environment

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NYC's Taxi Fleets in Race for Hybrids

Fall mandate means a rush to replace 3,000 taxis a year.

(Newser) - The Big Apple's unprecedented plan to turn its famous yellow cabs green could run into an old-fashioned supply-and-demand problem this fall, USA Today reports. Starting in October, the city is requiring that any new replacement cabs be hybrids. But the transition may be difficult because gas prices have triggered a...

Beijing Launches Pollution Crackdown for Olympics

Officials scramble to clean the air for athletes

(Newser) - Beijing has launched tough new anti-pollution measures this week in a bid to clean the air for Olympic athletes in time for the games. Officials expect to force nearly half of the city's 3.3 million cars off the road, which will drive commuters onto already-crowded public transport, Reuters reports....

Blue Crab Disappearing From Chesapeake Bay

Longtime fishermen lament lost way of life

(Newser) - Overfishing and water pollution have put the Chesapeake Bay's signature blue crab on the brink—along with fishermen who have long depended on it. Stocks are down 65% since 1990, the AP reports, as officials in Maryland and Virginia struggle to enact a patchwork of laws to reduce the harvest,...

EPA Forecasts Longer, Smoggier Summers for US

Agency warns of effects from global warming

(Newser) - Climate change will bring longer, hotter, smoggier summers in the coming decades across the US, a new EPA reports says. Expect more wildfires and hurricanes, too, along with water problems in the West, the Washington Post reports. The federal report is noteworthy because it refutes the Bush administration's rosier outlook...

'Clean Coal' Advocates Blowing Smoke
 'Clean Coal'
 Advocates 
 Blowing 
 Smoke 
analysis
Jul 17, 2008 11:31 AM CDT

'Clean Coal' Advocates Blowing Smoke

Investing in carbon sequestration "reckless"

(Newser) - “Clean coal” is the buzzword of the moment, with industry groups and presidential candidates swearing by a work-in-progress technique known as carbon capture and storage (CCS), which ultimately buries carbon dioxide emissions deep underground. But Jeff Goodell, writing in Yale Environment 360, doesn’t buy it. “We don’...

The World's Greenest Venture Capitalist

Vinod Khosla has spent a fortune financing enviro-startups

(Newser) - Vinod Khosla isn’t just smarter and richer than the average venture capitalist—he’s greener, too. Khosla has sunk $450 million into what he calls “imprudent science experiments" over the past 4 years, financing 45 enviro-tech startups. “We've funded an incredible number of things that would make...

Green Housing: From Good Idea to Good Business

Architects, not automakers, have the power to halt global warming

(Newser) - With US homes on average twice as large as they were 50 years ago—and, of course, dwarfing those in all other developed countries—rethinking our idea of "home" is as crucial to cutting global warming as switching to a smaller car, says architect Edward Mazria in Fast Company....

Keeping Cool Gets Thriftier
 Keeping Cool Gets Thriftier 
Jul 15, 2008 11:22 AM CDT

Keeping Cool Gets Thriftier

Facing big bills, Americans cut back on A/C, look for other heat-beating solutions

(Newser) - As fuel costs, and eco-guilt, creep upward, Americans are leaving the thermostat high or kicking air conditioning altogether this summer, the Wall Street Journal reports. Some two-thirds of families are reducing air-conditioning use, a poll finds, as power plants raise prices as much 30% to keep up with natural-gas hikes....

Greenies Shudder as Big Biz Embraces EcoTravel

Environmental groups hammer out standard for 'sustainable living'

(Newser) - Ecofriendly travelers once camped outdoors and foraged for food, but today a hotel in Times Square can claim it's as green as a lodge in the Costa Rican rain forest, Anna Kuchment writes in Newsweek. In other words, eco-vacationing has gone big business, and environmental advocates fear the notion is...

At Green Disco in London, Dancers Foot the Energy Bills

'Eco-disco' aims to help the planet boogie away from disaster

(Newser) - Bust a move, save the world. That's the premise behind a new disco in London that bills itself as the world's first eco-club, reports the Guardian. Its dance floor is designed to harness the energy of dancing feet. The club's owner says that alone will cover 60% of the electric...

