also a good eco-friendly fiber. Louet of North America makes a nice linen yarn in many many beautiful colors. Euroflax is available is sport weight, worsted and chunky. This yarn is machine washab..

The American Southwest has some of the best solar resources on the globe. Nevada, with abundant land and sunshine is becoming a hot bed for the solar industry. The result is green jobs and billions of investment dollars. Solar Panel Manufacturing The opening of Ausra’s solar thermal power factory earlier this week in Las Vegas is a prime example. As the largest plant of its kind in the world, it employs 50 factory workers. At full capacity, the plant can generate 700 MW of solar panels, which could produce enough power for 500,000 homes. This quantity of panels would create an estimated 1,400 solar plant construction jobs. The factory will produce giant mirrors and absorber tubes that are used for solar power plants. This technology uses the sun to generate heat and spin turbines, thus creating electricity. The giant mirrors follow the sun and reflect it onto fixed absorber tubes that are mounted above. “Nevada is poised to be a leader in the clean energy revolution,” said U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). “This facility will help position our state as the premiere place to invest in these new technologies. As the factory expands operations and..

The toxic trailers used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to house thousands of homeless Gulf Coast residents after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita were found to be troublesome to occupants' health due to cheap building materials and lax government standards for RVs, scientists said Wednesday. "Manufacturers of travel trailers and the government agencies that influence their design should consider using construction materials that emit lower levels of formaldehyde, as well as designs that increase outside air ventilation," said Michael McGeehin of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. But while that's under consideration, you don't have to wait for a hurricane to hit your neighborhood to get your own toxic trailer -- apparently they're on the market now. (Thanks, lax government standards!) FEMA received some 11,000 complaints about trailer occupants' health; some 19,000 FEMA trailers are still being used by Katrina victims. source:  The Washington Post

There is some excitement in the nuclear focused blog world about “The World’s First Commercial High Temperature Nuclear Reactor” based partly on a recent article in Power Engineering by Jana Miller titled “Powering Up A Growing Nation” . This project in Shandong Province will be a unique plant whose reactor heat source is two containers full of spherical fuel elements, each one of which is about the size of a billiard ball. I am a bit reluctant to call this plant a “first”, but I can get just as excited about the third, 10th or 100th plant in a progressive series of improved plants that should number 1000 reactors or more. The plant, designated as HTR-PM, will be a 200 MWe pebble bed reactor heated steam plant with two reactors, each with a single steam generator (boiler) feeding a single turbine. The plant will be built in Rongchen City on a site large enough to host series of perhaps 10-12 similar plants. In that area of China, there are hundreds of older coal fired power plants generating 50-300 MWe each. The HTR-PM is a carefully watched project that uses technology old enough to be new again. The concept was introduced in the late 194..

Some 30,000 farmed Atlantic salmon have escaped from their pen off the coast of British Columbia into the Pacific Ocean. Farmed salmon can harm wild salmon stocks -- which are already declining on the west coast -- by competing with them for food as well as spreading disease . In this case, the escaped salmon are also a different species which is not native to the area. A spokesperson for the company that owns the fish farm explains what happened. "One of the anchor lines ... apparently slipped to a low spot on the ocean floor and in so doing pulled down the corner of the cage so much the fish were able to swim out." However, in the fish-farm equivalent of making lemons into lemonade, the farm's spokesdude emphasized the tastiness of the escaped fish if anglers are lucky enough to catch one. "[Anglers] should keep the fish, clean it, and bake in a 400-degree oven with a ginger and green-onion garnish. Then serve with fresh lemon slices," he said. Mmm, tastes like freedom. source:  The Globe and Mail

--> --> When I began Eco Child’s Play over a year and a half ago, I pledged to make Kiva loans on behalf of our blog. After making several Kiva loans, I’ve decided it is time to donate to and highlight different organizations helping families and/or the environment around the world. This month, I have made a donation to Women for Women International on behalf of Eco Child’s Play. Women for Women International helps women move from “victim to survivor…to active citizen”: Women for Women International mobilizes women to change their lives by bringing a holistic approach to addressing the unique needs of women in conflict and post-conflict environments. We begin by working with women who may have lost everything in conflict and often have nowhere else to turn. Participation in our one-year program launches women on a journey from victim to survivor to active citizen. We identify services to support graduates of the program as they continue to strive for greater social, economic and political participation in their communities. As each woman engages in a multi-phase process of recovery and rehabilitation, she opens a window of opportunity presented ..

