Green Options

Obama’s auto emissions standard is a landmark success in improving fuel efficiency. But American consumers haven’t yet bought into the idea of a fuel-efficient car.

A new study shows that pollution from automobiles and coal-fired power plants is contributing to the melting of mountain snowpacks up to a month early, thereby exacerbating water shortages and other problems across the arid western United States.

As is tradition, a new year brings extra cause for moments of introspection. It’s a time to plot goals for what’s ahead, partly based on self-assessment of how we handled the year that’s just passed.

For me, one aspect of the environment-minded life stands starkly clear from the rest: personal transportation.

From time to time, since joining the sustainablog team in August, I’ve written about my varied ways of getting ’round town. Now that winter has set in and I’ve made another recent adjustment or two, I realized I’ve built a list of wheels through the last 12 months. Each has had its distinctive impacts.

Nine finalists in the Design LA Motorsports 2025 Design Challenge are set to revolutionize the auto sports world of the future. The Mazda Kaan (above) is kept company by designs from GM, Honda, Audi, BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, Mitsubishi and Toyota. The designs are drawn with a future of greener technologies in [...]

Tough auto emissions standards backed by Florida Gov. Charlie Crist cleared a hurdle when a state commission approved rules fiercely opposed by the auto industry but praised by environmentalists.

A recent paper in the National Bureau of Economic Research titled “Air Pollution and Infant Health: Lessons from New Jersey” examined a large sample size of infants and mothers.  Using information from air quality monitors near children’s residences, researchers discovered “consistently negative effects of exposure to pollution, especially carbon monoxide, both during and after birth.”  This really doesn’t come as any big surprise to me, but research like this is important in substantiating why we need stricter clean air regulations.

I live in a rural part of England. Yet the size of my country means that to get to the capital - London - it is a mere two hour’s train journey.

London is often called the Big Smoke by those not living there. An almost reverent and hushed tone is applied to our country’s largest city.

The clue’s in the name. Big Smoke. Whilst London may well be an internationally vital centre for commerce, a city rich in culture, it is far from being an environmentally friendly corner of the world.

Perhaps this is about to change.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has been ordered to release all documents pertaining to Administrator Stephen Johnson’s controversial blocking of California’s waiver to control greenhouse gasses in that state.

The announcement came in an email released by Public Employees forEnvironmental Responsibility (PEER), saying Johnson has bowed to a Congressional request for the information, following the controversy sparked by his controversial decision.

PEER’s Executive Director Jeff Ruch is quoted as saying: “What made Johnson’s decision so striking is that for months he said he was basing it on the scientific and legal merits and then did the precise opposite. One employee told me ‘I am ashamed to admit that I work at EPA’ and another asked ‘What am I supposed to tell my children when they ask me what I am doing to fight global warming?’”

Johnson has said he will not attend a field hearing of Senator Barbara Boxer’s (D-CA), Senate Environment & Public Works Committee on January 10th in Los Angeles. His appearance before Congress, however, promises to be contentious at best.