Search Results
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Hybrids Accelerate in BC
The Vancouver Sunreported today that British Columbia and Alberta are expected to lead Canada in new vehicle sales in 2005 "thanks to healthy economies and confident consumers." The good news—aside from the confident consumers—is that hybrid vehicles, as in other parts of the Northwest, are rocketing out of BC car lots "as fast as they can be supplied." Hybrid sales have been spurred on in part because BC just doubled...Read more » -
Free Ride
Gas prices have edged up over the past month, passing $2 a gallon in Seattle earlier this week as an east-coast cold snap pushed up crude oil prices. But no matter how high the market price goes, gas (and driving in general) is still too cheap. See, for example, the chart below, from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (from page 6-4 of this pdf). Much of the cost of driving...Read more » -
Regulation and Healthy Business
Is lax environmental regulation bad for the economy? Very likely, suggests an article in today’s Christian Science Monitor. American businesses were once world leaders in wind power, solar panel manufacturing, and coal power plant pollution scrubbers. But decades of regulatory laxness has relegated alternative energy and pollution-reduction to the back burner. Now, in order to diversify its energy portfolio or reduce air pollution, the US is forced to play catch-up....Read more » -
Canada Plans "Free-bates"
This afternoon, Ottawa unveiled its budget. It’s got several line items of note, including $5 billion for cities through an agreement to hand over some of the proceeds of federal gasoline taxes. It’s also got $5 billion over five years for environmental programs, with an emphasis on complying with Kyoto. Creative components include a fund to help catalyze entrepreneurial greenhouse-gas reduction schemes. To me, though, the most exciting announcement is...Read more » -
Article of the Day
If you read nothing else in the news today, read Thomas Friedman’s New York Times column “No Mullah Left Behind.” The crux: "By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit’s automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is – as...Read more » -
Have YOU Ratified the Kyoto Protocol?
On Wednesday, February 16, the Kyoto Protocol will come into effect, mandating participating nations to reduce their emissions of climate-changing greenhouse gases. Canada has ratified Kyoto. The United States has not. Have you? Not literally, of course. Individuals can’t sign international treaties. They can, however, pledge to match its goals (summarized by World Resources Institute): a reduction of emissions in the United States to 7 percent below-and in Canada to...Read more » -
Eating Close to Home
Eat Here, a new book by Worldwatch Institute’s Brian Halweil, takes a close look at a topic that is close to many northwesterners’ hearts and taste buds: the burgeoning local food movement. The book is a bit too data-packed-not quite accessible enough for a general audience-but it does have some gems in it, including a series of case studies of communities, businesses, and consumers around the world who are working...Read more » -
The Little Engine That Could?
Over the last two days, a question has circulated around our office, asked by green architect and Sightline friend Rob Harrison. His quandary: which car should he buy to replace an automobile that was totalled? He’s narrowed his choices to 4—a super-efficient Toyota Prius, a VW or Subaru station wagon, or a 1992 Honda Accord—and is weighing factors including price, reliability, safety, utility, and environmental performance. I can’t claim any...Read more » -
Who Takes Out the Trash?
One important but little discussed difference between the Canadian and American parts of Cascadia is their different philosophies about trash. This difference has emerged in the last decade. And, sad to say, the Canadians have left the Americans in the dustbin, so to speak. British Columbia has adopted a far less regulatory, government-centered approach, even while they’ve made dramatic gains in waste reduction and recycling. I’m talking here about “product...Read more » -
Strawberry Fields Forever
As you may have noticed, I’m no knee-jerk promoter of organic farming (I’ll explain why, in a moment), but organic strawberries are worth the extra dollar. The reason is methyl bromide, a potent stratospheric ozone destroyer, which is applied most heavily to strawberry fields. Its use is actually increasing in the US, because of a loophole in the Montreal Protocol, as the New York Timesreported Friday. The problem with organic...Read more »