Blogs & Ecology

We noted earlier a study from the Harvard Medical School that calculated that for every 10% increase in gas prices there was a 2.3% decline in auto deaths.

Now a new report from Michael Sivak of the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan finds an even more dramatic fall. Associated Press reports that:

Over the previous 10 months, monthly fatalities declined an average of 4.2 percent compared to the previous year. Then, Sivak's data shows, fatalities dropped 22.1 percent in March and 17.9 percent in April of this year...The declines found by Si...

Corporate sustainability -- no longer just the latest collection
of business buzzwords -- now is a required feature in the mission
statement, annual report, and work-force makeup of many companies. In fact, corporate sustainability is becoming more and more important in the business community -- now, you can even track the performances of leading sustainable-driven companies via the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, while the Greenhouse Gas Protocol monitors and measures corporate greenhouse gas emissions.

Ever driven across North Dakota in August? North Dakota is the US State located top, center on the wind potential map (shown here). Step out of the car and the wind's fingers rip at your shirt buttons, threatening to tear them off. Day after day, wheat stems toss like waves in a storm.

We have a vision for the Southwest that involves solar panels and windmills -- a future of clean-energy generation and green jobs, not the smokestacks, pollution, and health problems that accompany a coal-fired power plant. However, that vision got a bit hazy recently when the U.S. EPA issued an air quality permit for construction of the Desert Rock Energy Facility, yet another massive coal-fired power plant on Navajo land in northwest New Mexico.

It's been a matter of faith in many US States that the free market is good - especially good in the matter of deregulation of power distribution and generation - because 'it will bring low prices and high reliability'. Being highly principled is less fun, now, that the opposite outcome is on the horizon for several states. And this, before any carbon cap and trade or carbon tax has even been applied!...

New Sustain 12-wide

David Greene at Dwell notes that Americans have been living in prefabs for years- "they're called "Park Models," meaning they're wheel-less RVs designed to stay put in a trailer park. (Malibu is full of 'em.) The problem? Most are fugly. Outside, they look like a log cabin or faux colonial. Inside, they look like a set from The Golden Girls."

It would be nice to think that politics was about honest people putting forth honest positions for citizens to chose among, but instead we have Newt Gingrich telling Fox viewers that gas stations make higher profits selling air than gas, so "Sen. Obama was urging you to go out and enrich Big Oil by inflating your tires instead of buying gas."

Extraordinary. via ::Think Progress

Check and fill your own tires. It's a personal responsibility. The places we buy fuel, a.k.a. "Service Stations," are nothing of the kind any more. Full service with a smile is a faded marketing myth. So, get an air pump or compressor and use it. You'll save money and live longer.

Why "Do It Yourself" Is The Best Solution

We have noted previously that I.M. Pei's Church of Christ Scientist in Washington is under threat of demolition; Brutalism isn't in style these days and Churches don't have a lot of money, and they want to tear it down. The City says it is of historic importance.

Now, according to the New York Times, the Church as filed suit against the City, "accusing it of trammeling religious freedom by declaring the church a historic landmark and refusing to allow church leaders to tear it down." and now, design is on trial.

The architectural profession is broken in the single-family house biz; the vast majority of people live in houses that were built by developers from generic plans. The number of houses designed by architects to suit the needs of specific clients is negligible. It is also expensive; a small house can take as much time to design as a very big one, and as much time as a much more profitable commercial job that doesn't require client meetings on evenings and weekends.

A WSJ op ed piece by Daniel Henniger has nailed us. We are messianic environmaniacs bent on seducing daughters and sons into bicycle worship. Beware oncoming legions of organic salad eaters, intent on decarbonizing the US economy to the level of Ye Olde Europe.

Two choice excerpts:

Republicans shouldn't settle for making the world safe for SUVs. What's going on here is about more than $4 gasoline.

Instead of enviro-messianism, they should propose a drill-to-transition for whatever energy source can prove it works at a nonsacrificial price -- shale, coal gasification,...

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Source: TreeHugger