Look for your swimsuit! Sunday 6th of July Italy will participate for the third time to the “ Big Jump “, a campaign by European Rivers Network (ERN) to inspire a reconciliation of people with their rivers. The Italian NGO “ Legambiente ” has organized many events to celebrate this national meeting on the Po River, the country’s longest river (405 miles long). The Po’s waters flow through the Val Padana, the plain that stretches across northern Italy from the French border on the west to the Adriatic Sea on the east. Many Italians live in this fertile expanse, some of the most heavily cultivated land in Europe: here is located the city of Turin, headquarters of Fiat, the automotive conglomerate, and some of the country’s most beautiful and historic towns. Once upon a time the citizens of Turin were used to bath in the Po River. It was only 50 years ago but many things have changed. Nearly 25% of the land along its banks has been denuded of natural vegetation to make way for sterile plantations of poplars harvested for cellulose; the river is dammed for hydroelectric power and tainted by agricultural and industrial chemicals. Fortunately, huge efforts ..

Scientists warned today that if carbon dioxide emissions continue along their current paths, coral reefs could vanish from the oceans, and would take millions of years to grow back.

Sarah Griffiths, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 17:07:00 LynxStreet web site aims to link environmental innovators with potential investors A virtual trading floor designed to help developers of cleantech intellectual property (IP) find backers for their ideas was launched last week....

Sarah Griffiths, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 17:07:00 LynxStreet website aims to link environmental innovators with potential investors A virtual trading floor designed to help developers of clean tech intellectual property (IP) find backers for their ideas was launched last week....

Austrian art collective Gelitin has created an installation titled “Normally, Proceeding and Unrestricted With Without Title”.  You can row around this four feet deep artificial rooftop lake in boats made from from reclaimed timber and junk-store furniture with oars assembled from old chair legs. original news source

The impact of global warming is not just restricted to increasing levels of sea water and climate changes but also to shifting of habitats by various species of animals. Studies conducted in the... Read More @ AboutMyPlanet.com

When the award-winning film The End of Suburbia was released in 2004, it was considered an amusing but exaggerated view of what Peak Oil will do to the suburban way of life. As gas prices approach $5/gallon, it doesn’t seem quite so shocking. As a passionate enemy of suburban sprawl, I listened intently to an interview this morning on NPR with Brookings Institution demographer William Frey in which he notes that housing prices are falling faster in the areas outside cities. Is this a permanent correction that is making “exurbs” less desirable overall? And how are gas prices influencing this loss of home value? Mr. Frey was cautious in his answer, saying “the jury is still out” and that Americans have a history of moving outward from cities in order to buy more housing for less, seeing long commutes as an acceptable trade off. However, it doesn’t take a genius to see that, when a commute costs more than one is saving on housing, while sucking up hours of one’s valuable time, (and as the saying goes, “They aren’t making more of that”) why would one buy a home in the far suburbs? Why, indeed? Sperling's Best Places did a survey two years ago when g..

The Bureau of Land Management reversed its decision last month that had stopped new solar developments on public land for two years years. Instead, the BLM has decided to process applications simultaneous with environmental consultations . The reversal was caused by pressure from Congress (for example, Rep. Mark Udall of Colorado), public opinion, and the solar industry, which is at a critical point in its development. – Kari M.

Next week Ken Meter will be in western Minnesota and eastern South Dakota, telling the story of how feeding the raw commodity maw has drained our Main Streets of their lifeblood while decimating the rural landscape socially and environmentally. Meter’s story stars numbers, charts, graphs and trend-lines—not exactly the stuff of summer blockbusters. But believe [...]

Imagine your window curtains accomplishing more than just looking pretty and providing privacy…What if they could convert the absorbed sunlight into your home's power source? (Read on…)

Sarah Griffiths, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 15:14:00 Business mogul proposes zero carbon holiday resort alongside new green consulting service Sir Richard Branson's attempts to position himself as a modern day eco-warrior continued this week, as the entrepreneur signalled plans for a new environmental consultancy business and unveiled proposals for...

