Green Options

The thunder here rolled for hours and hours before something long-absent in my neck of the woods finally arrived: rain. That’s when I had an epiphany. It’s come to this, I realized: I am in awe of the rare occurrence of something I used to take for granted. Because my part of the country, like so many other areas, is deep into an exceptional drought.

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You know, just 10 years ago, few vacations sounded as thrilling to me as an "eco-vacation." Maybe two weeks in a rustic part of Costa Rica on the lookout for wild scarlet, green-wing and blue-and-gold macaws squawking in the trees, flocking to claylicks or just soaring through the warm, moist tropical air from one spot to another. Or, though I’m not the cold-weather-type, cruising along the Alaskan coast to drink in the

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China's impact on the environment — usually for the worse — is making headlines almost daily: now number one emitter of greenhouse gases, melamine-tainted pet food, contaminated fish exports and on and on. Some Chinese citizens are bravely trying to lobby for change — and suffering consequences — but even officials acknowledge their country can do better. But will it?

As one of the leading consumers of Chinese goods, the U.S. has a responsibility

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Jimmy: When we chose the recently-passed Senate Energy Bill for our Red, Green and Blue discussion this week, I really didn’t expect it to be such a great illustration of what not to do to secure our energy future. Since this is the same crew who left our last shot at reasonable immigration reform this decade to die on the vine, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

This bill is all about government and

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The oceans and atmosphere are warming, and now the global warming blame game is also heating up. Inuit in Shishmaref are seeking damages for the climate change that has forced them from their 4,000-year-old community. And 12 states recently prevailed in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that states carbon dioxide is a pollutant that can be regulated by the U.S. EPA.

In the past week alone, we've seen the U.N. point

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Molecular gears: Image courtesy of NASAThe more I read, the more I come to the conclusion that one of the big problems threatening the environment — and ourselves — today is one created by the gap between our knowledge and our wisdom. Our access to information and our technological advances continue to accelerate at mind-numbing speed, and our ability to use that knowledge wisely and responsibly can't keep pace.

It was hard

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A decidedly competitive air reigned at a debate on carbon emissions, one of many discussions during “Green Week” in Brussels, Belgium. Watching the debate live on the European Commission’s website last Thursday evening, I witnessed a verbal jousting match between the American ambassador to the European Union and a representative of the World Wild Life Fund. Both sides delivered several blows below the belt, provocative comments that made the match all the more exciting.

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Shirley: Color me cynical, but when giant agribusinesses fall over one another in a rush to board the corn ethanol train, I tend to view the situation with something other than rose-colored glasses.

Outside of the juicy profits awaiting corporations like ADM thanks to the combination of U.S. farm subsidies and $60-plus-per-barrel sweet light crude, the ethanol frenzy offers more questions than answers. First, there is the questionable energy payback: [...]

Photo Credit: Whitehouse.gov

Jimmy: Well… since President Bush is SOARING in the polls with his approval rating hovering in the 30% range I thought it might be interesting to take a look at his environmental record and his perceived Turn-Around on the environment, particularly on climate change.

As I have noted before Bush doesn’t always earn the enmity the environmental community harbors against him. One personal anecdote that

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Editor's note: Green Options is pleased to welcome Heidi Strebel to our writing team! Heidi is a language and literature teacher, and freelance journalists, living in Paris, France. She'll be covering the continental beat for us here at GO.

Only left-wing anti-growth idealists believe that, because of human activity, our environment is in disastrous, ever-worsening condition. Such statements are a thing of the past, you might think, vestiges of an ignorant age before the advent

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Image source: Nature.comEditor's note: This week, Shirley and Jimmy take on the subject of radical environmentalism. Are acts of vandalism, break-ins and civil disobedience always wrong, or do they sometimes serve a greater purpose?

Shirley: Fake blood tossed onto socialites wearing fur coats. Late-night liberation of laboratory animals. Wholesale destruction of Hummers and gas-guzzlers in California parking lots. The lists of exploits by some radical animal-rights and extreme environmental groups reads more like rap

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