Global Warming, Peak Oil, Resource Depletion, and Sustainable Living

Eco-fashion is the clothing industry's way of acknowledging the benefits of environmentally safe, chemical-free manufacturing and cultivation, and materials like organic cotton, hemp, and bambnoo have been introduced into the mainstream quickly by retailers that want a piece of the green action.

However, in their haste to capitalize on the recent interest in environmentally-friendly clothing, some retailers have been taking advantage of the public's lack of... See entire blog item

Times Square and Piccadilly Circus without their famous lights? Newspapers and magazines a fraction of their current thickness? Fifty minute television programmes over in … fifty minutes?!

Modern life would be very different without advertising. Is it the sort of life we'd want to live? Could it be achieved?

Banning advertising should not be ruled out, though such a path would not be easy. Any politician wanting to ban advertising would find herself up against powerful lobbies. She may even be told her idea is in breach of one interpretation of her country's hallowed constitution. Advertising, after all,... See entire blog item

According to the US Department of Energy (Energy Information Administration), the world consumption of energy in all of its forms (barrels of petroleum, cubic meters of natural gas, watts of hydro power, etc.) is projected to reach 678 quadrillion Btu (or 7.15 exajoules) by 2030 – a 44% increase over 2008 levels (levels for 1980 were 283 quadrillion Btu and we stand at around 500 quadrillion Btu today).

I wondered what surface area would be required and what type of infrastructural investment would be required to supply that amount of power by... See entire blog item

This week, I watched President Obama speak in his clear, resounding, inspiring voice about clean energy and climate change during the State of the Union address. In that moment, I admit to feeling passion stir deep within me and tingles of inspiration buzz beneath my skin. Such is the rare oratorical power that Obama holds.... See entire blog item

For years inequality has been a political issue. Some people have been willing to fight against it; for others, ending or reducing it has been low on the agenda; others still saw it as a non-issue, a fact of life and perhaps even something positive. No longer can we afford to debate this. If we are to tackle global warming, we must also tackle inequality.

Most arguments for reducing inequality are not new. There are selfish reasons: the poorest people understandably want what those better off than them can enjoy; and for richer people, lower inequality... See entire blog item

The Internet has been vibrating along with the earth since the great quake in Haiti, and I have received quite  a few emails responding to this catastrophe, often with suggestions about ways to assist the Haitians. I'll quote from one particularly thoughtful response:

"I would like for you and your colleagues together to present our president (probably through USAID) with a proposal for rebuilding Haiti with earthbag and other environmentally sustainable technologies. Such a project would serve the dual purpose of providing affordable, earthquake / hurricane resistant housing for Haitians as well as to advance the global shift toward a more sustainable green paradigm by example. Due to this humanitarian catastrophe, both the monies and the political will for such... See entire blog item

Since September, when the Ontario Power Authority began its generous payment for rooftop solar power, Toronto's commercial roof acreage has become the site of a new renewable energy gold rush by solar developers now able to earn a steady income farming solar power to local utilities for 20 years.

Just as farmers in Texas or Iowa can now earn royalties from wind developers... See entire blog item

Many environmentally minded Americans welcomed Obama to the office of the President a year ago with high hopes that he would be able to at least start righting the environmental wrongs that had occured during the previous administration.

No matter how critical you want to be of the things that were or were not accomplished by the Obama administration, you have to admit that they took over quite a mess. With a war overseas that was quickly disintegrating into chaos and an economy that was at its lowest point in decades demanded Obama's immediate attention, while an impending climate crisis threatened to change the... See entire blog item

Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has an amazing ability to visualize the scale of the changes caused by human activity. Mountains of worn tires, oil fields and bright orange rivers flowing out of the nickel mine - these are just part of modern landscapes, both... See entire blog item

By Steve Klotz

The Sunday Hurled (10.16.05) kicked off a two-part story about the ongoing destruction of the world's fisheries. To sum up: thanks to many factors, many of which attributable to human abuse, we're running out of fish to eat. There's a pun here about the "scales" of justice, but I'll resist it. And you'll thank me.

Seems that we're running out of edible fish. Tuna, flounder, snapper, Chilean sea bass, orange roughy, grouper, you name it—we're in short supply. Fish today are shrimps (sorry) compared to a their ancestors of only 50 years ago; smaller,... See entire blog item