Green Options » moratorium

Amazon Says Goodbye to World’s Largest Meat Exporter

Zachary Shahan — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 12:33:29 +0000

Last month, I wrote about the world’s largest leather exporter leaving the Amazon. This week there is even bigger news. The world’s largest meat exporter is leaving.

Developing Door County: Preserving a sense of place

John Ivanko — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:20:07 +0000

How does a community develop when preserving a sense of place is essential to the long-term prosperity and quality of life for those who reside there?

When development starts taking on the “more is better” mantra, some communities opt to take a breather, declaring a moratorium on development until county and municipalities can get a handle on what its residents want and what the environment can handle. That’s exactly what almost happened in 1996 in Wisconsin’s Door County, one of the most scenic and alluring places in the state with over 300 miles of scenic shoreline. The then Door County Chamber of Commerce called for a development moratorium for all townships (except the City of Sturgeon Bay) in Door County until careful study was made as to exactly how new large-scale construction development would impact the quality of life for all those who reside in the county. Surprisingly, it never gained traction, and the initiative died.

Yet years later, on a recent trip with my family and friends, we savored an authentic “fish boil” prepared with white fish caught just off the tip of the peninsula, hiked in one of the many state parks, sampled plenty of Door County’s famous cherry juice and pie, and meandered through postcard perfect small towns with names like Fish Creek, Sister Bay and Baileys Harbor. As a credit to its natural beauty and cultural richness, the county was among the original pilot communities for Travel Green Wisconsin, having earned somewhat of a reputation for being green before green was the thing to be.

Read more of this story »

Halfway Through the Moratorium: L.A. Confronts Fast Food

Mary Casper — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:11:23 +0000

Six months ago, South Los Angeles enacted a moratorium on new Fast Food Restaurants in effort to bring healthier choices to the neighborhood’s low-income residents and curb the high rate of obesity there. Councilwoman for L.A.’s 9th District, Jan Perry, spearheaded the action and spoke recently on KCRW’s Good Food about the legislation’s impact at mid-year.

Read more of this story »

Bush Plans Oil Drilling Off California Coast By 2010

Andrew Williams — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:01:14 +0000

The Bush administration has taken steps to open the Californian coast to oil exploration and drilling in as few as three years. The move could potentially tap more than 10 billion barrels of oil, enough to power the U.S. for 17 months.

The proposal has been greeted with horror in environmental circles, wary of the threat of oil spills, air pollution and increased shipping traffic in an area rich with migrating whales, millions of seabirds, sea otters, fish and crab feeding grounds. According to Richard Charter, a lobbyist for the Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, “You couldn’t design a better formula to create adverse impacts on California’s coastal-dependent economy.”

Read more of this story »