This footage is fascinating.  Sort of scary and unbelievable at the same time.  The tower was almost 200 feet tall and the turbines were moving close to 70 mph.  The whole thing just disintegrates, which isn't what you want to see or hear about, especially with the capital investment required to get a wind turbine installed.  In an unrelated story, Suzlon Energy installed some wind turbines in the Midwest that have been breaking down due to the cold weather (see link below), which is probably contributing to a declining stock price. ++ Suzlon's US Wind Turbine Plans Hit New Turbulence [livemint.com]

The Yangtze River is one of the longest waterways in the world. Stretching more than 6,300 kilometres from Tibet to the East China Sea, the river has played an important role in China’s history,... Read More @ AboutMyPlanet.com

Low Impact Living has a good post about the return on your investment when making green home improvements. Source: Low Impact Living

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has reversed its recent moratorium on new applications for solar-energy projects on public land, allowing companies to keep submitting proposals for new solar projects. The solar-project freeze had been instituted in late May while the BLM began conducting a two-year study on the potential environmental impacts of solar projects on public lands; the agency said the study would eventually help to speed projects along. However, due to pressure from the solar industry, Congress, and the public, the agency decided Wednesday that it could continue to process new applications after all, even as it studied solar's environmental impacts. The victory is only partial, however, as the BLM hasn't actually approved any of the 130 solar-project applications it already has. So, really, not approving a few more isn't that big of a deal for the agency. "We're encouraged that the BLM lifted their moratorium, but we're only halfway there," said Rhone Resch of the Solar Energy Industries Association. "We now need to get them to expedite the permitting of the solar projects." sources:  Las Vegas Sun , Associated Press , The New York Times

Soaring gas prices have motivated people to do some positive things from driving more efficiently to looking for alternative fuels to heat their homes. These tough times also motivate people to do some strange things that raises eyebrows or in some cases things that make Bill O’Reilly seem sane. Here are 5 unusual things you wouldn't see if gas was $1.38 a gallon… original news source

Julia Steinberger It's exciting to witness development of increasingly efficient wind power technologies (to see Popular Science's geek-worthy eye candy on that front, click here and...

A Carbon footprint is a rough measure of green house gas emissions in the atmosphere by human activity. It is measured in terms of units of carbon dioxide (CO2). On an average, each individual has a... Read More @ AboutMyPlanet.com

Hot on the heels of Australia's green election (Rudd signed the Kyoto Protocol as his first act of government), follows the second US climate change election. Bush tore up the Kyoto Protocol after the first one. Waste of good lead-time. Obama and McCain have both stated that climate change requires decisive action. Both support cap-and-trade, putting a limit (cap) on greenhouse gases and

BusinessGreen.com Staff, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 13:05:00 But more should be done to ensure new green building regulations are followed Government efforts to improve domestic energy efficiency received a mixed report from the National Audit Office (NAO) yesterday, claiming that while household energy consumption is falling more should be done...

This post is by EWG's stellar media intern, Sameem. The buzz on gas prices has people rethinking the way they travel. USA Today recently reported record breaking public transit ridership based on a study by the American Public Transportation Association (APTA) . For the months of January through March 2008 ridership increased 10% when compared to the same months in 2007. And while many riders are making the switch due to rising fuel prices, many of them stick to public transit for its “service and convenience”, according Linda Robson of Seattle's Sound Transit. For riders fortunate enough to live and work near major bus and rail lines, the shift makes a lot of sense. But how many people really have this good fortune? According to the 2006 US census, only about 1 in 5 households. The logical solution: make bus and rail lines more extensive. The bleak reality: no one wants to pay for it. Most transit systems are already aging and under funded. A recent study by the Brookings Institution reported that "45 percent of the nations subway cars were over 20 years old." The report also noted that of this 45%, half are at least 25 years old – the age at which the Federal Transit Admin..

Now you can orate like Obama. Here's my effort.Generate a Barack Obama Quote!"You know, there's a lot of talk in this country about uneasiness. Well I think Americans are tired of the same old wet nappies. Ordinary Americans believe in mother, they want less monkey business, they just aren't sure if their leaders believe in a fair go for all."Generate your Barack Obama quote at

Regine DebattyThe largest part of the pharmaceuticals and chemicals we take go through our bodies and eventually end up in waste water. As water and waste...

James Murray, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 12:26:00 Cutting global emissions by 50 per cent by 2050 would cost just three per cent of GDP World leaders gathering in Japan ahead of next week's G8 summit received welcome news today with the publication of a new report from PricewaterhouseCoopers claiming that cutting global carbon emissions...

When Greenbang was on the university rowing squad she always looked enviously at universities such as Harvard or Princeton.  ...

