Special Series
Best of the Daily Score
In a Series
My Keyboard Versus the Climate
As my poor co-workers are only too aware, I have an unholy fondness for potato chips. Few things give me more pleasure at lunchtime than scanning the blogosphere while crunching my way through a bag, dribbling little crumbs down into my keyboard.
Lovely? Oh, yes.
Among other things, it results in a keyboard that needs to be cleaned periodically. Yeck. But last year when I embarked on a little office spring cleaning, I made a shocking discovery: those little compressed chemical dusters (pictured above) are basically greenhouse gas bombs. In some cases, using up just a single canister is the climate equivalent of driving my Honda Civic from Seattle to New York City and then back to Chicago, even allowing for plenty of side trips.
Needless to say, I was apalled. I even briefly considered a mini crusade against the things.
I also ended up having several interesting conversations about the canisters. Two in particular stood out: one with an industry representative and another with an advocate from Australia. In case folks are interested, I'll share what I learned.
Special Series
Economic Turnaround
In a Series
We Want Our Stimulus Green
Given the current economic crisis, now is the time to address climate change, not turn away from it. That's the majority view according to a new post-election poll results released earlier this month by Environmental Defense Fund. It seems that voters have made the connection between economic concerns and energy stability. And they see that investing in clean energy can create millions of new jobs and help rebuild the economy. In other words, we want our stimulus served up green.
Significantly, solid numbers of respondents reported they'd be willing to pay higher home energy bills in order to cut oil imports and reduce pollution -- but only to a point. And a majority favored new regulations to promote environmental standards.
