Ed Ring

To follow up on yesterday's post, it has become more clear than ever how land use decisions are the place where every tenant of environmentalism is applied, yet the centrality of land use, like the centrality of population demographics, is rarely the focus of environmental discussions.  But if population demographics provide the primary preconditions for environmental challenges we face, land use decisions provide the primary evidence of what ideology and values we choose to apply to these challenges. From that standpoint, based on the ideology that informs land use decisions today, private property and economic liberty the endangered species, and environmentalist elites are leading the charge.  And as we've tried to point out, the irony is when private property rights and economic liberties are undermined, the environment is the biggest loser of all.  Land use decisions in the USA are dominated by a coalition...

Not long ago I learned of an excellent service for urban forestry, www.treelink.org, which has a list-serve that is possibly the most subscribed interlink for professional arborists in the United States, if not the world.  For several weeks now I've been reading the emails that fly back and forth between these folks who have the good fortune to make their living from planting and nurturing trees, and it has nurtured my soul to monitor the dialogue. Here's your "smart growth," zero trees, and hot as hell But today something set me off.  I notice the tag at the end of one writer's email which stated "urban forestry is America's frontline defense against climate change."  And I couldn't...

We have just published an interview with noted climate scientist Roger Pielke, Sr., a retired professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, and a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Since July 2005 he has written and maintained Climate Science, a blog that serves as a scientific forum for dialogue and commentary on climate issues. Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr. "Scientific rigor has been sacrificed, and poor policy and political decisions will inevitably follow." The timing is appropriate, insofar as this week the nations of the world gather in Bali, Indonesia, for another UN Climate Change Conference.  Anyone concerned about climate change would be advised to read this interview with Dr. Pielke, because it appears the UN, the IPCC...

We constantly hear about new ways to reuse and recycle waste, but not so often does our waste get the opportunity to play a direct role in creating new life.  Such is the case, however, with the products about to be shipped from Fiberwood, a new company in Sacramento, California, that converts cardboard into mulch. Material for hydroseeding often uses mulch manufactured from trash. When we visited Fiberwood last week to talk with their CEO, Stuart Douglass, it was clear they were about to go into full scale production.  Mountains of shredded cardboard stood to one side of the cavernous space, with a completed line of equipment already in place on the other...

BEYOND GLOBAL WARMING: NOTED CLIMATE SCIENTIST ROGER PIELKE SR. REJECTS THE NOTION THAT ELEVATED CO2 LEVELS ARE THE SOLE CULPRITS OF CLIMATE CHANGE Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr. "Scientific rigor has been sacrificed, and poor policy and political decisions will inevitably follow." Roger Pielke Sr. is a retired professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, and a senior research scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Since July 2005 he has written and maintained Climate Science, a blog that serves as a scientific forum for dialogue and commentary on climate issues. With William R. Cotton, he is the co-author of Human Impacts on Weather and Climate (Cambridge University Press, 2007). And over the past...

Well thanks to small quantities of dihydrogen monoxide, otherwise known as H2O, being injected into the hot mixture, it is now possible to mix asphalt at a dramatically lower temperature.  When I spoke with Don Brock, CEO of Astec Industries, one of the world's leading manufacturers of equipment used to make asphalt, he said this new innovation was like "a green tsunami." A plant using Astec equipment in Tennessee Astec's asphalt recycling technology will save the USA 90 million barrels of oil per year. Based in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Astec has already sold equipment for 60 asphalt plants that will use this new technology, with 20 already on stream as operating plants.  Up till...

Whether you think it will stop climate change, reverse the acidification of the ocean, or help nations achieve energy independence, the political momentum to raise the price of fossil fuel appears unstoppable. With that as a given, then, the current debate should focus on what mechanism should be used, how much the price should be raised, and how the resulting funds should be allocated—all of which boil down to choices between practical environmentalism and emotional environmentalism, head vs. heart. If we’re to adhere to Nobel laureate Al Gore’s “pledge,” for example, we must stop burning coal within 20 years — this despite the fact that coal is the cheapest and most abundant fossil fuel on Earth, that nearly 25% of all energy produced on the planet comes from coal, and that the U.S. Energy Information Administration predicts coal's use will increase by 74% between now...

Now there's a mouthful.  A relatively unheralded study released nearly two years ago by scientists at UC Berkeley explains the significance of this phenomenon on forests and climate.  In a report on the UC Berkeley news website entitled "Deep-rooted plants have much greater impact on climate than experts thought," hydraulic redistribution is defined as the internal process whereby trees will use their tap roots to deposit water deep underground during the rainy season, then through "hydraulic redistribution" they will move this water up to the shallow soil surrounding their surface roots to use during the dry season. The implications of this are consistent with what we've been trying to say all along - forests, tropical forests in particular - are probably more significant drivers in climate change than burning fossil fuels.  As the report states:  "During the wet season, these plants can store as much as 10 percent of the annual precipitation...

Last week we reported on a photovoltaic powered car, today we feature a company that is manufacturing photovoltaic powered lighting.  Founded not quite two years ago by Sam Goldman, d.light Designs intends to sell affordable, clean lighting to households that currently rely on kerosene for illumination. Better light equals better health and better education. Initially, d.light will distribute their lights in India Currently d.light is doing trials with two different versions of rechargeable solar lanterns.  They will provide a 180 degree hemisphere of ultra-efficient LED illumination, which will allow these lights to be mounted on walls and ceilings to replace kerosene lamps.  When I talked with...

Once in a while you run across something that challenges just about everything you thought you knew.  "Terra preta" (Portuguese for "black earth") are anomalous deposits of deep, rich soil found in large pockets of land throughout the Amazon.  Once thought to be 100% comprised of thin, fragile soil that would immediately desertify if the trees were removed, it now turns out there are significant sections of Amazonia where this terra preta is abundant.  But the biggest mystery is this:  The Amazon's best soil, terra preta, possibly was deliberately created by Native Americans. The Amazon basin's best soil, agrichar, possibly was deliberately created by Native...