(No) Drilly, Baby, Drill sez Friedman

Nice column by Thomas Friedman on how Costa Rica has rolled environmental management together with other priorities since the late '90s. That's when environment, energy, mining and water were all placed under one minister. This led to an integrated way of approaching the environment and development - seeing them as compatible rather than mutually exclusive. Though oil was discovered in Costa Rican territory, the country decided to ban drilling. See the column here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/opinion/12friedman.html?_r=1

Eating Meat = Global Warming

Interesting posting at the NYT's Green Inc. blog. First cites 2006 UN report that livestock is responsible for 18 % of greenhouse gas emissions. But then a recent Archives of Internal Medicine editorial stating that water use is 2-5 times greater worldwide for animal-source food than basic crops such as legumes and grains. Also states that livestock production accounts for 55% of the erosion process in the U.S. and 1/3 of the total discharge of nitrogen and phosphorous to surface water.

See the blog and links at http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/

Europeans Shed Light on Encouraging Solar

NYT piece on growing US interest in following the European (German and Spanish) model for encouraging solar energy. It's the 'feed-in tariff,' whereby governments mandate that a utility must pay higher rates for green electricity. See it at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/13/business/energy-environment/13solar.html?em

NYT Piece on Greening Suburbs

The New York Times had an excellent piece on the challenges involved in greening suburbs. See it here. Discusses the relationship between density and auto use to a community's carbon footprint. Great reporting. Average single-family home in the U.S. nearly doubled in size from 1970 to 2005, to nearly 2,500 square feet. I didn't know there was a 70-ft turbine in Lisle!