French container ship in Vohemar, Madagascar, March 12. Photo Derek Schuurman
There was a coup in Madagascar last March, and ever since there has been widespread poaching in the National Parks, for birds, lemurs and lumber. Rosewood is one of the world's most valuable tropical woods, ($ 5,000 per cubic meter) so $40 million of it was chopped (with permission of the new government, that needs the money) and was going to be shipped out in December. (see Read the full story on TreeHugger
photo: Danielle Scott via flickr.
I hope I need not tell you that the development of the Canadian tar sands is an unmitigated environmental disaster. We've gone over that one at least a dozen times. But what we haven't covered is the fact that the price tag for developing this source of unconventional fossil fuels is so high that if it were spent elsew...Read the full story on TreeHugger
ISO bright ideas. Photo by Paul Keller via Flickr.
If you want to get people to boost their personal energy efficiency, you should appeal to their vanity, their inner couch potato, their wallets, and their competitive nature. That's the strategy that came out of a cocktail party hosted by the online magazine Slate as part of an ongoing attempt to "harvest the collective intelligence of [its] readers for the good of society" -- starting with figuring out how best to save money an...Read the full story on TreeHugger
Photo via FeatheredTar
According to new research from IDC Energy Insights, utilities are not even remotely ready for the smart grid particularly when it comes to one vital piece of the puzzle - customer interaction. So far, utilities have been this big, lumbering entity to which you send money every month in order to have your lights stay on, your refrigerator keep cold, your heater to keep you warm. You don't think about it daily, nor do you call up your utility for a chat often - or at all other than when you're moving. But with real time pricing and new inte...Read the full story on TreeHugger
