Why We Need to Reform the Filibuster to Fight Climate Change
Jul/100
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They may seem like two disparate topics: climate change and an archaic Senate procedural rule. But they have more in common than you might think. Thanks to the Senate filibuster rule, essentially any piece of legislation needs 60 votes, a super-majority, if it hopes to pass. This is one of the reasons that the climate bill was killed in the Senate — it could only muster a normal majority, like 55 votes. In a true democracy, that should be enough to fly. But in our political culture, it’s still miles away, and reason enough to sound a deat…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Should The Galapagos Be Taken Off The Endangered Sites List?
Jul/100
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Tourists meet Tortoise. Credit Brian Merchant
Yesterday Brian wrote Galapagos Islands Moved Off Endangered Sites List, concluding:
If anything, the problems have only grown more complex and fundamental — there’s now a growing island population that must learn to live sustainably with severely limited resources, and a bevy of threats from other invasive species remain at large.
Three TreeHuggers, Brian Merchant, myself and founder Graham Hill have been to the Galapagos in three consecutive years, and w…Read the full story on TreeHugger
A Decade of Prius: 1.8 Million Sold, Half in the U.S.
Jul/100
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Photo: Michael Graham Richard
The Little Car that Could
The Toyota Prius hybrid has been sold in the U.S. for 10 years (even longer in Japan, where it was first introduced in 1997), and during that decade this car went from a small niche player considered ‘weird’ by most people (I remember back when the #1 question was “do you have to plug it in?”) to a best-seller halo car whose technology has found its way in many other models, including vehicles made by Toyota’s competitors. During that decade in the U.S., Toyota has sold about 900,000 Prius hybrids there, and about 1.8 million w…Read the full story on TreeHugger
How Can We Reduce Oil Consumption & Still Ship Goods and Ourselves Around the Globe?
Jul/100
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Container ship photo: Daniel Ramirez; airliner photo: Bob MacInnes
Two things which I think are worth keeping front and center when discussing how we wean ourselves off our petroleum addiction: Travel between nations is good; trade between nations is good. It’s easy to point out specific incidences where less-than-savory outcomes r…Read the full story on TreeHugger
BP to Rebrand Gas Stations Across US - to Amoco?
Jul/100
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Photo via DC Kaleidoscope
You probably haven’t seen many Amoco gas stations on the side of the road for a while. That’s because BP merged with the ‘American Oil Co.’ in the 90s, the British company’s logo and namesake took over. As a result, all Amoco stations were converted to BP stations, leaving Amoco stations nowhere to be found. But that could change very soon — in a major rebranding effort launched to sidestep the bad reputation that’s sprouted from having caused the biggest environmental catastrophe in US history, BP is considering renaming all of its statesid…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Chelsea Clinton’s Vegan Wedding, Inception’s Solar-Powered Set, and More
Jul/100
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Image via Ecorazzi.
In upstate New York this weekend, former first child Chelsea Clinton will marry investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, and green blogs are abuzz with leaked details about the vegan menu at the wedding and rehearsal dinner. <a href=”http://www.ecorazzi.com/2010/07/29/chelsea-clintons-very-vegan-rehearsal-…Read the full story on TreeHugger
10 Stunning Photos of Far Away Galaxies (Slideshow)
Jul/100
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Photo: NASA, ESA, and M. Livio and the Hubble 20th Anniversary Team (STScI)
Stargazing has been popular since that day our ancestors learned to look up at the sky and wonder, “what’s out there?” Now, thanks to modern developments like space telescopes, orbiting satellites, high-tech space stations and observatories, we can see the universe (and our earthly home) like never before.
These stunning images of far away galaxies and other astronomical beauties — and the fascinating stories behind them — are for those wh…Read the full story on TreeHugger
The US Media Still Failing on Climate Change
Jul/100
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I’ve taken to writing with some frequency about the mainstream media’s failure to cover climate change. Among the many reasons I do so is, well, because of the mainstream media’s persistent and rather abhorrent failure to cover climate change. Make sense? Thought so. And while I did dole out some blame to the media for helping to kill the climate bill, I feel that the subject warrants a post of its own. Here’s how the media is still failing in its climate coverage, and how that failure helped directly kill our hopes of climate legislation….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Na’vi Hit London to Protest British Mining of Sacred Indian Mountain
Jul/100
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Image Credit: Survival
It seems that even though “Avatar” is finally out of theaters, its environmental message and memorable imagery have taken root. Protest groups have used the movie’s themes to raise awareness of causes that range from Israeli policy to the war…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Is It Possible To Really Go Off The Grid?
Jul/100
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John Bowron’s Off-Grid Cottage
Scott Huler, author of On the Grid, makes a very important point in a guest post on The Infrastructurist : Nobody is really off the grid. Well, maybe the Amish, but almost nobody. Everyone else is part of an enormous mesh of grids that every back-to-the-land off-gridder is dependent on….Read the full story on TreeHugger
