The Footprint Blog

Cash for caulkers coming

The House passed the "Cash for Caulkers" legislation earlier this year and (maybe? hopefully? probably?) the Senate will soon follow suit. The legislation provides incentives for energy efficiency improvements by rebating to homeowners some $6 billion dollars for window retrofits, water heater upgrades, and insulation installations, among other things. I don't want to go into a ton of detail about… read more →

What can you do about it?

TerraPass members are a vocal group, with our past surveys showing that about half of our members have contacted their government on environmental issues. Recently, I spent some time with some friends who work in environmental NGO circles, and we got to talking about the most effective ways for regular constituents to get attention from their elected representatives. After all,… read more →

Media thinks scientists hype dangers of climate change

Spiegel Online recently published a narrative of the politicization of climate science over time, from James Hansen's 1988 Congressional testimony all the way to last year's "Climategate." The abbreviated story goes like this: scientists in the 1980's first discovered and proved the link between a warming planet and human-caused greenhouse gas emissions. The politicization began when Hansen, in his Congressional… read more →

No silver bullets available here

I heard a luncheon speaker last week who channeled James Hansen as he asserted that mitigating climate change is, more than anything else, about coal. And that actions short of shutting down all the coal plants are something between a palliative and an unwarranted distraction. This line of thinking couldn't be more right and more wrong at the same time.… read more →

“Science” writer John Tierney hates kittens

I occasionally find John Tierney's contrarian column in the Science section of the New York Times enlightening, but invariably when he writes about climate change I want to punch a hole through the wall. His latest column has to do with supposed doomsayers calling for expensive reductions in GDP to combat climate change. The gist is that doomsayers have always… read more →

Affordable LED lightbulbs on the way

The news out of Lightfair International (the lighting industry tradeshow) is that Lighting Science will soon introduce a 60-watt equivalent LED bulb in the "affordable" $30-40 range. I used to live in a rental house with two five-bulb chandeliers - hey, don't blame me, it was a 1910 Victorian, and I certainly didn't design the lighting situation. The chandeliers came… read more →

Roundtable discussion on corporate sustainability

  • May 14, 2010
  • News
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The Centre for Sustainability and Excellence and TerraPass are proud to host "Measuring & Addressing Environmental Impacts throughout the Entire Life Cycle and Supply Chain." The Roundtable is an effort to engage professionals involved in bringing sustainability and corporate responsibility to their businesses, and especially engage those who may be questioning their commitments to sustainability due to these tough economic… read more →

There will be blood

The tragic oil well blowout and subsequent ongoing spill off the Louisiana coast has me depressed and angry. But not at BP, no. And I'm not going to take up the banner to ban offshore oil and gas exploration either. I see this disaster as a natural consequence of my own behavior, and that of all my friends, neighbors and… read more →

A history of global warming

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at the 6th annual Poe Symposium at Cal State University - Channel Islands in Camarillo, CA. The symposium brought together a impressive line up of experts who discussed climate change from the perspective of policy, history, science and business. Because CSUCI is such a cutting edge campus they recorded the whole event and… read more →

Bursting in Bhutan

I’m going to bet you’ve never heard of a GLOF. I hadn’t, until last week, when I was introduced to the idea of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods, a direct impact of climate change in the Himalayas, and specifically in the tiny kingdom of Bhutan. If you’ve heard of Bhutan, it’s probably because the country measures the health of its society… read more →
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