Bush Stuns G8 With 'Biggest Polluter' Boast

President leaves other leaders open-mouthed with defiant farewell

(Newser) - George Bush concluded the last G8 summit of his presidency with a defiant final joke: "Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter," he quipped. The president then punched the air, his mouth fixed in a huge grin, the Daily Telegraph reports. Bush, who has faced international condemnation for years...

China, India Reject G8 Carbon Plan

Developing countries show impotence of conference

(Newser) - Neither China nor India agreed to adopt the G8's targets for cutting carbon emissions by 2050 at their joint meeting today. Asia's two big developing economies, joined by Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, said carbon reductions would endanger their growth and exacerbate poverty, and that rich nations should clean up...

Recycled 'E-Waste' Can Be Toxic

Old TVs, PCs can pollute developing countries

(Newser) - Recycling old computers, cell phones, and TVs may sound like a good idea—but be sure you know the destination before you dump such material, USA Today advises. While such “e-waste” recycling programs are springing up everywhere these days, some pose a threat. Often, the materials end up in...

'Predatory' Funeral Industry Comes Under Fire

Big industry players take advantage of the bereft, says watchdog

(Newser) - The funeral industry preys on bereft customers, artificially raising prices and taking custody of bodies it has no right to handle, argues a watchdog group. The Funeral Consumers Alliance aims to push fair and environmentally friendly death-care practices, Newsweek reports. “Funeral corporations use predatory sales tactics and aggressive marketing...

Orangutans In Trouble as Forests Shrink

Loggers, plantations bring great ape close to extinction

(Newser) - Illegal loggers and palm oil plantations may make the orangutan the first great ape to become extinct, scientists warn. In Indonesia, a mere 6,600 of the apes remain, while on Malaysia’s Borneo Island, the population has fallen 10% to 49,600, the Telegraph reports.

Uno: Cooler Than Segway
 Uno: Cooler Than Segway 
Jul 1, 2008 3:12 PM CDT

Uno: Cooler Than Segway

One-wheeled 'motorcycle' goes green with electricity—and stylish to boot

(Newser) - Looking like a tricked out motorbike, the Uno is electric personal transportation with style, the Chicago Tribune reports. Designed by 19-year-old inventor Ben Gulak, the device employs no throttle or brake, relying on its rider's leanings to guide it, and is so intuitive an 8-year-old picked it up instantly at...

Polluting Pentagon Rebuffs EPA Orders

Pentagon challenges agency's right to order toxic chemical clean up

(Newser) - The Pentagon is holding out on an Environmental Protection Agency order to clean up pollutants from three military bases where chemicals have become an "imminent and substantial" threat to the public health and environment, the Washington Post reports. The Defense Department also won’t sign contracts to clean up...

Five Problems With Environmental Reporting

Columbia Journalism Review assesses field's common trouble spots

(Newser) - If you’re flummoxed by ever-shifting information on climate change and the environment, just think what the folks who report it must be going through. Deadline pressures and conflicting scientific papers have reporters struggling to provide editors with sellable stories, the Columbia Journalism Review reports, and the results don’t...

Fuel Crisis a Boon for Rickshaw Business

Banned in some areas, the throwback vehicle attempts a comeback

(Newser) - New Delhi had fallen out of love with rickshaws. Here, as in many modernizing Asian capitals, the bicycle-drawn cabs are seen as embarrassing, street-clogging third-world throwbacks. They’ve even been banned from the city’s older, walled section—but with gas at $7 a gallon, rickshaw peddlers are touting their...

Britons: New Trash Laws Are Rubbish

Controversial UK measures get tough on waste

(Newser) - In the midst of a garbage overload, the UK is cracking down on trash with strict new rules, sparking a backlash among Britons, the New York Times reports. Many areas now pick up trash only biweekly, and accept only regulation amounts. Some reject recycling bins tainted with garbage. In response,...

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