Global warming threatens our White Chistmases with winter heatwaves . And our Halloweens with poor pumpkin crop s. And our Arbor Days with record wildfires . And our immoral myopia threatens Father's Day . At this rate, the only holiday left will be the gas tax holiday — for oil companies ! But I digress. Last year, Independence Day fireworks fizzled out for many thanks to ever worsening droughts . And the droughts have done it again this year: Rockets' red glare to dim this Fourth of July Dry conditions, booming costs lead many cities to drop or ban fireworks (more…)

Liz Ann Sonders, chief investment strategist at Charles Schwab, has put together a good list of reasons why the price of a barrel of oil may soon drop — though its anyone’s guess how far it may fall. Of course, just like the price of oil itself, so much of this is speculation. According to [...] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "10 Reasons Why The Oil Bubble May Burst Soon", url: "http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=3169" });

The New York Times and the Guardian have both reported that the US’ Bureau of Land Management’s decision to ...

“Wait, what did you just say? You’re predicting $4-a-gallon gasoline?” President Bush responded to a reporter who said some analysts expect prices to soon climb that high. “That’s interesting. I hadn’t heard that. . . . I know it’s high now.” “The crucial factor was the unforeseeable shift in demand to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, which [...] SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: "It’s Time To Embrace $150/Barrel Oil, Move Forward", url: "http://www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=3167" });

Do you like the advert riddled tack fest that is Piccadilly Circus or Time Square?  Yes, they’re iconic.  Yes, ...

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 11:01:00 British Colombia introduces North America's first carbon tax Taxpayer and environmental groups locked horns this week after a new carbon tax sent prices soaring at petrol stations in British Columbia, Canada....

Danny Bradbury, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:46:00 But critics claim retailers guilty of lack of clarity over "local" claims Wal-Mart stepped up its marketing campaign around locally-produced food this week, announcing a "locally grown" section of its web site, along with related signage inside stores designed to attract increasingly environmentally...

 "A zero waste approach is one of the fastest, cheapest, and most effective strategies to protect the climate." Stop trashing the climate tries to convey this sane and simple message - hear, hear! Are the world's biggest individual consumers and businesses - permit me to call them environmental atheists - listening? A drastically reduced consumption level is the only answer to sustainability. Those people who put the environment uppermost in thought and deed are probably following this strategy in letter and spirit. Remember that for every trash can generated by an individual, garbage amounting to seventy-five times this volume has already been ...

It's amazing to see how something as simple as dancing in the street or in the rain universally makes people happy. Do we really need all that stuff?   Watch the Youtube Video here 

Every year, someone brings out a new media angle on grid computing. If you don’t know what grid computing is, ...

Turn on, plug in, drop out | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist tags: wiglinks , marketing , subscription • Innovative business model: For the first time in the electric vehicle business, ownership of the car is separated from the requirement to own a battery. Consumers will buy and own their car and subscribe to energy, including the use of the battery, on a basis of kilometers driven. This model is similar to the way mobile phones are sold, with an initial purchase and a monthly subscription for the mobility service. diary of an internet addict: how Internet can help relief global warming tags: wiglinks So what I propose here is that every house should have a dumb terminal that connects to broadband internet with a powerful server at the end that serve thousands, maybe hundred of thousands people. These servers, enable people to do their job at home, collaborating using teleconference, and many more. With this scheme, actual reduction of CO2 emissions can be achieved. Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects - NYTimes.com tags: wiglinks Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government has placed a morato..

Joanne McCulloch, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:25:00 Government argues reporting is necessary to underpin cap-and-trade scheme, but business group claims new rules will prove onerous and costly The Australian government has this week introduced new emissions reporting regulations requiring the country's largest firms to publish data on their carbon footprint....

James Murray, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:24:00 Transferring greater quantities of data over the same computer cables promises to help cut datacentre energy use The emergence of new technologies capable of carrying greater quantities of data along the same cables promises to cut the energy use of firms' servers while simultaneously enhancing the efficiency...

James Murray, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:24:00 Transferring greater quantities of data over the same computer cables promises to help cut datacentre energy use The emergence of new technologies capable of carrying greater quantities of data along the same cables promises to cut the energy usage of firms' servers while simultaneously enhancing the efficiency...

James Murray, BusinessGreen , Thursday 3 July 2008 at 10:23:00 Company claims installation of 6,000 smart meters will deliver return on investment in two years through lower electricity bills and reduced energy use T-Mobile has revealed it is on track to deliver a return on investment in two years from the installation of 6,000 smart meters across its mobile phone network....